Art as a tool for reflection, taking perspective, and ultimately, transformational learning.

Art can be powerful. I've learned so much through the experience of opening my classes with art.?

• Art helps people arrive with a more reflective, open, and spacious orientation.?
• Art opens minds to thinking on a different track than what most conventional management classrooms demand.?

Clara Nartey and I explored the topic of art as a tool for reflection, transformation, and learning in the second episode of season 2.? I’m bringing that conversation to this week’s newsletter.

Finding Joy Amidst Hardship

Clara’s The Joy of Living exhibit is an invitation.

Through her own reflection on the pandemic, she hopes to help the world see difficult times and experiences differently.

“I wanted to show that at the end of our time, what is left is a reflection of who we have been, what we have lived, what we have done. What we have lived and what we have done is not summarized at the end of our lives, but it is every minute of our lives that we live.” - Clara Nartey

That comment prompted me to? ask her, “Is art for you a reflective practice?”

Art as A Tool of Reflection

Clara explained that in the process of creating her art, she is always in a state of reflection.

“It's a conversation between what I want to say and what the piece of work wants to say.” - Clara Nartey, Season 2 Episode 2 of Learning Through Experience

Clara is talking about being in a relationship with the artistic process and letting the work speak to you and evolve. You could say the same thing for any practice.?

You can engage in the practice, respect it, listen to it, and learn from it – rather than thinking of it as a plan and produce process.

Art as A Tool of Transformation

I've been using art in the classroom for many years as a tool to help people see difficult issues and discussions in a more approachable way.?

However, for management students, this is not always easy. Taking up the world through metaphor is not necessarily the first pathway for someone who's chosen a management degree.?

There is a stretching of mind, heart, and spirit that happens through perceiving human issues through the arts. And I think we all need to have some perspective these days.

“Art has this power to bring us together, to make us think about things that we would otherwise not think about - in ways that are not difficult to embrace.” - Clara Nartey

Chairing the Yale School of Management art committee is impacting how I see management education.

In this episode of Learning through Experience, Clara spoke about how much she connects with the power of art to influence our experience, broaden our perspective, and erase boundaries.?

Her vision of what art can do maps onto my own enthusiasm for what art can do for learning.

The Joy of Living Exhibit is part of the permanent collection at Yale School of Management. I hope it impacts the way that people experience Evans Hall, perhaps even how they see each other and some of the issues that this vaulted education hopes to help them wrestle with as leaders for business and society.

→ I encourage you to take a peek at this exhibit and experience Clara’s walkthrough of each piece inside The Joy of Living here. I hope it helps you to take perspective and cultivate joy!

→ To learn more about the power of art to prompt discussion and encourage learning,? ?tune into episode 2 of season 2 of Learning through Experience.

→ To see photos of The Joy of Living Exhibit, click here.

→ Learning Through Experience is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere you find podcasts.

→ I’d love it if you would Follow the podcast on your favorite app for easy access and to receive notifications of new episodes.? This also gives more people access to learning through experience!