Professional Documents
Culture Documents
5 6 G4reading
5 6 G4reading
Consciousness.
Creativity curriculum
creates places for
free Investigation. By
Bridget Reinhard in
Outsider: Alternative
Media group. Spiral
Workshop 2009.
W
hy is it sometimes so difficult for teachers to create
conditions that support the emergence of creative
Possibility must question the assumption that any art project will cultivate
creative behaviors and then develop projects whose methods
support core objectives for quality creativity curriculum
such as stimulating free ideation, encouraging experimental
approaches to making, and supporting students in identifying
BY O L I V I A GUDE and manifesting deeply felt idiosyncratic experiences.
Act 2: Resistance
Several teenagers and a teacher are gathered around a table looking at a multi- Surrender to an internally generated creative
branched inkblot on a dampened piece ofpaper. "What do you see?" asks the teacher. self may mean that he finds himself outside of
the comforting constraints of conformity.
"I don't see nothing in that mess" a young gentleman snappily responds. The others
Other students may have different reasons
laugh and concur, "Yeah, that ain't nothing" A more subdued young man, too polite
for resisting creative engagement. One
to mock the teacher, none the less shakes his head in disbelief and sofily murmurs, student may be reluttant to jeopardize bis
"I don't know what you want me to see..." status as a good realist artist hy making
"childish-looking" art; another student, with
"Let your mindflow,just stare at the image," the teacher prompts. "Now I see a hip bop-inspired awareness of the political
large lizard carrying a tulip in his mouth." The boys laugh and assert that the teacher implications of art and music may consider
is "just plain crazy."' the activities in this art class to be irrelevant
to the real issues of bis community. Other
Why do students sometimes prefer almost engaging the materials and forms at hand students may have been shamed by parents
any activitystaring out the window, while simultaneously remaining loose and or peers for being too dreamy, not focused
chatting, throwing small balls of clay, experimental. enougb on tbe practical aspects of surviving
painting fingernails, doing homeworkto It can be difficult to step back and consider in a tough neighborhood or of growing up
artmaking? Why do some students actively the many sources of students' resistances. and making a living.
resist opportunities for constructive creative In the example above, the young men were A teacher's awareness of why students
play? good-naturedly united in their unwillingness might feel discomfort in engaging in artistic
To engage in making art, one must begin to engage in creative play, but each of their processes can be a poweriul tool tor allaying
by surrendering to the process of making. reasons was quite different. The young man hidden anxieties and for then using dialogue
Whether playing with colors, inventing dance who wants to see what the teacher wants him to collaboratively construct a safe space for
steps, or jotting down poetry on paper, the to see is anxious to be perceived as good. incipient creative urges to be nurtured, rather
artist must paradoxically "lighten up" and For him being good means not questioning than being denied and smotbered.
"get serious" at the same time. An artist must authority, staying within perceived bound-
make a commitment to actively and seriously aries of appropriate thought and action.
Principles of
Possibility
empbasis on conscious intentionality. are at I believe tbat most art teachers sincerely
Playing odds with the characteristics of actual quality want to provide a safe place tbat promotes
artworks, which embody a holistic tree artistic exploration. However, there is a
complexity that is not reducible to the sum of general misapprehension that a teacher's wish
Forming Self the parts (During, 2005; Garoian, 1999; Kant, to create a safe, creative psychological space
1790/1977)- Thus, standards as currently will necessarily generate this experience for
Investigating written do little to foster consideration of tbe students. Conditions of psychological safety
sorts of experiences that can empower and freedom tbat make creativity possible are
Community Themes students to be aware of and act on internal produced, not merely by tbe teacher's wisbes,
knowing and experiencing. but rather by how his or her attitude
Encountering Difference In his classic book. On Becoming a Person,
manifests itself in the range of choices tbat
affect cour.se content, work styles, class
Carl Rogers (1961) summarized circum-
discussions, peer interactions, opportunities
Attentive Living stances that promote personal growth and
for playful engagement with materials and
self-actualization. Rogers described two
ideas, and assessment or the lack thereof.
