Monday 13 April 2009

Nurturing artistic talent

The 8th of April last week was a public holiday in Johor. That afternoon, I took the family out for some shopping at Plaza Angsana in Tampoi.

There was some sort of performance being held at the main concourse of the shopping mall. On stage, a theatre play was being performed totally by young teenage children. After the play, a young girl came on stage to sing a song accompanied by a live band. The musicians are all young kids like the singer. This performance was later followed by more singing and also a traditional dance.

A budding Siti Nurhaliza wannabe

Apparently, the show was being put up by students of the Sekolah Seni Johor Bahru as part of their Festival Kesenian 2009. I have never heard of such a school before but I was told by my wife that it was set up a few years ago. A family friend had enrolled her daughter to this school.

Sekolah Seni Johor Bahru is a special school established by the Ministry of Education to train our children to excel in Arts. Apart from the standard academic syllabus, there are four other subjects being taught : Visual Arts, Dance, Theatre and Music. This school is so new that it doesn't have its own campus yet. It is temporarily sharing premises with SMK Mohd Khalid at Jalan Abdul Samad.

The showcase of the school's talent at Plaza Angsana on that day was not limited to stage performances. There was also an exhibition displaying the students' drawings and sculptures. I was quite impressed with what I saw.

I am pleased that MoE has decided to set up a school to nurture the artistic talent of our children. We already have smart schools, cluster schools and sports schools. It is high time that children who are artistically talented be given the avenue and opportunity to expand on their capability. Not everybody can become engineers or doctors or lawyers. Successful careers in the Arts is something that parents can be proud of too.

7 comments:

mamasita said...

Hey, this kind of Sekolah Seni should be set up in every state! Baguslah idea ni.

Unknown said...

Oldstock,

I agree fully with you. Often times, many think within the box - myself included and it took great courage and strength to sacrifice my dreams for my boy to let him pursue his degree in contemporary music. Now, I can see he is so happy doing what he loves. I am sure he would have wilted if he had done what I wanted him to do...

Take care and thanks for this post.

Salam

Anonymous said...

Interesting idea. I believe we need as many right-brainers as we do left; perhaps even more of the former, especially with a "flat" world which is seeing more and more of the left-brained tasks being outsourced or left to the computers.

Fadhil said...

Mamasita,

From MoE's website, I found that there are two Sekolah Seni in Malaysia. The first is in JB while the second in in Kuching.

I hope MoE would continue to publicise the achievements of this school.

Fadhil said...

Paula,

I'm glad that you have given your full support to your son to study music. I believe, Malaysia as a country, has gone past the early development stage where the requirement of engineers were critical.

I wish your son success. Maybe we could all be listening to his own compositions one day.

Fadhil said...

Andrea,

Err.. sorry, I'm a bit lost here. Am I a right-brainer or left? Heheheh...

I'm actually not bad at sketching but drawing/painting is out of my league. The only musical instrument I've tried to play is the guitar but I gave up because my strumming sucks. The only consolation is that I can sing quite well. You can ask me to karaoke... anytime :-)

hanitha said...

salam bro, skrg mmg ramai yg minat dlm bidang seni nie tp jgn la kita ingat klu seni tu, nyanyi n menari aje...or become musician for a rock band, pop band or whatever la..seni tu luar maknanya..kan kan kan...
p/s kite pon terror gak karaoke nie..jom try sekalik ehehehe