ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I examine the value a group of adults enrolled in “non-studio-art” graduate programs found in a semester-long immersive studio learning experience. Drawing on interview data, I point to the contrast these students found between the learning processes typical of their formal education and the learning they encountered in an introductory painting class. Qualities of studio learning participants highlighted as “different” and thereby valuable include: (1) immersion in a visual, embodied mode of meaning making; (2) the feeling of being “a total novice” in one pocket of graduate school; (3) the embracement of their individual approaches and experiences; (4) working outside strict parameters and without predefined endpoints; and (5) the deepening of theoretical understandings through experience.
