Creativity: Why It Matters
()
About this ebook
Creativity enables us to fulfil our human potential and to make positive changes to the world around us.
Creativity drives innovation across the arts, technology, science and engineering.
Creativity boosts our economy, empowers our communities, enhances our education system and enriches our everyday lives.
Creativity is the catalyst that will enable the next generation to invent tomorrow.
Darren Henley
Darren Henley OBE is chief executive of Arts Council England. His two independent government reviews into music and cultural education resulted in England's first National Plan for Music Education, new networks of Music Education Hubs, Cultural Education Partnerships and Heritage Schools, the Museums and Schools programme, the BFI Film Academy and the National Youth Dance Company. Before joining the Arts Council, he led Classic FM for fifteen years. He holds degrees in politics from the University of Hull, in management from the University of South Wales and in history of art from the University of Buckingham. A recipient of the British Academy President's Medal for his contributions to music education, music research and the arts, his books include The Virtuous Circle: Why Creativity and Cultural Education Count and The Arts Dividend: Why Investment in Culture Pays
Read more from Darren Henley
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Classical Music: But Were Too Afraid to Ask Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ultimate Classic FM Hall of Fame: Greatest Classical Music of All Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings50 Moments That Rocked the Classical Music World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Classical Music Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Charting the Classics: Classical Music in Diagrams Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClassic Ephemera: A Musical Miscellany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Classic FM Concise Hall of Fame Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Classic FM Quiz Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Classic FM Handy Guides: The Orchestra Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Arts Dividend Revisited: Why Investment in Culture Pays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Creativity
Related ebooks
Tracing Invisible Lines: An Experiment in Mystoriography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTHE JUSTICE DIARY: AN INQUIRY INTO JUSTICE IN AMERICA Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mystic Scroll Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRise & Resist: How to Change the World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Alignment Strategy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnother Politics: Talking across Today's Transformative Movements Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Social Equations: The STEM Professional's User Guide to Building Positive Relationships Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIntention Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrisoners of Myth: The Leadership of the Tennessee Valley Authority, 1933-1990 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCross-Cultural Design for Healthy Ageing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWork Like Your Dog (Review and Analysis of Weinstein and Barber's Book) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrapped in a Vice: The Consequences of Confinement for Young People Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsProject Love: What legacy do you want to leave? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAccidental Immigrants and the Search for Home: Women, Cultural Identity, and Community Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShare This!: How You Will Change the World with Social Networking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Political Solidarity Economy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCulture and Redemption: Religion, the Secular, and American Literature Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Brigus: Past Glory, Present Splendour Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Open Science: Sharing Knowledge in the Global Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNew Reason New Way: How My Skepticism Changed My Art Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFreedom from God: Restoring the Sense of Wonder, Harry Willson's Humanist Trilogy Book 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Stranger’S Broken Language: Poems for Timeless Seeker Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Overlooked Voices of Hurricane Katrina: The Resilience and Recovery of Mississippi Black Women Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe DAMN Plan: How To Find Freedom, Love, And Money In Your Business Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDrawing Life: Narratives and the Sense of Self Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Lives and Spatial Matters: Policing Blackness and Practicing Freedom in Suburban St. Louis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUsing Art Critically Sampler: Using Art Critically Sampler Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Joy Manifesto: Detach from the Corporate Mindset. Access Your Heart. Lead with Wisdom. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChange the World: Becoming a Revolutionary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSolace: Writing, Refuge, and LGBTQ Women of Color Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Art For You
Art Models 10: Photos for Figure Drawing, Painting, and Sculpting Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Designer's Guide to Color Combinations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Designer's Dictionary of Color Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anatomy for Fantasy Artists: An Essential Guide to Creating Action Figures & Fantastical Forms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lust Unearthed: Vintage Gay Graphics From the DuBek Collection Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Complete Papyrus of Ani Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Make Your Art No Matter What: Moving Beyond Creative Hurdles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Draw and Paint Anatomy, All New 2nd Edition: Creating Lifelike Humans and Realistic Animals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Picture This: How Pictures Work Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Living: The Classical Mannual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Botanical Drawing: A Step-By-Step Guide to Drawing Flowers, Vegetables, Fruit and Other Plant Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Drawing School: Fundamentals for the Beginner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Art 101: From Vincent van Gogh to Andy Warhol, Key People, Ideas, and Moments in the History of Art Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Comic Book Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Draw Like an Artist: 100 Flowers and Plants Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Find Your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Creative, Inc.: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Creativity
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Creativity - Darren Henley
You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
– MAYA ANGELOU
CONTENTS
A WORD ABOUT THIS BOOK
INTRODUCTION
1: CREATIVITY AND THE ECONOMY
2: CREATIVITY IN OUR COMMUNITIES
3: CREATIVITY IN OUR LIVES
4: CREATIVITY AND EDUCATION
NOTES
FURTHER READING
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A WORD ABOUT
THIS BOOK
Imagine a world without creativity.
