Rethinking the Creativity Argument

It's been a decade or more since our sector embarked on a sea change in our attempt to better position the arts in the public discourse by embracing the wider concept of "creativity". The tipping point was probably Richard Florida's publication of The Rise of the Creative Class. We rushed to embrace the idea that creativity was the new currency of an information world—an asset that was, and would continue to be, critically essential to growing economies in an increasingly competitive marketplace, and that the arts were at the core of creativity. We did this I think in part because we saw it as a way to expand the appreciation for the value of the arts.

Creativity lent itself to an umbrella concept that we saw as inclusive of more than just the "arts" (at least as the "arts" are perceived) and we saw that as a way to more easily and more convincingly make the case that the arts had value to a civic society. It was really the first open door for us in some time, and we 'ran' through it.