Children are seldom allowed to freely create in elementary school. Art teachers and general classroom teachers assign prescriptive projects that narrowly restrict young students’ creativity. For the past 40 years the term “School Art” has been used to describe the type of art produced in school environments (Anderson & Milbrandt, 1998; Efland, 1976; Gude, 2013; Wilson; 1974). Since the mid-19th century “School Art” has become a systematized and institutionalized genre (Bresler, 1999; Efland, 1976). This genre does not take into consideration self-initiated art and the unique processes children use to create it (Hamblen, 1999). School sanctioned art privileges creativity that is product-based and teacher directed (Bresler, 1998; Grube, 2009; Gude 2007; Rosenblatt & Winner, 1988), while self-initiated art practices empower children by allowing them to direct their own discovery-based artistic inquiries (Bresler, 1999; Danko-McGhee & Slutsky, 2007), which they find relevant, meaningful, and engaging (Broome & Broome, 2010; Eger, 2008, Fiske, 1999).

Many of my students complained when it was time to go to art class. When asked why, they said, “at the beginning of each class the teacher takes a long time to explain how to do the project” (personal communication, May 2, 2014). They told me they were never given a choice in the types of projects they did. During my 17-years at the school, the art department assigned the same projects year after year. From early fall to late spring watercolor copies of famous Impressionistic paintings, Hockney-esque photomontages, Calder-like wire sculptures, Matisse style paper cutouts and portraits in the manner of Warhol’s silkscreens were displayed in the hallways.

This use of exemplars in school lessons and activities is a common practice. However, many exemplars such as trifold board displays found at science fairs have become little more than hackneyed and ritualized products (Rufo, 2014). Exemplars used during art classes are often part of prepackaged curricular programs privileging the western canon and representing non-western cultures through a Eurocentric lens. (Chin, 2011; Freedman & Stuhr, 2004). Visual art exemplars tend to transform “visual expressions of multiple and complex ideas to oversimplified uses of formal and technical qualities” (Freedman & Stuhr, 2004, p. 823).

Conversely, children are highly motivated when involved in self-initiated art making activities (Rufo, 2013). According to anthropologist and scholar Ellen Dissanayake, people take pleasure in and have an “intrinsic fascination of making visible marks” (Ellen Dissanayake, personal communication, June 15, 2011). It is crucial for creative learning to be intrinsically motivated (Jaquith, 2011) which is why I wanted to offer my students opportunities to engage in self-initiated creative endeavors.

This paper seeks to answer the question: What type of artwork will students produce and how will they go about their creative processes in a self-directed studio environment?