As an arts educator, I am familiar with how the arts can facilitate a connection between human beings, both as individuals and communities.
Here in Budapest, many of the students do not speak the same language as me. The older students have a basic, working knowledge of the English language, but the younger students mostly do not. While visiting the Scheiber Sandor art classes this morning, I may or may not have been able to talk one-on-one with the students, but I could easily tell, from their artwork, what they were trying to say. Regardless of their talent or skill level, there was a self-expression in their artwork that could not be missed. The same was true in my numerous music composition classes; whether or not we were able to understand each other verbally, the results were the same…musical soundscapes that expressed their emotions and communicated their thoughts and feelings.
This mission of this trip is not to just have us teach lessons in a Jewish school in Budapest, but to also experience other aspects of the Jewish culture here in the city. To this end, later in the day we visited Balint Haz, a Jewish Community center in the downtown Pest area. During this visit, something amazing happened to me. We were asked to interacted with a group of very young kids who were in an after school program. None of the small children knew English. I noticed a boy that was sitting by himself at a table, drawing and coloring, not interacting with the other kids in the room, so I sat down with him. He seemed nervous and didn’t want to interact with me.
He was drawing designs on his paper and I thought he was trying to write letters, or maybe he was just scribbling? I wasn’t sure. But as he kept drawing, I realized he was drawing snails. SNAILS! Immediately got excited and started pointing at his drawings saying, “Snails! Snails!” He goes, “Chiga!” I happened to have pictures of snails on my phone, so I pulled out my phone and showed him pictures of the snails and he identified them as “chiga!” He then showed me how to draw the snails in his style, told me his name, showed me how to write it in cursive, and so on and so on. A connection was made. And it all started with a drawing by a 7 1/2 year old child.
Even at a young age, the arts can break down walls and build bridges between individuals, and through those individuals, communities. And that’s what is happening here, now, in Budapest. Our team is breaking down walls and building bridges between our two communities. And, as an arts educator, I am find myself so fortunate to be here at this moment!
