Three impulses of Creativity

During his keynote speech at the Music Education Matters 2016 conference, writer and broadcaster Richard Holloway spoke about what drives us to be creative and why it is so important in developing a sense of equity and fairness in society. He also commented on the position of music educators who are ideally placed to be developing creativity skills through teaching music.

In looking at creativity, it was suggested that there were three impulses existed:

1. Boredom

2. Finding meaning in our lives and expressing emotion

3. Play

The first point looks at how we replay events to ourselves and others, replicated in the development of narrative story, songs and visual arts. The second point is concerned with how creativity is used to enable us to cope with difficult circumstances. Richard Holloway cites early Blues music as an example of how people used their creativity to express themselves and cope with their intolerable living and working conditions. The final point is concerned with play and how creativity particularly in young children can help make meaning of their world. However, engaging with creative activities for the sheer joy it brings is certainly open to all ages.

Richard Holloway does suggest that the shift in industry over the past two hundred years in Scotland has had serious implications for our society and has led to an imbalance in our equity of opportunity.

Much like the article quoted from the World Economic Forum in this blog post, it is through the development of creativity that we can bring a sense of hope, optimism and skill into our society and develop a more fair and equitable society.

The full keynote speech can be viewed here.