ART AND SOCIETY IN ABILITY FOR CREATIVITY

Artists have that unique ability to engage individuals in a very deep and personal way. Art can help us understand our humanity and the historical conditions we live in, but importantly draw us into thinking whether our reality needs to be changed.  There is no universally accepted definition of art. Art is a global activity which encompasses a host of disciplines. Different people have different levels and abilities of creativity, much like anything else that is a skill, and everyone can be creative if they want to be.

Creativity (or “creativeness”) is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations between existing ideas or concepts. Learning art and crafts helps us to be more creative in our daily lives too. Evidence from brain research is only one of many reasons education and engagement in fine arts is beneficial to the educational process. The arts develop neural systems that produce a broad spectrum of benefits ranging from fine motor skills to creativity and improved emotional balance. One must realize that these systems often take months and even years to fine-tune. From a scientific point of view, the products of creative thought (sometimes referred to as divergent thought) are usually considered to have both originality and appropriateness. Like other skills, creativity can be developed. Often people will think they aren’t creative because they are basing their opinion on a skill they don’t have, e.g. “I am a lousy painter.” But that doesn’t mean one can’t be creative as a painter even though I make horrid stuff. A lack of creativity is not what is limiting their output as a painter. Art is a field, where one can be highly creative, for creativity begins with a foundation of knowledge, learning a discipline, and mastering a way of thinking. Creativity, the ability to generate novel responses to problems and challenges, in a basic human ability. Some people are encouraged to express their creative ability more than others and may even get rewarded for doing so. Artists, in addition to expressing their creativity, also have traits like manual dexterity, good eye-hand coordination and other skills than enable them to more fully express their creative thoughts.

In western societies people seem to assign certain universal human abilities, like creativity, to only a subset of all people (usually artists, musicians and architects) making it more difficult for all members of society to see themselves as creative people. This is a Western myth that we must be aware of and work to overcome. The roots of Indian art and crafts are entrenched very deep and they are capable of influencing the generations passing by. The present status of craft in India owes much to the rich craft traditions of the past. Most of the crafts from the past continue to flourish due to their utilitarian nature, their availability to the common people, and popularity in domestic and foreign markets. Indian art and crafts is one of the most flourished and demanded one, because it is the most creative form of art.

There are, however, many ways of being creative. Each of us can be creative if we recognize our unique talents and develop mastery in those areas. That is no guarantee that the world will recognize us, but it does provide the soul satisfaction that comes with living a creative life. Thus, we can freely assert that creativity is found in all people and that creative talents can be increased with study.

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