Turner Prize winning artist Nnena Kalu, who has studio practice at ActionSpace in London, England. Discovery isn’t a deliverable. It’s not a thing to be handed over, translated, or explained in advance. It’s an event. It’s something you approach, hesitate at, and eventually step into. And importantly, it’s an event that only works - at a deep, lasting level - when the person who encounters it is also the author of that moment, even as the conditions of the environment

Artist Kaya Eccles and a facilitator working at Jump the Moon studio in Logan, Utah, USA Some experiences don’t have a shorthand.  Before preferences can be named, before decisions can be made, an experience has to be legible  - and not everything becomes legible through explanation. This is especially true in supported studio environments, where explanation can sometimes outpace recognition. I’ve seen this clearly in moments where an experience had to be entered before

Artist Linda Bell installing her work at the A New Direction, I Am Festival, in London 2022 Choice and decision are often used interchangeably, but they don’t always function in the same way. A choice can be made repeatedly without consequence. It can be habitual, automatic, even invisible. If a drawer holds six identical pairs of socks, reaching for the nearest pair each morning requires no interpretation, no reflection, and no deduction. The act is technically a choice,

Studio Incurve, Osaka, Japan. Creativity is often described as a path, a progression, a series of steps that lead toward something finished. But the actual lived experience of making - especially in supported studios and other long-term creative environments - is rarely linear. It behaves far more like a cauldron. Ideas enter from different angles. Experiences settle at different depths.  Influences mix, collide, and dissolve into one another. There is heat, there is time,

ActionSpace's Studio Voltaire, London, England Some environments teach without structuring themselves as classrooms. In supported studios, instruction certainly happens at times - a facilitating artist may show someone a process they want to learn, and formal guidance can appear when it’s useful - but much of the knowledge in these spaces moves through osmosis. It circulates through gestures, rhythms, attention, and proximity. People absorb what they need by being attuned t

Creativity Explored. San Francisco, California, USA. Most educational spaces compress time. Whether it’s a semester, a training period, or a curriculum designed in advance, the rhythm is the same: time is tightened so achievement can be demonstrated. Progress is measured by how efficiently someone moves from not knowing to knowing, guided by instructors who already know the destination. Supported studios are educational spaces in that people gain knowledge, and the know-how

The studio at Gateway Arts in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA A common conversation in the field of progressive art studios is about outcomes. Finished work. Visibility. Sales. Entrepreneurship. All of these play important roles in the life of a progressive art studio. They bring recognition, they strengthen opportunities, and they help sustain the creative ecosystems that artists rely on. But a creative practice is not defined only by what becomes visible. It is formed by

Progressive Art Studio Collective (PASC) artist Lauren Williams painting in the PASC Detroit studio. Detroit, MI, USA Every person is a filter, a living translator of experience into form. What we touch, see, and sense each day is information. What we make from it - through words, drawings, choices, decisions - is knowledge.  When that knowledge begins to shape how we relate to the world, when it deepens our awareness of connection, it becomes something else: wisdom. In

Charles Long working with Michael Triplett in the First Street Gallery Art Center studio. in Claremont, CA USA We tend to notice beginnings and endings. The first mark, the last decision, the moment something feels finished. But most of what shapes a creative practice, and a person, is found somewhere between. The middle is where the work breathes, where effort and uncertainty mix, and where we learn to stay long enough for something new to form. Mid-journey language help

Image: Curators Jennifer Gilbert, Paige Donovan, Mary T. Bevlock, and moderator Samantha Mitchell speaking about the Look Here project exhibitions. I’m in Philadelphia for the Look Here Symposium, having conversations with incredible people from progressive studio programs across the country. A theme that keeps surfacing is the facilitator’s role in constructing environments where the unknown can safely be encountered. This is at the heart of creativity itself and a topic

Artist Douglas Morales, left, works on a painting at ArtReach at the Arc in San Francisco Curiosity doesn’t begin with a question mark. It begins with attention. With a moment when something feels unfinished, when what’s in front of us invites a closer look. In the studio, curiosity isn’t about arriving at answers but about staying with the unknown long enough for something to reveal itself. A facilitator’s role is not to give direction, advice, or solutions, but to pass al

At work in the Institut Hartheim studios Art, Memory, and Connection Across Three Spaces In Alkoven, Upper Austria, Institut Hartheim...

Artists and staff at Cedars fine art studio. Ross, California, USA A thread that runs through much of my writing is the idea that...

Artists and staff of Project Onward In the heart of Chicago, Project Onward stands as a thriving example of how creativity can foster...

Studio Facilitator Stephen Teater helps Eva Kimjun, at Southside Unlimited  with a piece she is working on. Sacramento, CA, USA There’s...

Artists at work in one of the Créahm studios When we talk about the roots of the supported studio movement in Europe, one name comes up...

Artists at work at Crawford Supported Studios, Cork Ireland When someone learns to swim, we don’t begin with the breaststroke or...

Artists and staff at Art Outside the Lines. Columbus, Ohio, USA In the heart of Columbus, Ohio, Art Outside the Lines (AOTL)  offers a...

Artist Ernest Strickland with Facilitator Mehri Davis at Art Outside the Lines, Columbus, Ohio, USA Excitement is the emotional cousin...

Make Studio in Baltimore, Maryland, USA Since opening its doors in 2010, Make Studio  has established itself as a vital hub for...