Memorabilia by professional artists in the light of John Dewey’s aesthetic theory

a contribution to humanist pedagogies

Abstract

To highlight the relevance of the book Art as Experience, this article proposes to associate John Dewey’s aesthetic theory with the educational proposals of this same author and to present suggestions for activities capable of providing aesthetic experiences to students who are spectators of works of art. This initiative is justified because, due to the conditions of the school environment, the most that teachers can do is to provide students with the opportunity to interact with the arts only as spectators. The first section of the article characterizes what an aesthetic experience is and how it is obtained, based on Dewey’s theory, for whom the spectator – and not just the producer – of works of art can have significant experiences. In light of Dewey’s aesthetic theory, the second section examines testimonies of professional artists who report the most striking experiences they had as spectators of works of art, so striking that they can be classified as aesthetic experiences. The article concludes that, even as a spectator, a person can have aesthetic experiences, and that the report of such experiences is a relevant factor in the formation of one’s emotional dispositions towards art.