Aesthetic learning spaces

In 2013, the Stockholm School of Economics launched its Art Initiative, an institution-wide initiative to transform management education. It primarily engages students but also reaches many others, including the general public. Its ambitious learning objective is to enhance knowledge density on campus by complementing disciplinary knowledge with art&s;s aesthetic, sensory, and values-laden ways of understanding. It supports SSE&s;s mission to make its graduates FREE (Fact & science-based mindset, Reflective & self-aware, Empathetic & culturally literate, Entrepreneurial & responsible). The Art Initiative&s;s manifestations are diverse: an extensive permanent collection of contemporary art, a rotating collection of work by young artists, eight classrooms designed by leading artists, art tours, a literary book circle, regular art talks by artists and academics, creative workshops with student participation, and more. This chapter details the origins of the initiative and explains the learning strategies through which the Art Initiative functions: applied constructivism, holism, and experiential immersion, all of which acknowledge an element of unpredictability in the learning process.