Open-Ended Art Is Not the Same as “Just Let Them Do Anything”

There are two easy extremes in children's art activities.

At one end, every child follows the same demonstration and finishes with almost the same picture.

At the other, materials are placed on a table and the instruction is simply, “Do anything.”

Neither automatically creates meaningful creativity.

Somewhere in Between

Open-ended art works best somewhere in between.

A teacher may define a material, technique, theme or problem while leaving important decisions to the student.

For example:

“Create an imaginary city using only geometric shapes.”

There is structure: city, shapes, composition.

But no two cities need to look alike.

One student builds towers. Another makes underground tunnels. Someone else creates a city floating in the sky.

Habits That Need Room

Project Zero describes artistic habits such as Envision and Stretch & Explore: imagining possibilities, experimenting and taking creative risks.

Those habits need room.

If every important decision has already been made by an adult, there is little left for the child to envision.

Tools, Not Every Answer

But freedom without guidance can also be overwhelming, particularly for beginners.

Good teaching supplies tools without supplying every answer.

It teaches how paint behaves, how scissors are handled safely, how shapes can be combined and how artists can plan.

Then it asks the child:

“What will you do with that?”

The goal is not chaos.

It is authorship.

A child should be able to look at an artwork and feel that somewhere inside it is a decision that belongs to them.

Sources & further reading

• Harvard Project Zero — Studio Thinking
• Harvard Project Zero — Eight Studio Habits of Mind