Art For Social Change

    I am continually amazed by the creativity, both latent and active, that is found everywhere as long as one chooses to see it. For the last couple of weeks, I have been struggling to get my creative gears moving. Working on my thesis has me succumbing to a certain kind of tunnel vision that makes it difficult to give other things outside of it the worthwhile thought. Many days are spent as a series of quick glances and hurried movements. Having this type of mindset gives the illusion of productivity towards a certain direction but as I lie in bed each night, I can't help but feel the need to grieve the lost opportunities for deeper engagement that I had to ignore throughout the day. This mindset is also frustrating because when I have to work on things outside of my thesis, I have this feeling of "let's get this over with so I can get back to work" which is upsetting because this is cool stuff and I shouldn't be so dismissive of it. This "let's get this over with" mindset is limiting and I can feel its effects. When trying to come up with ideas for my final projects, I feel as though anything I come up with is insufficent and half-baked.

    What I really needed to do is relax and take a step back. Stop focusing on myself and open up to the world and observe what is around me. I was given the opportunity to do this in class with the group discussions about our projects. I almost felt like I hardly had anything to say at the beginning so I just started listing all of my half-baked ideas. My classmates listened to me intently and what they had to offer in return was extremely helpful. They were able to give me the outside perspective that really put it all together. Suddenly, ideas begin to fall into place and I felt much better about the direction of the project.

    For me, this highlighted the social element of creativity. Creativity is not something that is solely in the individual. Its something bigger, more expansive. It turns something from self-obsessed to wide-reaching. We need one another to collaborate in creative pursuits because that is how we can perpetuate growth and problem solving. When it comes to creative minds, the more the merrier. The quote from Maxine Green at the beginning of the Wakins and Shulman reading resonated with me when thinking about the social element of creativity: 

"If the significance of the arts for growth and inventiveness and problem solving is recognized at last, a desperate stasis may be overcome and hopes may be raised, the hopes of felt possibility. ... Art offers life; it offers hope; it offers the prospect of discovery; it offers light."

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