ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to examine the different ways in which people participate in or relate to the arts. It is necessary to do this before going on to analyse the role of adult education in promoting participation in the arts and, at the same time, promoting or developing a particular idea of culture. Any educational activity designed to enable engagement with the arts needs to take account of possible varying levels of perceptual acuity within these systems. The chapter focuses on engaging with the arts in a creative way has attempted to demonstrate that, of three ways in which the idea of creativity is conceived and researched, the idea of creativity as a process seems the most useful. It describes the nature of attention and the state of consciousness of the artist during the creative process. The nature of the engagement with arts is characterised by psychological and somatic processes as well as by the nature of attention and consciousness.
