WHY ‘MAKING’ MATTERS MORE THAN EVER

For Suzanne Rodgers art education is about critical and analytical thinking, adaptability, empathy and creative confidence. Developing curiosity is the first step.
What is art?

“I can’t draw, so I’m not good at Art.” Most teachers have heard those words, and every time they are spoken, a quiet misunderstanding about art education is revealed. The belief that art is about technical ability, about control, precision and neatness, still runs deep. Yet Art and Design has never been only about skill. It is a way of thinking, questioning and making meaning visible. In the studio, learning is not linear. It begins with curiosity, moves through uncertainty and often ends in discovery. That is what makes art such a powerful tool for learning because it teaches young people how to think through doing.

Learning by making

Within art, deep knowledge is constructed through making rather than delivered through instruction. A drawing, a collage or a sculpture are not outcomes but forms of inquiry. The studio becomes a site of material thinking where students test ideas through interaction and discover what materials can and cannot do. Meaning emerges through that conversation between hand, eye and mind.

When students learn to trust the process of making, to take risks and to follow uncertainty, they begin to experience art as a way of knowing. Technical skill is no longer the measure of success; it becomes the tool through which new understanding is formed. Each mark, cut or fold is a small act of analysis, a decision shaped by curiosity rather than prescription. Learning through uncertainty is what prepares students for the world beyond the classroom. In the studio, they learn to navigate ambiguity, to make sense of complexity and to respond creatively when outcomes are not yet known. This mirrors the kind of adaptive, critical thinking that defines genuine innovation.

Process as inquiry

In one classroom project that I designed, students explored verbs including tear, fold, join, suspend rather than beginning with a fixed idea. The task was not to design an object but to engage with possibility and to ask “What happens if?” As the work unfolded, the room filled with fragments of discovery: torn edges that suggested movement and suspended pieces that changed shape in light. The process became its own form of reflection.

What mattered was not how the work looked but how the students learned to think through it. They discussed, adjusted, tested and made connections. They began to understand that materials respond, that they think back, that they are in themselves agentic. The learning was not about outcomes but about the capacity to stay curious, to adapt and to find meaning through dialogue with the unfamiliar. That experience continues to inform my consultancy practice, reinforcing the importance of curiosity, confidence and creativity as habits of learning. Each is strengthened through process-led learning that gives students permission to think, question and take ownership of discovery.

Reframing what we value

In the most future-facing art departments, this understanding is central. Teachers design experiences that value curiosity alongside craft and invite students to share the thinking within the work, not just the finished piece. Walls display process as well as product; the unfinished, the experimental and the process are seen as evidence of learning.

This shift does not lower standards; it raises them. When students are invited to make thinking visible through reflection, documentation and dialogue, the quality of both skill and understanding deepens. They learn to analyse, to make decisions and to articulate purpose. This is where confidence and curiosity grow, when students see that their ideas, not only their outcomes, are valued.

Knowing and becoming

Art education has a unique capacity to help young people understand themselves and the world around them. It is a discipline of knowing and becoming, where making becomes a way to question, to test and to connect. Students learn to embrace ambiguity and to see uncertainty as a starting point rather than a barrier.

When this happens, the studio becomes a microcosm of the kind of learning the future demands: reflective, adaptive, collaborative and human. Students do not only learn to make art; they learn how to think, to listen, to persist and to imagine.

If we want young people to navigate complexity with imagination and purpose, art must be seen not as enrichment but as essential, a way of understanding what it means to be human in a changing world. Through art, students practice the very capacities the future depends on:  critical and analytical thinking, adaptability, empathy and creative confidence. As education systems look to redefine success for the next generation, art offers a blueprint. It shows that deep learning happens through doing, that knowledge can be constructed, and that imagination is intelligence in action.

Suzanne Rodgers is founder of SR Creative Curriculum Consultancy. She works with schools in the UK and internationally to embed creativity, confidence and curiosity through Art and Design education.

For partnership enquiries or information about upcoming CPD programmes, contact: https://www.srcreativecurriculum.com/

All images kindly provided by Suzanne

FEATURE IMAGE: Thinking through making

Support images: Classroom detail, Exploring line, fold & form, Visitors engaging with student’s work