A Clearing in the Woods

An Existential Approach to Art in Education

Series: 

Author:
Janeke Wienk
This volume introduces a different approach to art education. It complements the often-used justifications for art’s role in education based on intrinsic (art for art’s sake) or instrumental (art makes you more competent) arguments by adding an existential perspective. Art’s natural connection to human existence, referred to as subjectification by educationalist Gert Biesta, can make a significant difference for both art lessons and education overall. The book illustrates this teaching approach through clarifying episodes from practice, brought into dialogue with Biesta’s theory, offering profound insights and inspiration. A must-read for art educators, teacher trainers, and (art) students.
Copyright Year:
2026
E-Book (PDF)
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-75317-4
Publication:
17 Mar 2026
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-75316-7
Publication:
16 Apr 2026
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Janeke Wienk is arts educator and researcher at ArtEZ University of the Arts in the Netherlands. Her research into the existential dimension of art in education brings teaching practice into dialogue with the theory of educationalist Gert Biesta. She published articles and chapters on this topic, including Art as humus layer in education in Speculative Pasts and Pedagogical Futures (InSEA, 2025)
Foreword
 Gert Biesta
Acknowledgements

Introduction
 1 Why Is the Existential Dimension of Art So Often Absent from Education Then?
 2 The Book’s Structure
 3 Find Your Own Way through the Book
 4 A Closing Thought

1 The Existential Dimension Explored
 1 First Introduction to the Existential Dimension
 2 Existential’s Etymology
 3 Existential Dimension
 4 The Existential Dimension of Art in Education
 5 Existentialism Is Humanism: Reading Heidegger and Sartre
 6 First Encounter with a Clearing
 7 Song Is Existence
 8 Existence Precedes Essence
 9 The Existential Dimension in Gert Biesta’s Work
 10 Pedagogy and Phenomenology as Starting Point
 11 Turn towards the World
 12 The Shift from Existential to Instrumental Orientation and Back Again
 13 Being Human Is Being Subject
 14 Subjectification Revisited
 15 My Re-Discovery of Teaching Art

2 How to Define Art Existentially and Educational
 1 Commonly Used Contexts to Define Art
 2 The Context of Art Disciplines
 3 Art in De Context of Art History and Science
 4 What about the Artist’s Intentions?
 5 Art Explained a Bit More In-Depth Educationally
 6 Exploring a Third Way: Existential Art Education
 7 Art in Education as Presentation
 8 Contemporary Art Education?
 9 Glimpses of the Existential in Teaching Art
 10 Art Education for Life
 11 Art Education as Humanisation
 12 Art Education as Education of the Soul
 13 How to Teach Art Existentially, Then?
 14 Episode: How Students Define Art Existentially
 15 The Rich Palette This Episode Shows
 16 The Middle Ground
 17 My Role as Teacher: Establishing a True Relation with Art

3 Enter a Poem and Stay There
 1 Into a Possible World or onto a Desirable World
 2 Engage with Human Rights
 3 Episode Reading Primo Levi
 4 Attentive Reading
 5 Primo Levi’s Four Imperatives
 6 Episode: Responding to Primo Levi’s Demand
 7 The Pedagogy Needed Not to Spoil This
 8 Other Artistic Responses
 9 Transforming Reading into Teaching
 10 Reframing the Primo Levi Project’s Significance
 11 Imagination into Eccentricity

4 In Conversation with a Portrait
 1 My First Encounter with Artwork Talking
 2 The Context of the Episode
 3 Start with an Invitation
 4 Episode: Reading the Conversation
 5 Episode: Responding to the Portrait
 6 How the Project Evolved over Time
 7 Episode: Reading in the National Portrait Gallery
 8 Your Companion?
 9 A Deeper Exploration of the Nature of Conversation and Its Value in Education
 10 Variations in Conversations
 11 Conversation or Dialogue?
 12 I and Thou
 13 Face to Face

5 Hear! How Art Calls the Art Teacher into Presence
 1 Framing the Question of Being Present
 2 The Art of Being Present
 3 Episode: The Struggle of Being Present as a Teacher
 4 The School System
 5 Two-Dimensional Art Education?
 6 Beyond Expression and Creativity
 7 Umfassung
 8 Episode: The Arrival of My ‘I’ and Your ‘I’
 9 Being Present in Poetry
 10 Looking at Both Episodes
 11 The Multiple Calls of Art
 12 How Teaching Art Mirrors Making Art
 13 Some Questions Remain Open

6 Looking for a Clearing in the Woods
 1 A Walk through the Woods
 2 Examining the (Eco)System in Greater Detail
 3 The Structure of the Woods
 4 A Professional Tree
 5 Language of Life
 6 The Forest of the Future
 7 To Support the Idea of a Clearing
 8 The Pedagogy Needed in the Clearing in the Woods
 9 The Clearing as Middle Ground
 10 What Can I Do with All This in My Classroom Tomorrow?
 11 Illustrations Showing Elephant- and Fox Trails towards the Clearing in the Woods
 12 A Brief Explanation of the Illustration at the Beginning of Each Chapter
 13 Before We Part Ways, One More Episode
 14 To Conclude

References
Art teachers, artist teachers, arts educators, those engaged with teacher education, art colleges, universities of the arts, (art) students, artists.
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