Nothing new would happen; there would be no original ideas; no new inventions or advances in science and medicine; no new products or services; no new books, shows, music or art; no solutions to new problems.
We would be frozen in a hellish form of suspended animation where our only reference points were what had happened in the past and what was happening right now in the present. There would be no hope of any difference or change in the future.
It is shocking, then, that we so often take creativity for granted, consistently undervaluing the positive impact that it can have on our lives – both as individuals and as a society. This book is my attempt to explain why creativity matters to our economy, our communities and our everyday lives, and why it should be given much more emphasis in our education system.
It is not an official Arts Council England publication; these are my personal opinions, but it is inevitable that my views are constantly shaped by my experiences at the Arts Council. I see the power of creativity every day; it’s the catalytic ingredient that helps us to effect positive change in the world around us. We should do more to understand it, to talk about it, and to cherish the conditions that enable it to flourish. This is my case for creativity.
INTRODUCTION
Before dawn on a July morning in 2016, 3,200 people of all shapes and sizes assembled in the ancient port of Hull, stripped naked, painted themselves blue and paraded through the deserted city, sometimes lying down in the street like beached whales, sometimes posing in lines like frozen waves, and sometimes filling the city’s squares like an incoming flood. A man stood on a stepladder shouting at them and taking photographs. They were clearly having a good – if chilly – time; but there was a prevailing air of serious intent, and the whole thing had some kind of underlying plan.
What on earth were they doing? And what is the relationship between this weird, woad-coloured event and our hopes for a better and brighter future?
It was of course a work of art. One of those extravagances that serve no obvious purpose yet can be mesmerising to watch, leave a lasting mark on participants and set in train a series of far-reaching consequences.
This work of art was Sea of Hull, created by Spencer Tunick for the Ferens Art Gallery in the lead-up to Hull’s year as UK City of Culture in 2017. Using people like water, he marked the old hidden waterways of the port, recalling its past. The work had the liberating feeling of a tide released, and an urgent sense of a world that might yet come to pass should the sea ever reclaim Hull. But above all it was human; it had poignancy, defiance and hope.
Those who took part came from all walks of life and most had not had much to do with art of any kind before, never mind taken part in anything quite so extraordinary. Many have since talked about the sense of significance the project gave them. How powerful it felt to overcome their reservations, to share their vulnerability and their humanity and to be collectively part of something. To do something different; something absurd, beautiful, passionate and historic.
In a city that had spent decades not always getting the luckiest breaks, and where people were fed up of being told what to do and what to consume, those cold blue humans had begun to feel the revivifying power of creativity.
As I write, it’s still early days in Hull’s resurgence, but I can say with some certainty that Sea of Hull was the curtain-raiser to a hugely beneficial twelve months. To my mind, Hull’s year as UK City of Culture was an unmitigated, rip-roaring, awe-inspiring, life-enhancing success. It’s a city that I know and love, having lived there for three years as a student in the early 1990s.
Hull has changed for the better and it’s a real living, breathing case study of why creativity matters. Its year in the spotlight has managed to change perceptions about the city – locally, nationally and internationally. It has boosted the economy, attracting visitors, investment and jobs. It has broken down barriers between the city’s communities. And it has had a direct impact on individual citizens – with more than 95 per cent of Hull residents seeing or participating in one of the many events that took place during the year.¹
Like Sea of Hull, creativity flowed into people’s lives and changed them.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY CREATIVITY?
Creativity isn’t an easy concept