Children need the opportunity to slow down and pay closer attention to the world around them. In fact, don’t we all?
—Julie Rose, Exchange Reflections: Arts and Nature

A recent study on ‘artscaping’ and children’s wellbeing brings together two themes we’ve explored lately—place equity and children’s connections with art and nature. Researchers Moula, Walsh and Lee note, “Nature can weaken the negative effects of deprivation on health, shifting away from pathogenic models of health and supporting the wellbeing of disadvantaged groups. Nevertheless, children living in deprived areas are nine times less likely to have access to nature compared to more affluent children…This study is situated at the intersection of three issues: a concern with children’s wellbeing; their apparent disconnect with the natural environment; and a lack of engagement with the arts in school curricula.”

In the study, artists spent eight full days with children over eight weeks, engaging them in outdoor activities and various art forms like land art and sunlight photography. Children experimented with materials like chalks, oil pastels, clay, and finger painting. The program culminated in a community event to showcase their artwork.

The researchers documented the development of self-confidence and self-esteem; agency; slowliness and calmness; and connectedness with nature. While not statistically significant, the most noticeable changes were that children felt happier with their life as a whole, spending time outdoors and doing things away from home, and more optimistic about what future holds for them.”

Natural outdoor classrooms offer another way to make the connection between art and nature on a daily basis. Holly Murdoch, who has taught in an outdoor classroom at Dimensions for years, notes, “This nature-rich environment is totally infused into all their senses. It becomes them. It’s like they are eating the dirt! What children encounter each day in the natural world impacts what they are building, drawing, painting, singing, creating.”