Creativity
Dear Reader….
What does creativity mean to you?
Albert Einstein once said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun” and it’s one of my all-time favorite quotes. Creativity is the beautiful process of turning your imaginative ideas into reality. Whilst growing up I struggled with the concept of creativity, and what it meant. I couldn’t understand why all I wanted to do was spend all of my time in the art room at school, surrounded by paint, textiles and attached to my camera. In the Academic world creativity often seems to get forgotten. I know from my school years that what was seen to be an academic subject such as Mathematics and English language was considered to be more valuable than the arts. I was never exceptional when it came to exam results and always fell into the average category, whilst my friends gained the A’s and the A*’s. I couldn’t understand why that wasn’t me, I tried just as hard, so why wasn’t I gaining the high grades?
It took one enthusiastic art teacher to make me realize why; I was encouraged to attend an art class after school. It just so happened that the class was doing Life drawing. I was terrified – I had never drawn a person properly in my life! As soon as I started to draw, I was taken over with excitement and joy, I didn’t want to leave. He sat with me as I drew and at the end he said, “that wasn’t as bad as you thought was it? That’s a piece of art, make sure you keep that”. From this one experience I knew what creativity was, I knew it was a big part of me.
I recently came across an article in the Telegraph called ‘Ignore creative subjects at your peril’, by Anne Carlisle where she comments, “studying a creative subject means you’ll develop the skills required to join a sector that’s in great shape and providing more job opportunities than ever before”. Anne also talks about the stigma behind creative subjects when creative arts or creative industries are mentioned, not many people tend to think of areas such as advertising, film production or product design.
Growing up it’s so important that creativity is encouraged within children, it allows children to develop individuality, confidence and personality. I love a quote by Isadora Duncan a great dancer of the 20th century who wondered how many parents realise that by the education they are giving their children, they are only driving them into the common place and depriving them of the chance of doing something original.
Sarah Mower a member of the British Fashion Council and a Vogue critic is a great example of a professional creative fighting for creative subjects within the education system. A recent example of this is how Art History has been removed from A level choice. Sarah explained that the definition of Art History as being seen as a soft subject is ludicrous and misunderstands the subject, which is important to the economy, culture and well-being of our country.
Creativity is different within everyone, it’s what you want it to be. As a society we should get over the idea that creativity is innate and that only the very talented should pursue it as a career, we should cultivate creativity in every child, whether it’s in fashion, photography, design, or any form of art. It’s so important that all creative people out there hold on to that spark of creativity inside and let it take over; allow it to give you the confidence to explore your dreams and ambitions.
Yours sincerely April Howie