• The Arts

    What is Aesthetic Education?

    Aesthetic education is education designed to develop a discriminating appreciation and understanding of the arts. It includes the ability to feel from the inside what the arts are like, and how the arts come to mean what they do. For example, an aesthetic approach to poetry or painting emphasizes "how" the poem or painting means more than "what" it means. Aesthetic education is grounded in full and faithful perception, a kind of "deep noticing" that provides the basis for appreciation and understanding, and for the development of the other thinking and learning capacities.* (See     "Lincoln Center Institute Capacities for Learning.")

    Lincoln Center Institute Capacities for Learning

    Deep Noticing

    Identifying Patterns

    Questioning

    Embodying

    Making Connections

    Creating Meaning

    Exhibiting Empathy

    Taking Action

    Reflecting and Assessing