1. Take time for concept development: 

• Develop exercises and opportunities for students to develop their concepts through writing, discussion, sketching, etc. 

• Work with students to leap from moments of inspiration and interest to the development of an exciting concept by asking them questions, showing them the work of other artists who were inspired by similar ideas, etc.  

• Show them how you or other artists develop a concept and challenge them to follow the same process. 

2. Iteration, editing & evolution: 

• Design projects that require MSP students to spend time evolving and developing their projects over a series of work sessions. 

• A natural way to achieve this is to slowly introduce new materials, processes, or techniques into the project over several days. 

• Ask students to come up with at least three ideas before working on a final piece. 

3. Interdisciplinary approaches:

• How can we expand MSP students’ understanding of what a certain media or subject can be? Can comics be embroidered? Can fashion include video? What sculpture skills are helpful for animators? 

4. Skill & technique development: 

• MSP students often share in end-of-session evaluations that they wished they had built more skills (which, of course, can be interpreted in many ways). For many students, the development of "skills" is how they define themselves as being successful as artists!

• Talk with your students at the start of the term about their expectations for skill development and growth in the course. Take their goals into account and help them manage their expectations. 

• Think about how you are balancing time spent on concept development/ideation and skill/technique building. 

5. Experiment with scale: Go big; go small. Help our MSP students see what types of thinking and skill sets are required when working outside of a 9x12 piece of paper. 

6. Collaboration: Design projects that involve the entire classroom community—faculty and CA collaboration included! This is a great way for your students to see your idea development and learn directly from your artistic process.

7. Turn traditional projects into something that stretches creativity: 

• For example, if observational drawing is the goal, ask students to bring in objects that tell their story rather than creating a simple still life. 

• Use project development as an opportunity to show students creative thinking or to use the museum in exciting ways. 

8. Analog & Digital: Consider including a mixture of analog and digital projects in your syllabus. Take a look at what is available to borrow from the SAIC media centers.

9. Artist Statement: Consider using this artist statement worksheet as a tool to help your students create wall labels and learn more about their work.