Creativity

Creativity: It isn’t just for art class (Part 1)

How many times have you admired a stunning centerpiece or a Pinterest-worthy birthday cake and thought, “Oh, that person’s so creative”? And maybe two seconds later, “Too bad I’m not that creative.”

Well, think again.

While the crafty folks who made those items might indeed have their own creative flair, it’s also worth considering that our definition of creativity is much too narrow.

Creativity redefined

Because it’s not just about picking up a paintbrush—or even composing a song or designing a building. Creative thinking is about looking at situations in a new way. Using a fresh perspective to meet a challenge. Or, as writer Hugh Howey says, “Seeing something that doesn’t exist and then making it so.”

We all have that ability. And we need to use it. The idea that creativity is the realm of a select few right-brainers has pretty much been debunked.

If your children have ever taken a Noggin Builders class, you know how important creativity is in our activities. Kids aren’t just putting pieces together to build a rocket. They need to contemplate what design might make the rocket shoot faster, straighter, farther. If the first approach doesn’t work, they strive to come up with alternate solutions.

Creative solutions are all around us

Computers may be performing more and more rote tasks for us, but they lack the secret “C” sauce.

Creativity is what’s solving some of society’s toughest problems, which is why it’s one of the top three critical skills in the job market of today and tomorrow, according to a recent World Economic Forum Future of Jobs report. (Numbers one and two are complex problem-solving and critical thinking.)

Just a few real-world examples of creative problem-solving turned loose:

• Spare organ, anyone? The need for healthy body parts vastly exceeds available donors. In recent years, researchers have figured out how to grow new organs using patients’ own body tissue.
• Distressed by the millions of tons of plastic polluting the oceans, Dutch inventor Boyan Slat founded the Ocean Cleanup Project. The project keeps learning from its successes and failures and then develops new strategies—most recently, intercepting garbage flowing into the ocean from rivers.
• Bounce Children’s Foundation saw the toll that chronic childhood illness puts on entire families. So they created a series of free, targeted programs that help patients, parents and siblings get the help and resources they need—and won a 2019 Chicago Innovation Award.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be Boyan Slat or Leonardo DaVinci to develop and exercise your own creative muscles. For more on that, check out our next post and gallery of postcard challenge creations made by young local designers.