Beliefs about Creativity

"The notion that some people are simply born artistic—and that there is a profile that can help organizations identify them—is quite firmly entrenched. All the talk of genetic determination nowadays undoubtedly has a lot to do with that. But the idea that creativity is a predetermined personality trait probably appeals at a psychological level because it gives people an excuse for not innovating or initiating change themselves, reducing the problem of creativity to a recruitment challenge," writes Diane Coutu in the Harvard Business Review. She goes on to interview choreographer Twyla Tharp who says, "I don’t like using genetics as an excuse—'I can’t do this because I don’t have that particular genetic gift.' Get over yourself. The best creativity is the result of habit and hard work. And luck, of course."

In the article at the core of the Out of the Box Training "Nurturing Creativity in Children," museum educator Cat Lynch focuses on the how and why of nurturing creativity. She notes, "How we approach all of our programming for young children — from quick one-time visits to multi-year embedded programming — all comes back to four core beliefs we have about children:

• We believe children are strong, independent individuals capable of amazingly creative and complex thinking.
  
• We believe that children are highly receptive meaning makers and as such are sensitive to materials and environments.
  
• We believe open-ended, imaginative play is vital for young children. Along with this, the ways in which young children play are parallel to the ways in which contemporary artists engage with the world around them.
  
• We believe that to truly make an impact in the life of a child, we need to also support the adults in that child’s life."

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