- Video shows Hot Shops Art Center, pottery, glassblowing and students from Castelar Elementary.
- Dan Toberer, a potter at Hot Shops, shares the importance of making sure the new generation knows the power of art.
- Data from the U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics shows between 2020-2021there was a 12.8% drop for degrees in humanities.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The Hot Shops Art Center in North Downtown welcomes second graders into their world of creating art.
I'm Melissa Wright, your North Omaha neighborhood reporter where the art center is hoping to ignite inspiration for young artist.
Students from Castelar Elementary watched glassblowing and how to make pottery.
The idea of the tour is to inspire the next generation about the power of their imagination and the creativity behind artwork.
"It’s in the idea that it’s important to put this information, the create the part of creativity the independence to be able to come up with your own ideas, and not just take tests,” said Dan Toberer.
Toberer, a potter at Hot Shops, has been in industry for over 20 years.
He says it’s important kids know you can give back to the world with your creativity.
Data from the U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics shows between 2020 and 2021, there was a 12.8% drop for degrees in humanities.
This including fine arts programs and world languages.
"It’s not an escape because of the idea with creativity is that you’re taking something an idea or something and it gets reflected back to the real world.”
Toberer says today is all about teaching kids other options when it comes to careers.
"Today is kids and clay and an opportunity to just try and pass on information that I certainly wasn’t given," said Toberer.
8-year-old Sebastian Rasmussen Vazquez wants to be an actor one day. But things have changed since seeing how pottery is made.
“I wanna be an artist when I grow up,” said Vazquez.
I asked Vazquez what kind of art work he wanted to make and he said, “like pots... for people can put flowers and plants in it and trees."
Getting rid of programs revolving art is becoming more common. In 2023, University of Nebraska at Kearney announced they would cut a portion of staff and nine academic degrees.
