Photo: Prominent economist Justin Wolfers speaks to one of Alexandra Nica's economics classes (by Matteo Lokmic)

By Tom Snee

Did Jackson Pollock ever think about economics? Probably not, but Tippie College of Business economics students think about Jackson Pollock, thanks to an innovative teaching design by professor of instruction Alexandra Nica and the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art.

As a result of her Visual Thinking in Macroeconomics project, Nica won a contest to host prominent economist Justin Wolfers on April 8 to deliver guest lectures in three of her classes about the economic impact of AI. Wolfers, one of the country’s most prominent public economists, is professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and a fellow in the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Brookings Institute. He writes regularly for the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and engages widely in blogs and social media. 

Nica’s VisualThinking initiative was developed as part of the ArtInfuse Teaching Program that provides faculty with the guidance and tools to refresh their courses by integrating arts into their teaching, assignments, lessons, and other course components.

Nica’s project came to Wolfers’ attention through a contest sponsored by MacMillan Publishers, which publishes an economics textbook Wolfers writes with his partner, Betsey Stevenson. The contest asked economics faculty who use the textbook about the unique ways they help their students see that economics is everywhere. 

In her program, Nica brings more than 500 students enrolled in her Principles of Macroeconomics and Intermediate Macroeconomics classes to the Stanley Museum of Art to better understand visualization. Learning to visualize and interpret artistic images shows the value of “close looking,” she said, or slowing down to notice the details that help them make more sense of the whole. The visual thinking strategies employed both in the classroom and at the museum develops her students' critical thinking skills, which are crucial for any career path.

Interpreting macroeconomic data through complex graphs is crucial for economics students but can be a challenge, especially when they must link economic concepts to visuals. Nica knew that art was one tool that could help them slow down and look more closely. As a concert pianist, Nica said she knows how art helps with visualization because art rewards those who looks closely at the details. 

At the Stanley, docents help Nica’s students closely examine paintings by Joan Miro and Katja Farin, sculpture from Elizabeth Catlett, and pieces from the museum’s extensive collection of African art.

“They began to see things they didn’t expect and realized that close looking is as effective in finding meaning in Pollock’s abstract expressionist masterpiece ‘Mural’ as in a chart tracking US GDP,” said Nica. “They learn they can tease out meaning from economic data using an artist’s tools to see that things aren’t always as simple as they seem.”