Pentimento and Palimpsest: Blurring Rituals in the Studio

Abstract

While the benefits of curated environments and provocations in emergent curriculum for young learners have been documented, less is known about the effects of emergent curriculum for adult learners and instructors in a studio art context. This work investigates what happens when art education foregrounds and follows students’ interests and questions, using arts-based tools, processes, and approaches to explore the creation and interpretation of 2D artwork. The author reexamines rituals in studio teaching practices and engages narrative inquiry to reflect on the effects emergent curriculum and contract grading have on both students and the instructor. The curated environments of the classroom, campus art museum, city streets, and students’ homes influenced questions, materials, research, conversations, and artistic possibilities while blurring studio traditions. The resulting emergent curriculum forged new connections among the students, the instructor, and their community while shifting learning toward dispersed, collective power rather than concentrated, individual power.