Join the conversation at the Discovery Museum 2020 Speaker Series featuring
Ellen Winner, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology at Boston College and Senior Research Associate at Project Zoo, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Virtual Event: The Psychology of Artistic Behavior in Children
Presented virtually via Zoom Webinar
Presentation is from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM EDT
Dr. Winner directs the Arts and Mind Lab, which focuses on cognition in the arts in typical and gifted children as well as adults. She has written over 200 articles and is author of four books and co-author of three, including 2018’s How Art Works: A Psychological Exploration. Dr. Winner has served as President of APA's Division 10, Psychology and the Arts in 1995-1996, and received the Rudolf Arnheim Award for Outstanding Research by a Senior Scholar in Psychology and the Arts from Division 10 in 2000. She is a fellow of APA Division 10 and of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics.
Dr. Ellen Winner will discuss the "U-shaped curve" in the development of artistry in the young child. Young children's paintings and drawings are high in play, exploration, and creativity, and they bear a striking resemblance to the works of some modernist artists such as Paul Klee, Juan Miro, or Hans Hofmann. But during the middle childhood years, creativity typically declines as artworks become conventionalized and far less creative. We call this the "literal stage." We see this same kind of decline not only in visual art but also in children's use of metaphorical language. For those who go on to become artists (or poets), there is later on a rise in creativity and exploration in adolescence. Dr. Winner will describe approaches to visual art education that stifle children's natural creativity, and other approaches that foster creativity as well as suggestions on how parents might use the creation of art as a tool to help their children through these difficult times.
Copies of Dr. Winner's book How Art Works: A Psychological Exploration can be purchased online from The Silver Unicorn Bookshop. Thank you for supporting this local business.
All registrants will receive a follow-up email on Wednesday, October 21, with a link to the Zoom Webinar presentation that evening. If you do not have Zoom installed on your computer or mobile device, you can download it at zoom.us/support/download.
Discovery Museum Speaker Series events are free and open to the public.
Donations in support of the Discovery Museum Speaker Series are very much appreciated, and can be made online at discoveryacton.org/support
After completing the form below (please note there are multiple screens), you will receive a registration confirmation email. Please contact Karen Kerns at kkerns@discoveryacton.org if you do not receive this email so we can help you with your registration.