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The Creative Process

June 07, 2019
By J.Cooper

I often hear beautiful and excited voices in the hallway at TMS, “Today is art, Ms. Cooper!” There is magic, freedom and play in art. Art helps children develop many fundamental skills such as creativity, problem-solving, confidence, visual learning, motor movement and coordination, focus, collaboration and perseverance, just to name a few. These skills are extremely important to develop as they are needed for all of their academic work and life skills.

In art class there are two different types of experiences. The first one is a process art experience where the child engages in art by exploring the materials, thinking about how to put these together and expressing him/herself to create art. This encourages exploration and imagination. In this case, no two pieces of artwork in the class will be similar as children internalize and focus on expressing who they are within those materials. There is a magical flow between the child and the materials in use.

The second is a product art experience where the child follows directions given to create a predetermined end product such as a color wheel. This art experience is important because it balances the creative process with the technical process of different techniques available for them to express freely. I like to compare this process to learning a language. The more words (“techniques”) you learn, the better you will express (“create”) and communicate what you want to say. In this case, the result of the artwork is similar to one another for there is no room for the creative process and imagination to engage.

These two art experiences support children’s development in different ways. One triggers and sustains their natural freedom of imagination and creativity, and the other develops the discipline of following instructions and developing motor skills necessary for any variety of art form such as printmaking, painting, moulding, etc.

At TMS, art class is a time to express, explore, imagine, think outside the box, socialize, collaborate, and learn from observation. Keeping the child’s imagination and creative natural instinct alive is fundamental for their development now and into the future.

Posted in Faculty-Staff