Creativity Round Up N°2

Did you know creativity is a modern concept? It made its first appearance as an English noun in 1875! (You can read more about the 'invention of creativity' here.) 

In this second Creativity Round Up, I gather together a handful of inspiring examples of creativity and reflections on the creative process, in museums and beyond. 

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The Art Institute of Chicago recreates Van Gogh’s bedroom as an Airbnb rental to promote its exhibition Van Gogh's Bedrooms

Photograph: Airbnb

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Museum Hack shares five tips for combating museum anxiety creatively

Photograph: Museum Hack

Despite my reassurances to the contrary, [visitors] were worried they didn’t have enough education about art history; that they would do something wrong; that they wouldn’t understand or appreciate what they were viewing; that their personal beliefs would be challenged or offended; that they would feel inadequate and out of place. I began to realize that their reluctance to visit wasn’t based on time, cost, or lack of interest, but rather deeply-held anxieties about who belongs in a museum.

-Ashleigh Hibbins, “The Scary Museum: Who’s Afraid to Visit You?”

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Ira Glass talks about the creative process, and just how long it can take before you feel like you're making good work

Via Omeleto

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The Museo Atlantico, off the coast of Lanzarote, is Europe's first underwater museum

Photograph: Jason deCaires Taylor

British artist Jason deCaires Taylor created underwater artworks that are transformed as marine life gradually colonize them.

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Camilla Nelson writes about the invention of the concept of creativity in Cultural Studies Review

Creativity is increasingly cited as the key to social and economic change in the twenty-first century. It is also a very modern concept—making its first appearance as an English noun in 1875. This essay investigates the cultural construction of creativity in the context of the history of ideas. It understands creativity not as an innate human instinct or ability, but as an idea that emerges out of specific historical moments, shaped by the discourses of politics, science, commerce, and nation. It shifts the ground of analysis away from the naturalised models that have traditionally dominated the field of creative practice research, in order to highlight the historicity of a concept that is more commonly deemed to be without history.

-Abstract of the article

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