In the first instalment of this three-part series responding to the Curriculum Review, Professor Pat Thomson suggested that there were a number of ways to approach the notion of knowledge and a knowledge-rich curriculum. With the more generous definitions in mind, this second instalment is a thought experiment. Thomson asks: what if we thought about the arts as knowledge rich? What could we say?
The arts provide unique ways of knowing that complement and are additional to other academic subjects. When they engage with the arts, children and young people are not just developing technical skills but building rich knowledge networks that connect to every other domain of human understanding. In the words of one student,
“The arts tell us who we are, where we’ve been and where we might go in future.” (Year 11 student in Thomson & Hall, 2023)
The expressive arts are knowledge-rich in several important ways:
- Conceptual and theoretical knowledges: Arts education develops sophisticated conceptual understandings, allowing children and young people to engage with abstract ideas, symbolism, philosophical and metaphorical thinking and reasoning (Eisner, 2002; Lewis & Laverty, 2015; Smith, 2006).
- Historical and contemporary cultural knowledges: The arts are embedded in rich historical and diverse cultural traditions (Ghosh, 2017). Understanding these aesthetic traditions, genres, platforms, media and so on provides crucial contexts for creation, interpretation. evaluation and appreciation (Barton, 2023; Greene, 1995; van Heusden & Gielen, 2015).
- Technical knowledges: Each art form requires mastery of specific techniques, tools, and processes. For example: Visual artists must understand colour theory, perspective, and various media properties; Musicians need knowledge of theory, notation, and instrumental techniques.
- Procedural knowledges: Creating art involves complex procedural knowledges – for example, knowing how to develop ideas, make aesthetic judgments, solve problems, and refine work through iteration (Addison & Burgess, 2020; Atkinson & Dash, 2005; Halverson & Sawyer, 2022; Hay, 2023).
- Interdisciplinary connectivities: The arts not only integrate knowledge from other domains (e.g. Portnoy, 2024; Yust, White, & Van Handel, 2024) but also work together with other disciplines in powerful ways (e.g. Barton, 2014; Carney, 2018; Gibson & Ewing, 2020; Wilkinson, 2000).
- Embodied knowledges: Art forms involve sophisticated haptic knowledges – understanding how to use the body as an expressive instrument individually and with others (Davidson, 2004; Neelands, 2009; Rowlands, MacGill, & Meiners, 2022; Springgay, 2008).
The expressive arts have an important and distinctive knowledge richness. Making and doing constitute powerful forms of knowing that challenge traditional knowledge frameworks which separate theory/practice and head/hands (Scarinzii, 2015). The embodied knowledges in the expressive arts represent distinctive ways of understanding that are inseparable from practice (Fleming, Bresler, & O’Toole, 2014).
The process/outcome divide does not hold in expressive arts education and practice. The process of creating art is itself a form of knowledge generation and expression. When artists engage in the act of creating – whether painting, composing, dancing, or writing – they are not simply working toward a final product but engaging in a form of thinking-through-making. The artistic process involves continuous reflection, decision-making, and responding to what emerges during creation (Atkins & Eberhart, 2014; Davis, 2005; Hetland, Winner, Veenema, & Sheridan, 2007; O’Toole, 2003; Thomson, 2024). For example: In many expressive arts, the “finished” artwork actually contains traces of its own creation. A painting reveals brushstrokes that document the artist’s movements and decisions. A musical performance captures not just notes but the performer’s interpretive choices in real-time. A ceramic piece bears the marks of the potter’s hands. This “process visibility” means that the outcome inherently contains and reveals its own making. A further example of the unity of process and outcome can be seen in improvisation. In jazz improvisation, dance improvisation, or improvisational theatre, the process of creating is simultaneously the outcome – there is no separation between the two. The knowledge being expressed exists precisely in that moment of creative action (Bresler, 2007).
The arts produce knowledge together with, and through, materials. Artists frequently report discoveries arising directly from material engagement (Carter, 2014). A choreographer might find a new movement quality through physical exploration that they couldn’t have conceptualized abstractly. A writer might discover a character’s motivation through the actual process of writing dialogue. The knowledge emerges through the doing but the materials themselves become active participants in knowledge generation (Renard, 2014). Clay responds to the potter’s hands with its own properties and tendencies. Musical instruments offer possibilities and resistances that shape compositional choices. This “material thinking” represents a collaborative form of knowledge production between artist and medium (Hickey-Moody, 2023; Storey, 2015).
This integration shifts our understandings of what it means to be knowledge rich. Rather than seeing knowledge as something separate that precedes or results from artistic activity, we can understand the expressive arts as embodying knowledges through practice. The artist doesn’t just apply knowledge to make art; the making itself constitutes a unique form of knowing (Haroutounian, 2019; Wright, 2014). For educators and practitioners, this perspective underpins process-oriented approaches that don’t privilege final products over the journey of creation. Meaningful artistic learning happens and can be assessed in and as creative experience, not just in end results (Green, 2021).
Artists also value not knowing, challenging taken-for-granted knowledges. Insights gained from ‘unknowing practices’ lead to new insights and are central to the creativities embedded in all of the arts (Fisher & Fortnum, 2014). Artists ask What if? Why? What happens when? When artists embrace not knowing, they remain receptive to unexpected possibilities (Barthelme, 1997). This uncertainty allows for genuine surprise and discovery in their work, rather than simply executing predetermined plans. Unknowing helps artists avoid falling into repetitive patterns or relying too heavily on what has worked before. By deliberately entering states of uncertainty, they can push beyond their established techniques and discover new forms of expression. Many artists describe their best work as emerging from a process where they didn’t know exactly where they were headed.
