Celebrating the Process: Why the Open Studio Model Helps Students Thrive

Celebrating the Process: Why the Open Studio Model Helps Students Thrive

By Ms. Mila Vasconcelos - Exploring the New IBDP Visual Arts Syllabus

In a world obsessed with polished results, I’ve chosen to celebrate the process. As a visual arts educator with over a decade of international teaching experience and as a practitioner-researcher passionate about Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB), I’ve seen firsthand how offering choice, flexibility, and ownership transforms the art classroom into a space where students flourish.

This is not just a belief. It’s grounded in my 2021 master’s thesis, Teaching for Artistic Behavior: Choices to Explore the World (read on ResearchGate), and it’s reflected every day in the way I design my classes.

Same art room, many different techniques, approaches, and outcomes: each choice, a chance for my students to develop their own artistic voices.

What is the Open Studio Model?

The open studio model, or choice-based art education, invites students to become the artists in the room. Instead of following step-by-step teacher-led instructions, students explore materials, ideas, techniques, and concepts that are meaningful to them. The goal? To develop artistic identity, creative autonomy, and critical thinking, and not to simply replicate someone else’s work.

In my current practice, especially with high school IB Visual Arts students, this means designing spaces where students can move at different paces, experiment freely, and reflect meaningfully. Progress becomes more important than product. Reflection becomes more powerful than replication.

One Classroom, Many Processes

Within this approach, I've observed a beautiful truth: there is no single way to create art—and students naturally gravitate toward the process that best supports their voice. For example:

• The Sequential Artists: These students prefer a structured process. They begin with thumbnail sketches, conduct visual research, test techniques, and gradually refine a concept before producing a final piece. They thrive with planning templates and checklists, like those found in my Guide 1: Developing an Artwork – Step by Step.

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• The Intuitive Creators: Other students take a more instinctive route. They dive directly into the final piece, experimenting with materials and combinations on the canvas itself. As they go, they pause to reflect—mentally or in their sketchbooks—on what is working, what feels unresolved, and what they want to emphasize next. For them, Guide 2: Balancing Technical Skill and Conceptual Depth is a helpful tool to articulate and deepen their choices post-creation.

  

  

  

  

  

  

• The Mosaic Makers: Some students bounce between multiple projects or media until they find a "click." They collect bits of inspiration and refine multiple directions simultaneously. This group benefits from open-ended prompts and visual strategy maps like the ones in Guide 3: Mastering Composition & Visual Impact.

  There is no right or wrong with those different approaches. They reflect how diverse, personal, and culturally shaped the creative process can be.

Process Over Product: What the Research Shows

In my thesis, I documented how students’ agency increases when they are allowed to take charge of their creative decisions. The outcomes were clear:

Students became more confident in taking artistic risks.

Their work showed greater diversity of voice and authenticity.

Reflections became more insightful because students weren’t just following directions—they were articulating why their choices mattered.

This aligns perfectly with the IB Visual Arts 2027 assessment updates, where process documentation, cultural context, and conceptual development matter more than ever. By using open studio strategies early (like in grades 9 and 10), students are better prepared to enter the IB Diploma Programme with critical awareness and creative courage.

Practical Tips: How I Support All Creators

To scaffold these diverse working styles, I:

• Offer a range of prompts in each unit, connected to universal themes (identity, transformation, memory, place, etc.).

• Provide flexible pacing options, so some students can finish multiple artworks while others dive deeper into one.

• Use peer critiques like the Gallery Walk & TAG method to promote reflection, not judgment.

• Check in regularly with students to co-plan their next steps, so they’re always reflecting and growing.

• Display work-in-progress as valid outcomes: process boards, sketches, tests, and artist statements.

  
  

Final Thoughts: Progress Is the True Masterpiece

As artists, we know that some pieces take days. Others take months. And often, the growth isn’t visible in the artwork at all. It’s in the artist who made it. That’s what matters in my classroom.

The open studio model is about building systems of trust, reflection, and artistic thinking that honor the creative journey. Whether my students take the step-by-step route, the exploratory leap, or the mosaic-style experimentation, they are all artists—navigating their own paths with purpose.

So if you’re an art educator, parent, or student curious about how to build meaningful artistic experiences, I invite you to explore the three guides below. Each one is a tool I use to celebrate voice, process, and possibility.

🔗 Guide 1: Developing an Artwork – Step by Step

🔗 Guide 2: Balancing Technical Skill and Conceptual Depth

🔗 Guide 3: Mastering Composition & Visual Impact

Let’s keep making space for students to explore the world through art, and more importantly, to explore themselves.

Ms. Mila