Creatives Collaborate With Kids To Tackle Monster Problem

Article by Amy Bradney-George

November 06, 2015 at 2:44 PM

School curriculums all around the world have a challenge when it comes to developing imagination and encouraging spontaneous creativity in children. With a focus on tangible results and products over process, children often aren’t given the time to explore their artistic sides in the classroom.

It’s a trend that has inspired a number of professional artists to band together and illustrate the importance and value of kids’ imaginations. And they’ve decided to counteract this “monstrous” trend with a very apt theme: monsters.

Based in the US, The Monster Project team collaborates with kids by encouraging them to draw monsters, which the artists then bring to life using their own creative styles.

The project’s website explains that when the new interpretations are given back to the students, “we are able to demonstrate new art techniques within their original creative context. They are able to see what their idea sparked in others.”

A photo posted by The Monster Project (@themonsterproject) on Oct 14, 2015 at 8:23am PDT

The Monster Project team is currently working with two schools – one in Austin and one in Dallas (Texas). They also have plans to develop a program for a school in New York and expand from there.

“With a decreasing emphasis on arts in schools, many children don’t have the opportunity for creative exploration they deserve. That’s a monstrous trend we would like to destroy,” they say.

“As artists ourselves, we understand how important that initial creative exposure is and how it can truly alter the shape of a child’s future.”

The project has launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to help them reach more children. As well as planning to work with more schools, the team wants to produce a Monster Project Activity Book, provide professional standard prints to each kid and also set up an online store for monster t-shirts, stickers and books to share the artwork and to provide ongoing funding for this work.

“By collaborating with the students and finding inspiration from their imaginings, we hope to help them recognize the value of their ideas and make them feel excited about the potential of their own minds,” they say.

“Creativity comes in many forms, and we hope to encourage their exploration of their own unique perceptions of the world we share. And, while we’re at it, we want to introduce to them the notion of art as a legitimate career path.”