Dean Jarvin on Talent Development in the Arts

The American Psychological Association recently published a book on The Psychology of High Performance, exploring how we can identify human potential and nurture it into talent, to which PCA’s Dean Linda Jarvin contributed a section on talent development in the arts.

Two chapters are devoted to drawing, which is viewed as an idea-expression and communication tool for many occupations and professions beyond the visual arts. The first one provides an up-to-date summary of existing research on the cognitive (e.g., visual memory), motivational, and perceptual (e.g., visual strength) factors that underlie talent development in drawing. The second one is an extensive interview with a gatekeeper in the field of drawing, arguing that drawing is a foundational skills for any artist or designer, a sentiment that is reflected in PCA’s curriculum structure.