Process Over Product: Cultivating True Creativity

Welcome to all our new families and returning students for the school year 2017/2018 in Art. I look forward to working with all of the students and hope to be part of their memories for this year.

A few words about art lessons and the importance of allowing the process to stand alone without the end product being a focus. It is an adult idea that we must seek an end product which can interfere, confuse and be unfavorable to being in the moment and truly express ourselves.

Art has played an important role in early childhood programs for years. Art fosters sensory perception, provides the opportunity to represent and symbolize experiences, offers children a chance to experiment, create, and build, strengthens children’s ability to think and make decisions, and helps them make sense of the world.

Art is fun. Children have a natural ability to create. It is observed in their daily play and art is one medium through which children can satisfy this need to create and express themselves.

Why is it then that we as adults tend to ask questions like “ What did you draw?” or “What are you making?”. It is the process that matters to children, once he or she has finished with his piece the child moves onto his next work.

The importance of guiding children in art activities is to allow the process to take centre stage. Process means allowing the child to explore art materials with guidance: experimenting with paints, watching the mixing colours, and feeling textures.

Process is creating something that is uniquely yours and not a copy of someone else’s. The goal is for the children to feel accepted, successful, confident and free to explore their environment.

I hope we achieve a little of this with the children at MBTS.

Ms. Helene