Creativity skills can be learned. Yet, this fact continues to be surprising to many, and it is more common to hear comments about someone’s talent than about their development as a creator. If we can learn creativity skills, what do we need to learn?

Keith Sawyer, a well-known creativity researcher, spent more than 10 years visiting the top art and design schools in the United States. He interviewed the professional artists and designers who teach in their programs, with the goal of identifying both what needs to be learned and how it can be taught.

He shared the lessons in his latest book, Learning to See. By focusing on the most typical domains of creative work—art and design—his goal was to uncover what is at the core of creativity in general. Conclusion: Students learn to understand the creative process, develop their own creative practice, and come to connect their own vision with an audience.

Below is our conversation summing up years of learning about teaching for creativity.

Why do you call your book Learning to See?

When I first started interviewing art school professors, I was calling my project “learning how to be creative.” But I was surprised that what they described as central to what they are........

© Psychology Today