Art Traps

Clyde Gaw

One of the premises of TAB is that children are able to conceive ideas and express them within the specially designed learning centers of the TAB classroom. For students in K–12 settings, initiating creative action within the reality of their personal world—using their free will—is what makes TAB learning experience so unique. 

However, there are students whose natural capacity for creativity are blocked. When we observe this situation, strategic interventions are required.

In 2015, Nan Hathaway introduced a concept to TAB practitioners known as the “art trap.” As Diane Jaquith explains, “An art trap is a simple provocation, something unusual and unexpected set up in an area where students will happen upon it and choose to engage or not engage.” Many TAB teachers have expanded upon this concept to meet the needs of their students. 

The Sacred Square
One art trap we have developed for K–12 students is the “sacred square.” The experience begins when the teacher drops off a tray with a small amount of liquid tempera paint, a skinny brush, and a 5 x 9" (12.5 x 23 cm) cardboard square near the student. The acceptance rate to our invitation to paint on the square is excellent, about 90 percent. Sometimes the student becomes very competent at painting squares, and it becomes a favorite activity.

After enough painted squares accumulate, the modules can be exhibited by themselves, in combinations, as gridded murals, and more.

Through art traps, students who are psychologically blocked are able to engage in self-directed studio experiences and reclaim their capacity for creative self-expression.

Clyde Gaw has been a board member of Teaching for Artistic Behavior, Inc. since 2007. clyde@teachingforartisticbehavior.org