Art & Problem Solving…
Art and problem solving, I can’t imagine what one has to do with the other. I never thought that looking at art could help solve a problem. That is, until I had a conversation with Amy Herman, a recovering attorney, author, and art historian, amongst other things.
Remember when ‘Where’s Waldo’ was a thing? Or looking for where caricaturist Al Hirschfield hid the name of his daughter, Nina in his drawings? We were looking to solve a problem in a way. Maybe we were waging a bet to see who could find Waldo and Nina. There were times when I knew I couldn’t find either. But what if we took a step back and instead of knowing what we were looking for, we needed to find figure out what we didn’t see?
What if we are looking at a picture and haven’t been told what to look for? Amy Herman has taken this one step further. She is the founder of The Art of Perception. Amy teaches visual education to the FBI, Interpol, Scotland Yard, NATO, the State Department, and many other organizations. She is the author of ‘Fixed: How to Perfect the Fine Art of Problem Solving’, her newly published book.
Amy Herman uses works of art to sharpen observation, analysis and communication skills. She developed her Art of Perception seminar in 2000 to improve medical students’ observation and communication skills with their patients when she was the head of education at The Frick Collection in New York City. Amy subsequently adapted the program for a wide range of professionals and leads sessions internationally. The program has been featured in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, “The CBS Evening News” and Smithsonian Magazine, among others.