A Collection of Children's Artworks as Imaginative Openings

This article describes preservice art education students who curated an exhibition for a university gallery, using description and analysis as aesthetic inquiry processes. The students curated an exhibition that placed 1977 Central and Latin American and contemporary children's artworks in dialogue with each other. They constructed themes that facilitated visual comparisons between contexts and narratives and generated questions to inspire imaginative thinking for viewers. The process was inspired by the Prospect School's descriptive review process, which emphasizes suspending judgment and resisting the urge to critique children's artworks, allowing for expanded inquiries (Carini, 2001). Curating is described as a form of aesthetic inquiry where students engage their imagination and develop critical thinking skills through collecting, analyzing, categorizing, constructing, and creating opportunities for viewers to experience children's artworks. The exhibition displays historical and contemporary children's artworks, likening to a dialogue, with the preservice art education students taking on the role of facilitators of the discussion. The questions they generated served as imaginative openings to perceive children as artists and producers of their own cultural images.