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Studio Habits of Mind

The standards guide educators in providing a unified quality arts education for students. More information about the SHoM: Harvard’s Studio Thinking Project

DEVELOP CRAFT

WHAT IS IT?

Learning to use tools, materials, artistic conventions; and learning to care for tools, materials, and space.

HOW TO PRACTICE IT?
  • Use tools and materials to practice techniques.
  • Use artmaking skills to improve the artwork.
  • Choose specific techniques to express ideas.
  • Take good care of art tools, materials, and artworks.
  • Organize the workspace.
  • Put everything away in the right place.
  • Put work away carefully so it doesn’t get damaged.

ENGAGE AND PERSIST

WHAT IS IT?

Learning to embrace problems of relevance within the art world and/or of personal importance, to develop focus and other mental states conducive to working and persevering at art tasks.

HOW TO PRACTICE IT?
  • Bring what you care about most into the artwork.
  • Connect with and commit to the work.
  • Use skills to go deeper into the art.
  • Stick with the art by problem-solving when challenges come up.
  • Manage time to finish an artwork.

ENVISION

WHAT IS IT?

Learning to picture mentally what cannot be directly observed, and imagine possible next steps in making a piece.

HOW TO PRACTICE IT?
  • Picture ideas in the mind for the artwork.
  • Get ideas for the artwork by sketching and planning.
  • Decide on next steps by asking, “What if…?”
  • Let ideas change as the work progresses.

EXPRESS

WHAT IS IT?

Learning to create works that convey an idea, a feeling, or a personal meaning.

HOW TO PRACTICE IT?
  • Put meaning into the artwork by including what is important to you.
  • Communicate ideas through the artwork.
  • Interpret meaning in other artists’ artworks.
  • Discover the meaning as the work is done.

OBSERVE

WHAT IS IT?

Learning to attend to visual contexts more closely than ordinary “looking” requires, and thereby to see things that otherwise might not be seen.

HOW TO PRACTICE IT?
  • Notice details in the world around.
  • View your own work closely to find areas to keep and to improve.
  • Examine other artists’ artworks to get ideas.

REFLECT

WHAT IS IT?

Learning to think and talk with others about an aspect of one’s work or working process, and learning to judge one’s own work and working process and the work of others.

HOW TO PRACTICE IT?
  • Ask questions about the artwork in progress.
  • Reflect on how is the work created and envision next steps to take.
  • Explain decisions to others and describe the work done.

STRETCH & EXPLORE

WHAT IS IT?

Learning to reach beyond one’s capacities, to explore playfully without a preconceived plan, and to embrace the opportunity to learn from mistakes.

HOW TO PRACTICE IT?
  • Take risks and try things never done before.
  • Play with materials and techniques to discover new ways of working.
  • Explore concepts to find new ways to express ideas.
  • Use mistakes to find new ideas and figure out where to change the work.

UNDERSTAND COMMUNITY

WHAT IS IT?

>Learning to interact as an artist with other artists (i.e., in classrooms, in local arts organizations, and across the art field) and within the broader society. This can easily be applied to other disciplines, like science or history.

HOW TO PRACTICE IT?
  • Connect with other artists through their processes, techniques, stories, and ideas.
  • Use others’ art as a resource for own work.
  • Discover artists’ work in the classroom, studios, art galleries, museums, and online.
  • Collaborate with classmates to share skills and ideas for artmaking.
  • Be heard by, learn from, and compromise with classmates on works made together.
  • Be a member of the school’s artistic community.
  • Be a member of the global artistic community of all artists who ever lived.