Creativity for Whom? Art Education in the Age of Creative Agency, Decreased Resources, and Unequal Art Achievement Outcomes

Overview & Synopsis

Few would disagree that a primary aim of art and design education is to cultivate student creativity. While there are diverse approaches to teaching for creativity in art and design education, developing creativity generally focuses on discovery, materials exploration, and idea expression (process) as well as making and presenting final works of art and design (products) (Sawyer, 2012). This article examines the idea of creativity in art education by putting forth a foundational definition of creative agency and exploring the question of whether creative agency is available to all students in art and design education with suggestions for curriculum that integrates concepts of creativity with social justice.