SUSAN GOETZ ZWIRN ROBIN VANDE ZANDE Differences between Art and Design Education—or Differences in Conceptions of Creativity? ABSTRACT The principles and techniques of design education have begun to influence art educa- tion in the United States, but their effect so far has been modest, primarily because of a gaping divide in beliefs about creativity and how to stimulate it. With K–12 art educa- tion on the chopping block of a culture awash with budget cuts and testing fever, this is a particularly a significant time to examine these disparate conceptions. The argument here is that the division that exists today between pre-K–12 art education and design education in the United States is not justified and ignores historical perspective. After describing and comparing the two approaches, we examine how conceptions of creativity in the visual arts may have led to this artificial separation of similar disciplines. Because educators in many countries grapple with defining and implementing creative art educa- tion curricula, this article will consider international perspectives that offer insights for American art educators. Keywords: design, creativity, arts, education, innovation. Recently there has been a growing effort in American art education to incorporate the emerging field of design education. Indeed, the May 2015 convention of the National Art Education Association (NAEA) was titled “The Art of Design: Form, Function, and the Future of Visual Arts Education,” and in a convention preview article in the association’s newsletter, NAEA president Dennis Inhulsen encouraged the melding of the two disci- plines. “It’s been said,” he wrote, “that artists ask questions and designers answer them. Or is it the other way around?” (Inhulsen, 2015). To explain what it means to integrate the two fields, we should be clear about what we mean by art education and design education. In traditional pre-K–12 art classes, students primarily learn the fine arts of drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, photography, and, more recently, computer art. The purposes of these art forms are generally related to aesthetics and expression. As Eisner (2002, p. xii) states, the arts are about “the expression and communication of dis- tinctive forms of meaning...and the ability to undergo forms of experience that are at once moving and touching...experiences that are treasured for their intrinsic value.” He continues, “the arts help us discover the contours of our emotional selves” (p. 11). In design education, a more recent approach championed by a relatively small group of American art educators, teachers focus on everyday objects that bridge function and aesthetics. Students in design education master the compositional elements and principles 1 The Journal of Creative Behavior, Vol. 0, Iss. 0, pp. 1–15 © 2015 by the Creative Education Foundation, Inc. Ó DOI: 10.1002/jocb.98