Influences of a Classroom Setting on Students’ Artistic Processes

Abstract

This study uses Mace and Ward’s model of the artistic process as a theoretical framework to examine the art-making processes of students enrolled in an Advanced Placement (AP) art class in a public high school. Previous scholarship about the artistic process is grounded in the experience of professional artists and has not sufficiently attended to whether and how the artistic process of students in K–12 classroom contexts mirrors the work of artists outside school contexts. Data from classroom observations and interviews of AP art students suggests students’ processes were closely aligned to Mace and Ward’s descriptive model of the art-making process. The data also suggest that two major factors influenced students’ artistic process in school contexts: the influence of the teacher and working in a shared classroom space.