Creativity , Imagination , and Innovation in Art Education

With the 2011 NAEA National Convention just months away, I thought this article from the 2011 Convention Program Coordinator, Sandra Kay, will help build your interest and excitement for the upcoming Convention. It first appeared in the October 2010 issue of NAEA News.

Seattle Convention Update: Focus on Creativity
Did you read the article on Creativity in the July 19th issue of Newsweek? If you read on after the comments about “art bias” and that “Researchers say creativity should be taken out of the art room and put in homeroom” (both p. 46), you found a wealth of interesting research being done by a myriad of people from different fields. The neuroscientist mentioned in the article (also p. 46), Dr. Rex Jung from the University of New Mexico, will be one of our keynote speakers in Seattle. His research includes a study of images of the differences in brain activity when a person is engaged in divergent thinking or in metaphorical thinking. His preliminary findings of an extensive investigation that includes a study of artists will provide much thought and conversation, provoking further questions from art educators.

To anticipate the variety of opportunities and surprises being prepared, it might help to see a frame of reference for a theory that loosely guides our planning. I. A. Taylor (1975) described five levels of creative thought:
• Expressive (somatic): with examples such as children’s drawings, free dance, improvisations of Louis Armstrong
• Technical (productive): proficiency in creating products such as Stradivarius
• Inventive: novel plots, cartoons, Edison, Marconi, Bell
• Innovative: Jung and Adler’s innovations to Freudian psychology
• Emergentive: Einstein, Freud, Picasso, Frank Lloyd Wright

This was proposed long before the research in expertise brought further clarity and complexity—but it is a sketch that can be a useful guide to fruitful conversations and a variety of opportunities to expand our notions. Vision for the Convention, like any creative endeavor, is always aided by physical constraints and possibilities. When the NAEA Convention committee, the local WAEA committee members, and I joined forces for the pre-Convention meetings in June, we were impressed by the location we will briefly inhabit next March. The Convention center, city, and people are full of life and art. Being there and working with our Executive Director Deborah Reeve, NAEA staff, current WAEA co-presidents Lisa Crubaugh and Carl Clausen, incoming co-president Ginny Lane, and members of the incredible WAEA committee, was and continues to be an exhilarating, cooperative experience.

Everyone is working hard to make your visit to Seattle a memorable one. A few highlights to entice your planning:
• Young Innovators’ Panel (a General Session highlighting a few novel explorations worth knowing)
• Film/Media Room (showcasing mostly free media resources like TED Talks that address the Convention theme)*
• Dr. Robert Root-Bernstein General Session (science supports the arts)
• Dr. Laura Chapman’s Invited Super Session (always provocative)
• Artist Mark Dion’s General Session (cosponsored with ART21)
• Local Artist Series (the amount of artists considered “emergentive” here is stunning)
• Celebration of Youth Art Month
• Tours of glass studio & museum
• Art Map of the city
• Other innovations to be announced

And that is not counting the wealth of knowledge and opportunities provided by our membership! Special acknowledgement must be mentioned to all of the readers who took on the most difficult role of rating the submissions to be selected, as the number of available presentations is limited by one less meeting day and the standards for presentations continues to be raised by NAEA. Hopefully, the use of roundtable formats will provide an innovative solution to this challenge.

I believe the need for ‘ownership’ of who fosters creative thought, as mirrored in the Newsweek article, will give way to a much more integral approach to the issues. As a researcher of creative thought for the last 30+ years, I believe the complexity of this content requires a multidisciplinary focus that combines scientific and artistic perspectives to address the breadth and depth involved. An understanding of the art of creative thought enhances the science of creativity as well as the reverse. This approach could strengthen the essential knowledge and understanding necessary to further everyone’s vision of encouraging creativity, imagination, and innovation in all education.

As a last comment, Seattle is amazing! Although some humorously suggest it is the coffee culture, there is an energy there that is not to be missed! There are more reasons to be sleepless there.

-Sandra Kay, 2011 Convention Program Coordinator

References
Bronson, P., & Merryman, A. (2010, July 19). The creativity crisis. Newsweek, pp. 44-50.
Taylor, I. A., & Getzels, J. (Eds.) (1975). Perspectives in Creativity. New York: Aldine Publishing.
www.TED.com/talks