Michelle Obama Shines Light On The Arts

Once again, America’s first lady, Michelle Obama, cast the public’s attention towards the importance of education and, in particular, on the arts.

The National Design Awards celebration took place at the White House last week, honoring ten designers for their works, and Michelle had much praise to offer the award recipients: “You are scientists and artists; your work is both technical and poetic, educational and inspirational. Thank you for inspiring the next generation.”

A fierce proponent of children’s education, Obama sees art as an integral part of that. “An educational foundation is only part of the equation,” she said at the ceremony. “In order for creativity to flourish and imagination to take hold, we also need to expose our children to the arts from a very young age. We need to ensure that our children have both knowledge and imagination.”

Anchored at the crossroads of science and art, she says, “What I love about design is the artistic and scientific complexity that becomes useful – a laptop, a bridge, an outfit – all drawn from a thousand wells of inspiration yet grounded in the basic principles of math or science.”