major conditions that foster creativity
Empowered Experiencing psychological safety and psychological By carefully re-considering values,
freedom. He identifies three components that priorities, curriculum, and daily practices, it
Empowered Making cultivate psychological safety: ( 1 ) "Accepting is possible to change the climate of the
the individual as of unconditional wortb;" classroom. Rogers' description of tbe
(2) "Providing a climate in which external psychological safety that allows creativity to
Deconstructing Culture evaluation is absent;" and (3) "Understanding emerge emphasizes creating a climate in
empathically" (pp. 357-358). Psychological which the individual's experience is valued
Reconstructing freedom is rooted in trusting that freedom of and understood, a climate in which tbe
expression will result in thoughtful individual is not judged for bow well be/she
Social Spaces outcomes, a climate in which positive people meets a pre-determined model of process or
take seriously the responsibility for what tbey product.
say and make.
Not Knowing
REFERENCES ENDNOTES
Alexandrian, S. ( 1970). Surrealist art. (G. Ciough, Trans.) New York: Praeger Publishers, Int. ' I'm grateful to the teachers of the 1997 Spiral Workshop
(Original work published 1969) groupKate Knudson, Ariette Wasik, and Mike
Bradley, F. ( 1997). Surrealism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Wierzbickifor their early work in developing and
modeling playful Surrealist-based creativity curriculum.
Breton, A. (1997). Tlie automatic message in '[he automatic message: Anti-classics of Surrealism.
London: Atlas Press. (First published in Minotaure in 1934) 2 Immanuel Kant described art as having "purposiveness
Breton, A. (1993). Conversations: Ihe autobiography of Surrealism. (M. Polizzotti, Trans.) without purpose."
New York: Patagn House. (Original work published 1952) ' For more information on Spiral Workshop theme
Breton, A. (1972). Manifestoes of Surrealism. (R. Seaver & H. R. Lane, Trans.) Ann Arbor: curriculum, check out the Spiral Workshop e-portfo!io
University of Michigan Press. (Original work published 1926) on the National Art Education Association website,
Brotchie, A. (1995). A book of Surrealist games. Boston: Shambhala Restone Editions. http://naea.digication.com/Spiral/
During, . (2005). How tnuch truth can art bear? On Badiou's "inaesthetics," Polygraph. 17, * Dali termed this activity the Paranoiac Critical
143-55. Melhod. "The point is to persuade others of the
authenticity of the transformations in such a way that the
Foster, H. (1993). Compulsive beauty. Cambridge. MA: MIT Press.
'real' world from which they arise loses its validity"
Garoian, C. (1999). Performing pedagogy: Toward an art of politics. Albany: State University of (Brotchie, 1995).
New York Press.
- According to Surrealist legend thefirstsentence
Gude, O. (2007). Principles of possibility: Toward an art and culture curriculum. Arl produced in Ihe Surrealist game of a group of poets
Education, 60{].},b-l7. writing words in ihe pattern of adjective, noun, verb,
Kant, H. (1790/1977) A theory of aesthetic judgment: From The critique of judgment. lnG. adjective, noun ivithout seeing each others additions was
Dickie and R. Sclafani (Eds.), Aesthetics: A critical anthology (pp. 641-687). New York: St. "The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine" (Bradley,
Martin's Press. 997).
Nadeau, M. (1989). The history of Surrealism. (R. Howard, Trans.) Cambridge, MA: Belknap ^ For an example of promoting peer interaction as a
Press of Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1944) closure activity, see the post-project worksheet included
Oxford English Dictionary. (1971). Oxford. UK: Oxford University Press. with the pian for the Elementary "I" School project on
Rogers, Carl R. (1961). Toward a theory of creativity in On becoming a person. New York: the Spiral Art Education website. http//:spirai.aa.uic.edu
Hough ton Mifflin.