THE MYTH OF MESS:
THINKING ABOUT MESSY VISUAL ARTS EXPERIENCES
BY DR GAI LINDSAY
Do you love messy art making with children?
When you see social media images of children
covered in paint do you cheer or cringe? Many will
have seen (or even made) foyer display posters
which feature a deliberately paint splattered outfit
surrounded by words such as engagement, respect
and creativity and urging families to embrace
messy play as an inevitable, fun-filled pathway
to exploration and creativity. Does art-making
that results in stains and splatters truly achieve
the creative and developmental outcomes these
display posters claim?
As a parent and early childhood practitioner
of many years and now as a university lecturer
responsible for training pre-service teachers, I
truly appreciate the much-contested fine line
between open-ended, free exploration with
materials and the point at which such exploration
has the potential to become destructive or even
disrespectful of the preferences and dispositions
of individual children and adults. Many early
childhood educators unquestioningly believe that
messy visual arts play is automatically a form
of creative expression. However, as reflective
educators, it is important that we ask questions
and challenge our assumptions about messy visual
arts experiences.
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For example:
Does mess-making always equal creativity?
Do I avoid planning arts experiences because
they might be hard to manage and clean-up?
Do my pedagogical choices and preferences
constrict or expand children’s visual arts
learning and development and creative
potential?
Do messy visual arts experiences challenge
notions of sustainable practice and use of
materials?
How can I respectfully consider the cultural
and personal preferences of parents in relation
to visual arts experiences that may be messy?
Do ALL children love messy play experiences
or do some children experience distress?
My PhD research, which explored the visual
arts beliefs and pedagogy of early childhood
educators in four Australian early childhood
centres, revealed a range of contradictory beliefs
about messy arts experiences. Several participants
valued messy play, while others questioned the
assumed links between visual arts mess-making
and creativity. Some paid lip service to the creative
www.ku.com.au
APRIL 2019