What is creativity anyway?
The Oxford English Dictionary says - “The use of imagination to create something”
Actually it was only the mini OED, I couldn’t find the big one and I didn’t want to pay online - skint artist - obvs. I also found the OED thesaurus which had some great synonyms for creative - imaginative, inventive, ingenious, resourceful - which all ring true, and give an accurate idea of what i think creativity is. But if I’m honest I was more interested in the word ‘cranny’ that was at the top of the page. It sounded old fashioned and expressive, and the idea of rummaging around in the nooks and crannies of our minds, in the furrows of our brows for creative inspiration felt like exactly what I want to generate from the people I work with.
Mining the nooks and crannies of our brains for inspiration…
In psychology, Creativity is defined as “the tendency to generate or recognise ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others”. (From Human Motivation, 3rd ed. by Robert E. Franken)
I’m hoping that when I offer a session - whether it’s an after school club, a party, or adult enrichment or team building - the materials I’ve chosen to offer, and the omissions I’ve intentionally made, go some way to generating ideas. Or perhaps they’ll spark a remembrance of a previous idea, of things tried but not succeeded that might go differently this time. Maybe some problems could be on their way to being solved by my sharing a new method, a technique learned along the way and passed on to make possibilities easier. I’m hoping to encourage some resourcefulness, some ingenuity…
Fruit and vegetables on an overhead projector create shadows as a starting point for collage - but no scissors were offered…
So, I did a bit of research. Not completely scientific, but I asked a group of freelance mums where they thought creativity could be found. Turns out they think it’s everywhere: Singing, imaginary games, boredom, nature, experimenting, in having a go, in less planning, less structure, in using things in unintended ways, but using real tools and whilst making some mess (mums usually have to notice the mess).
Children creating costumes from pieces of fabric - creativity at play.
Harvard Business Review talks about encouraging creativity in business and leadership by providing intellectual challenge, opening up to diverse perspectives, encouraging and enabling collaboration, allowing people to pursue their passions and by embracing inevitable failure. I don’t think it’s just folks in business who would benefit from being pointed in those directions, I want Chandos Atelier to provide those starting blocks too.
Oh and that inevitable failure, the concept of ‘mistakes’ is really important. In fact I think I’ll write the next blog post all about them. Because they are often what we need to show us our ideas from a different angle, to shine an imaginative light in another direction, perhaps to show us a different way.
It’s how to make sure that our children (and us) are not afraid of making them in the first place that we need to talk about further.
Mistakes?
And then this question jumps out - what is the point of all this creativity?
Dr Adam Rutherford, a science writer and broadcaster says in MYO magazine: “ I think it is literally impossible to be a scientist without being creative.”
“The practice of law is really about being a problem solver, and that often takes creativity” says lawyer Andy Helm
Nigella Lawson adds “Cooking is a supremely creative act.”
Creativity is most definitely NOT just for artists. Chefs and gardeners, designers of any kind, architects and plumbers, hairdressers, managers, technicians, craftspeople, builders, actors, the list is verging on endless, and the point I’m trying to make is that we could all do with the ability to imagine, to problem solve, to communicate, to create something.
Whichever hat we wear we can use a dollop of creativity…
So why not start young? Why not offer our children the opportunity to create freely, to invent and imagine. Why not give ourselves the chance to delve around in the nooks and crannies of our ideas and remembrances to see what comes out? Henri Matisse said that “creativity takes courage” and I believe that the younger we start the more courageous we can become. If our minds begin open, let’s not allow them to close. Let’s delve inside and make it normal to do so - who knows what inventions or answers we might find.