What Maxine Greene Taught Me About Art and Education

What Maxine Greene Taught Me About Art and Education

I first encountered Maxine Greene during my graduate studies in art and education. She wasn’t just a philosopher—she was a visionary who saw art as a way of being more fully human. Through her writing, especially Releasing the Imagination, I came to understand that education is not about the transmission of facts, but about liberation—about helping people see, feel, and imagine the world differently.

Greene believed that imagination allows us to envision what could be, not just what is. For her, art was not something to admire from a distance, but a means of becoming wide-awake to the world around us and within us.
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That philosophy became a cornerstone in the development of my own approach to teaching. As I took courses, I found myself asking deeper questions—not only about what I was creating, but why I was creating it. I realized that my work wasn’t just a technical result; it was a process of searching, questioning, and responding. In that process, I wasn’t just making art—I was discovering myself.

Art Class Should Be an Expedition, Not Just Instruction

Even now, I often think of Greene when I’m teaching in the art classroom. To me, art class should never be reduced to a fun pastime or a skills lesson. Instead, it should be a space where students see the world anew, reflect on their surroundings, and connect with others—locally and globally.
Art is not simply about learning how to draw; it's about learning how to feel, observe, imagine, and express. That’s what Greene called “wide-awakeness”—the state of being fully present, morally and emotionally aware.
When students begin to engage with their inner lives and with the broader world through creative practice, something transformative happens. Art becomes a language of empathy, and the classroom becomes a space of possibility.

The World We Hope For

Greene once said, “The arts are not luxuries. They are necessities.”
I believe this with all my heart. If we can create learning environments where students are invited to reflect, to feel deeply, to imagine justice and beauty—then we are building not only better classrooms but a better world.
Her philosophy still breathes through my teaching.
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Every day I ask myself:
“What does this class make possible?”
“Whose life might be changed by this hour of art?”
Those questions are where the journey begins. And that journey—that process of creating, connecting, and questioning—is, for me, what art truly is.

 * Maxine Greene (1917–2014) was a renowned American educational philosopher, writer, and advocate for the arts in education. She believed that imagination is essential to learning, and that education should awaken individuals to the world around them. Her work emphasized the role of aesthetic experience, social justice, and personal agency in transforming both individuals and society. As a long-time professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, she inspired generations of educators to see teaching not just as instruction, but as a moral and creative act. Greene argued that art enables us to perceive what might be, not just what is, and that education should help students become “wide-awake” to possibility, empathy, and change.