Artists would want to challenge this arts knowledges list or even the proposition that it is possible or desirable to make a list of arts-based knowledges. Such a conversation would make an interesting contribution to the Curriculum Review, and the CLA would certainly like to hear the results. Do let us know your thoughts about this thought experiment!
References
Addison, N., & Burgess, L. (Eds.). (2020). Debates in art and design education (second ed.). London: Routledge.
Atkins, S., & Eberhart, H. (2014). Presence and process in expressive arts work. At the edge of wonder. London: Jessica Kingsley
Atkinson, D., & Dash, P. (Eds.). (2005). Social and critical practices in art education. Stoke on Trent: Trentham.
Barthelme, D. (1997). Not-knowing. The essays and interviews. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint.
Barton, G. (2014). Literacy and the arts: Interpretation and expression of symbolic form. In G. Barton (Ed.), Literacy in the arts. Retheorising learning and teaching (pp. 3-20). Dordrecht: Springer.
Barton, G. (2023). Aesthetic literacies in school and work. New Pathways for education. New York: Springer.
Bresler, L. (Ed.) (2007). International handbook of research in arts education. ( Parts 1 and 2). Dordrecht: Springer.
Carney, P. (2018). Drawing for science, invention and discovery: Even tif oyu cant draw. Loughborough: Loughborough Design Press.
Carter, P. (2014). Material thinking. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Davidson, J. (2004). Embodied knowledge: Possibilities and constraints in arts education and curriculum. In L. Bresler (Ed.), Knowing bodies, moving minds: Towards embodied teaching and learning (pp. 197-212). Dorcrecht: Springer Netherlands.
Davis, J. H. (2005). Redefining Ratso Rizzo: Learning from the arts about process and reflection. Phi Delta Kappan, 87(1), 11-17.
Eisner, E. (2002). The arts and the creation of mind. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Fisher, E., & Fortnum, R. (2014). On not knowing. How artists think. London: Black Dog Publishing.
Fleming, M., Bresler, L., & O’Toole, J. (Eds.). (2014). The Routledge international handbook of the arts and education. New York: Routledge.
Ghosh, R. (2017). Aesthetics, politics, Pedagogy and Tagore. A transcultural philosophy of education. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gibson, R., & Ewing, R. (2020). Transforming the curriculum through the arts (2nd ed.). New York: Wpringer.
Green, B. (2021). Revisiting the conceptual domain. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 40(2), 436-448.
Greene, M. (1995). Releasing the imagination. Essays on education, the arts, and social change. San Francisco: Jossey – Bass.
Halverson, E., & Sawyer, K. (2022). Learning in and through the arts. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 31(1), 1-13.
Haroutounian, J. (2019). Artistic ways of knowing. American Music Teacher, 69(2), 22-27.
Hay, P. (2023). Children are artists; Supporting children’s learning identity as artists. London: Routledge.
Hetland, L., Winner, E., Veenema, S., & Sheridan, K. (2007). Studio thinking. The real benefits of visual arts in education. New York: Teachers College Press.
Hickey-Moody, A. (2023). Faith stories. Sustaining meaning anc community in troubling times. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Lewis, T., & Laverty, M. (Eds.). (2015). Art’s teachings. Teaching’s art. Philosophical, critical and educational musings. New York: Springer.
Neelands, J. (2009). Acting together: ensemble as a democratic process in art and life. Research in Drama Education, 14(2), 173-189.
O’Toole, J. (2003). The process of drama. Negotiating art and meaning. London: Routledge.
Portnoy, A. (2024). The mathematics of music and art. New York: Springer.
Renard, H. (2014). Cultivating design thinking in students through material inquiry. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 26(3), 414-424.
Rowlands, K., MacGill, B., & Meiners, J. (2022). First Nations dance in the school curriculum. Perspectives from an Australian university. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 23(SI1.1), http://doi.org/10.26209/ijea26223si26201.26201.
Scarinzii, A. (Ed.) (2015). Aesthetics and the embodied mind. Beyond art theory and the Cartesian mind-body dichotomy. New York: Springer.
Smith, R. A. (2006). Culture and the arts in education. Critical essays on shaping human experience. New York: Teachers College Press.
Springgay, S. (2008). Body knowledge and curriculum, Pedagogies of touch in youth and visual culture. New York: Peter Lang.
Storey, J. (2015). Cultural theory and popular culture. An introduction. New York: Routledge.
Thomson, P. (2024). Why bother with arts education in schools? . Australian Education Researcher, 52(2), 781-801.
Thomson, P., & Hall, C. (2023). Cultural citizenship. Arts education for life. London: Routledge.
van Heusden, B., & Gielen, P. (Eds.). (2015). Arts education beyond art. Teaching art in times of change. London: Valiz.
Wilkinson, J. (2000). Literacy, education and arts partnership: a community-system programme integrating arts across the curriculum. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 5(2), 175-197.
Wright, S. (2014). Ways of making and knowing. The material cuture of empirical knowledge (2nd ed.). Frenches Forest: Pearson.
Yust, J., White, C., & Van Handel, L. (Eds.). (2024). Mathematics of musical rhythm. London: Routledge.
NOTE These are indicative references. I have not undertaken a systematic review of the literatures. There is certainly much more out there and more nuance than is represented here. This is an outline.
Image credit. H.J. Walker, Kettle’s Yard. Via The Mildred Fund
