By Amber McWilliams
Originally published in 2015
“Creativity” has recently become a buzzword. Organisations trumpet their own creativity and cite creativity as desirable for potential employees. Creative and art-related subjects have a new cachet: they have moved from the periphery to the mainstream. Suddenly, creativity and creative thinking are seen as central to success.
The terms are not synonymous, despite similarities. Creativity is innate: people are born with the ability to imagine and construct, make and do. Pre-schools provide the evidence. Children, given tools and support, will create – painting, drawing, modelling, engineering with blocks. Their process is intrinsically motivated and unselfconscious. Creative learning is accepted practice in early childhood education.
Creative thinking takes that creativity a step further. Creativity is made self-aware, brought into adult consciousness where it can be examined and developed. Throughout organisations – from schools and tertiary institutions to corporations large and small – creative thinking is increasingly valued as a way to expand horizons, generate new ideas, and encourage engagement.
Visual art has long been accepted as creative. Learning the history and techniques of art and applying that knowledge to personal practice is pure creative thinking. Such skills, learned in art school and in other creative disciplines, are increasingly transferable and desirable in the wider world. ‘Making spaces’ – where adults can ‘make and do’ – are appearing at diverse kinds of institutions and workplaces. Creative play, art for art’s sake, doodling, daydreaming: call it what you will. Its importance is increasingly being acknowledged.
But creative thinking reaches beyond the studio. For instance, the University of Auckland offers a General Education course called “The Creative Process”. Available to students in all faculties, it investigates creativity from a range of angles, with experts in neuroscience lecturing alongside practicing creatives. The Creative Thinking Project, based at the University of Auckland, was established to deepen understanding of the creative process and promote creativity as central to an individual and community well-being and development. This very website offers video interviews with visual artists, writers, neuroscientists, educators and others on creative thinking and its influence.
Whatever your chosen path, celebrate your creativity, and enjoy a world of opportunities.
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