Growing up, every kid is an artist. Everyone bangs on pots and pans, finger paints and makes macaroni art. Parents and teachers support kids creativity and set aside time where they can sit down with an art easel or colored pencils. Reading to your kids is a requirement for parents of young kids and every elementary age student gets an art and music course. When we grow up, we stop coming home with paint on our hands and instead come home with a large backpack full of math and science homework. The older we get, the less encouraged we are to be creative and instead are prepared to go to college and become doctors, lawyers and engineers. Society tells us we cannot be successful or rich as artists, writers, musicians or photographers.

Growing up in school systems like this and especially in cities where creativity is overlooked and ignored is damaging and discouraging to a lot of youth. Instead of there being places where kids and teens can go to learn different art forms and find a new outlet for their creativity there are robotics clubs and math camps. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of kids who could not care less about photography or music and really just want to learn about engineering, but I know if societal norms allowed artists to be put on the same level of respect and understanding as these other professions, we would have an exponentially higher amount of artists and creatives in our cities.

For the few people in average cities (i.e. not NYC, Atlanta, GA, or L.A.) that have broken out of societal expectations and chosen to pursue art as their career, they are rarely taken seriously by anyone other than their fellow artists. It is much more likely that the walls of local homes showcase prints of famous artists or even expensive originals by someone well-known than the work of a local artist. This lack of support and unwillingness by the community to take artists seriously is why creatives are few and far between in most cities. With a lack of artists comes a lack of art being taught in communities and, ultimately, no new artists. Even in schools where half-hearted art programs are offered, budgets are almost always cut if not terminated altogether to make way for new computer labs or science lab equipment. The obvious lack of support by schools, cities and society is extremely discouraging to kids and teens who want to pursue fields such as photography, videography and other art forms that require expensive equipment. Most kids, especially inner city kids, cannot begin to afford luxuries such as their own camera, a computer to edit video, not to mention finding a mentor that is willing to teach them. To think that teens would rather be learning these crafts than out in the streets but have no resource to do so because cities will not fund them is heartbreaking.

Society needs artists, believe it or not, and artists need the help of their communities to support them and back their success, few people keep the drive and motivation to make it big in places where they are constantly put down and discouraged.

Acknowledging this, please keep in mind your local galleries, artists and creatives next time you need a picture on your wall at home, a video for your company or even a family portrait. Remember the kids who have no artistic resources next time you want to donate to a fund. And always encourage the creative youth in your life before math and science based school systems strip them of their artistic ability.

Support local art and support it before it's all gone.