Of late, there have been at least two exhibitions devoted to children’s art; one at the Masterworks Museum and the other by the Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation, in the Edinburgh Gallery at the Bermuda Society of Arts.The Masterworks show featured work from their own summer arts programme, but unfortunately that show has now ended; the Kaleidoscope show, however, continues through September 25. I give both exhibitions high marks and since it is still possible to see the Kaleidoscope show, I urge that you do so. It is really worth a visit. I have seen it several times and with each visit, I am more and more charmed by the unique qualities of children’s art. For one thing, look for the unusual combinations of colour. These exhibitions makes me very happy.These and other exhibitions of children’s art, now in the planning stage, such as that of the The National Gallery’s student art competition, which is slated for the entire month of December, are especially important, given, as I understand it, the major cuts in the arts in public education. I need hardly stress the importance of the arts in education, but should you need information on that field, I recommend finding the several programmes on the Internet by Sir Ken Robinson. He is not only highly informative, but also very entertaining.The Kaleidoscope summer programme stressed a variety of approaches to art making, including both two and three dimensional art, with emphasis on such old master works as the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, but also several geographical locations, such as Russia, South Africa and Venice.I noticed, for example, certain colourful creations based on the Russian legend of the Fire Bird. There was also a group of three dimensional recreations of Russian churches, with all their colour and onion domes and this is called “Kremlin”.In another display, the children are exhibiting their attempts at making Russian babushka dolls. These are those typical nested, wooden dolls, that are seen just about everywhere across Russia, where, when you remove the head, there is inside another similar doll and so on until you reach the tiniest doll, right in the middle of the doll’s insides.There are also in this exhibition, numerous paintings of the South African landscape. I recall one that depicted possibly the Little Karoo, that semi-arid part of South Africa and out in the midst of this landscape, there was an ostrich, a bird that common in those parts. There were also other landscapes, notably some with mountains, but what caught my eye were the unusual combinations of colour and in all, the mixtures were pleasing to the eye.Venice is noted for masquerade balls, where the participants, come in costume and masks and in this Kaleidoscope exhibition, the children have allowed their imaginations to work in creating a variety of masks.One technique used by the children is scratch board and in a number of cases, they have cut out from aluminium soda cans, little metallic squares, that are used, to surround the scratched designs in a decorative manner.Another technique on display in this show are simple approaches to printmaking, and in this case, it seems that the technique used was relief printing, as in linoleum or wood cutsIn all, these children have not only learned about art making, but also about geography, literature, social customs and much more. Think about the richness that these children have experienced from participating in these art camps and then think about those children who are deprived of these kind of experiences, due to cut backs in the public schools or because of the doubling-up of classes, so that the art teachers are unable to handle the overcrowded situations effectively.The private arts organisations are once again attempting to fill in wherever possible, for lack of an effective arts programme in public education. The art teachers in the schools are not to blame for this situation. Blame belongs at the top of the administrative chain, with those who are making curriculum decisions, but basically, the blame is mostly on the financial cuts made by Government that is strapping education.No wonder then, that those who can are placing their children in private schools, where the arts are still highly valued, or are enrolling them in extra-curricular, after-school or summer arts classes. These after-school or summer arts classes, include not only the visual arts, but also music, dance, theatre and more. Yet these private arts organisations are also struggling financially and need all the help they can get. Still, they are doing the best they can with what they have and that is commendable.