Learning Artistic Creativity: A Case Study

This case study focuses on one student, a non-art major, as she learned to make art in an introductory sculpture class in a university. Using a systems approach to creativity, the paper explores complex cognitive, affective, social, and physical processes that take place through the individual and social exploration of materials and concepts in a studio class. Multiple factors such as instruction, domain knowledge, personal knowledge, materials, and social interactions provided constraints and opportunities for the student to learn to formulate and solve artistic problems. Descriptive samples of classroom interactions show ways that the sculpture class was an open system that modeled and encouraged artistic creativity and provided constraints and opportunities for the student to construct knowledge.