Six year old dedicated to making changes through art
July 11, 2012
Six-year-old Toronto girl who’s dedicated to making positive changes through the arts gets nominated for an international scholastic achievement award.
Aria Harmony Forrest is a bright young lady with a passion for the arts, the environment and giving back to those in need. At only six years old, she is a role model to everyone she knows with her positive attitude and fierce dedication that is being recognized on an international level.
Aria has recently been nominated for a Youth Scholastic Achievement Award by myKEEtv and looks forward to hearing the results, which will be announced at a reception in Los Angeles on her birthday.
“Being nominated for a scholastic achievement award has really inspired Aria to continue pursuing her interests and to encourage other youth to follow their passions,” her father Shane Forrest said.
Outside of school Aria has participated in outreach events to feed the homeless and plans to start working with the women at a local shelter where she wants to give them a chance to express themselves through art.
“Volunteering and feeding the homeless makes me feel like a really big person. I want to start giving them my art and making art with them because it makes them feel good when they don’t have anything or they’ve lost everything they had,” Aria said.
Aria's Art
Aria is a dedicated young artist and practices her craft everyday. She has participated in a group show to raise awareness about arranged marriage after feeling moved by a friend at school who’s family is in that situation. She aspires to participate in art shows around the world and her work has been accepted into international shows to take place in China later this year and Dubai in early 2013.
Aria was recently invited by the Arts Council of Whistler in British Columbia to be a guest artist at their 30th Annual Children’s Art Festival. This marks the first time an artist (child or adult) from outside of Whistler has been invited to participate in their annual events. Aria also inspired the council to open a call to artists from across Canada to participate in the festival’s art show.
When Aria is not at school or practicing her art, she also loves music and studies under her father, a well known Jamaican musician known as The Shakin’ Jamaican, and is learning guitar and vocal studies.
“School is very important because even though it can be difficult it teaches you what you need to know and how to work with other people,” she said.
Aria's Art
In addition to loving art and music, Aria loves languages and is studying Mandarin. She aspires to be fluent in the language within the next year so she can travel to a school in China next summer and communicate with the people there in their language.
Aria enjoys being a kid and in today’s fast paced digital environment that means she loves using her iPad for both learning and fun and can often be found teaching herself how to read with her educational apps or making videos as practice for her first video blog which she’s convincing her parents to launch soon.
Remember the name Aria Harmony Forrest because she is already making waves around the globe and has no plans to slow down any time soon.
