ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the models of teaching the book examines—masterclass and crit—can and do teach students to be artists. Theorists have often been sceptical that art can be taught. Immanuel Kant argued that originality in art is unteachable, and James Elkins has recently argued that art cannot be taught, at least not in the context of contemporary art schools. Understanding creativity and its processes is key to the chapter’s reassessment of this question. Using a model developed by Berys Gaut, it argues that there are creative skills which are taught in both masterclass and crit. Another key to understanding how art can be taught comes from a constructivist account of teaching. “To teach,” writes constructivist Paulo Freire, “is not to transfer knowledge but to create the possibilities for the production or construction of knowledge.” The chapter concludes that creating possibilities for art-making is something that both masterclass teaching and teaching by crits can and do achieve, giving art schools the potential to be crucibles of creativity, within and beyond the arts.
