Symposium: Elliot Eisner's The Arts and the Creation of Mind

The Arts and the Creation of Mind: Eisner's Contributions to the Arts in Education

In the last four years at least three books in arts education have dealt with the subject of cognition in relation to the arts. I refer to Charles Dorn’s Mind in Art, my book Art and Cognition, and Elliot Eisner’s The Arts and the Creation of Mind, with the publication of the latter providing the occasion for this article. Each of these texts makes its case for the arts in education on somewhat similar grounds. All three share the view that the creation and understanding of works of art, though endowed with feeling and emotion, are nevertheless cognitive endeavors. But why have so many books appeared on the topic of cognition at this time? To answer this question it becomes necessary to describe the changes in our understanding of cognition and the problems these have created for the arts in education.


Arthur Efland
Professor Emeritus, Department of Art Education
The Ohio State University