An indispensable and inspiring guide to creativity in the workplace and beyond, drawing on art, psychology, science, sports, law, business, and technology to help you land big ideas in the practical world. Anyone from CEO to freelancer knows how hard it is to think big, let alone follow up, while under pressure to get things done. Art Thinking offers practical principles, inspiration, and a healthy dose of pragmatism to help you navigate the difficulties of balancing creative thinking with driving toward results. With an MBA and an MFA, Amy Whitaker, an entrepreneur-in-residence at the New Museum Incubator, draws on stories of athletes, managers, writers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and even artists to engage you in the process of “art thinking.” If you are making a work of art in any field, you aren’t going from point A to point B. You are inventing point B. Art Thinking combines the mind-sets of art and the tools of business to protect space for open-ended exploration and manage risks on your way to success. Art Thinking takes you from “Wouldn’t it be cool if . . . ?” to realizing your highest aims, helping you build creative skills you can apply across all facets of business and life. Warm, honest, and unexpected, Art Thinking will help you reimagine your work and life—and even change the world—while enjoying the journey from point A. Art Thinking features 60 line drawings throughout.

Thinking Through the Arts draws together a number of different approaches to teaching young children that combine the experience of thinking with the act of expression through art. Developed as an inclusive, broad-ranging and user-friendly text, Thinking Through the Arts presents the unique insight of teachers as researchers, and counters the view that art is emotionally-based and therefore irrelevant to thinking and learning. The areas covered include drama, dance, music, arts environments, technologies, museums and galleries, literacy, cognition, international influences, curriculum development, research and practice. Early childhood and primary teachers and students alike will find this book is an invaluable source of new insights for their own teaching.

Focusing on a unique arena, Thinking Through Art takes an innovative look at artists’ experiences of undertaking doctorates and asks: If the making of art is not simply the formulation of an object but is also the formation of complex ideas then what effect does academic enquiry have on art practice? Using twenty-eight pictures, never before seen outside the artists’ universities, Thinking Through Art focuses on art produced in higher educational environments and considers how the material product comes about through a process of conceiving and giving form to abstract thought. It further examines how this form, which is research art sits uneasily within academic circles, and yet is uniquely situated outside the gallery system. The journal articles, from eminent scholars, artists, philosophers, art historians and cultural theorists, demonstrate the complexity of interpreting art as research, and provide students and scholars with an invaluable resource for their art and cultural studies courses.

Each of the writers in this contentious and thought-provoking collection is an artist and fine art educator at the School of Art, RMIT University. In the School of Art it is understood that the processes of undertaking the creative project - the experimental works and the testing of ideas right through to the finished artwork - is the research itself. Thinking Through Practice shows what the process of 'thinking' might mean through art and its practices. Each chapter moves us into closer proximity with what it means to think through making and all that is involved in sustained forms of creative practice - questioning, reviewing, reflecting, analysing, performing, speculating, relating, remembering, critiquing, constructing and ultimately further questioning.

Designed for beginners, Art Matters challenges the reader to experience art as a way to build a personal, creative skill set that will benefit them regardless of what career field they pursue.

Critical Thinking Through Art Unit I This is an artistic workbook to empower the artist within you through critical thinking. This book will help you develop and explore many options that will overcome the restraints that block creativity. Our motto is not even the sky is the limit. Trying this philosophy will directly assist the artist within you. You will find new options, new choices, and new energy to overcome limits and boundaries. Working through the workbooks exercises and discussions will reveal new ways of seeing art, artists, and yourself. You will find that sometimes, the artist has to dig a little deeper. You may have to face your biases and your old ways of creating art. Taking this step brings you into a world that overcomes methods that are tailored to your bias and old ways. We will show you how you can be the artist that governs your art. You are the artist that decides the colors of the sky, the shapes of the mountains, the sizes of the waves, and the forms of life that most interest you. Together with this book, a powerful and beautiful artist will be honored.

This new series provides working art educators with accessible guides to significant issues in the field. Developments in art education are consolidated into a clear presentation of what a practicing teacher needs to know. Paramount to the series is the concept of informed practice, whereby important and often complex art education topics are put into the context of the working art teacher and real classroom environments. Concise analysis is put into the context of the working art teacher and real classroom environments. Attention is paid to creating the right classroom climate, and guidelines are offered for group dialogues. A wealth of specific activities for philosophical inquiry are explored, while activities for introducing and practicing skills are likewise analysed and offered for practical classroom implementation. By addressing aesthetics in real teaching terms, Thinking Through Aesthetics delivers needed support for front-line art educators.