A manifesto for creativity from Curio Conference

Curio is a conference about curiosity, creativity and content that happened on 11th October 2018 as part of Brighton Digital Festival.

After a morning of inspiring, thought-provoking talks at Curio, we formed four workshop groups to take a more in-depth look at some themes and questions that had piqued our curiosity. The group I facilitated came up with a brilliant manifesto for nurturing creativity that I wanted to share.

The group came together with three questions in mind:

1. How can we have a thriving creative practice both inside and outside work?
2. Who is ‘creative’, and what is ‘a creative’?
3. How can we unlock creativity in other people (and ourselves?)

We talked about what we see as the main barriers to our own creativity, and the creativity of others, things like:

• Fear of judgement and perfectionism: worrying about whether what we’ve done is good enough and what other people will say about it.
• Lack of time, resource and stability: it’s harder to be creative when you don’t have the material things you need (A Room Of One’s Own and Three Guineas — Virginia Woolf got it in one).
• The tyranny of the blank page: starting from scratch and thinking about the magnitude of task ahead can be so intimidating that we don’t start.
• Self-image: whether or not you were good at art at school seems to loom large in many people’s perceptions of their creativity. This gets reinforced in many working environments where there’s a perception that creativity sits with a specific team.
• Questions about value: a sense you need to make money from or get approval for your creative work for it to be worthwhile.

In response, we came up with a manifesto for nurturing creativity in ourselves and others:

1. Everyone is creative.

End of.

2. The first draft is always shit.

Give yourself permission to fail. Don’t let your fear of judgement get in your way.

3. Set boundaries at the start.

Having parameters doesn’t strangle creativity, it gives you a foundation to build on and makes getting started less intimidating.

4. Just do it…

The process and the journey is just as important as the result.

5. … but do it for yourself.

Ask if you are satisfied by what you’re doing. That’s what matters.

6. Creativity isn’t a limited resource…

It’s not something you have a bottle of that you need to eke out, you have a replenishing well of it.

7. … it’s a muscle, so work it.

You need to build it up over time by:

• Feeding it with inspiration, curiosity, feedback and maybe even some healthy competition.
• Investing time in it every day, and maybe some money from time-to-time too.
• Nourishing it with rest, exercise and fresh air.

8. Creativity thrives on discipline AND chaos.

Having a routine, scheduling time for creative work, and cracking the whip when you’re not putting the time in is important. But so is chaos, serendipity, and chance. Find a balance between the two.

9. Listen to your instinct and follow it.

Practicing being more mindful and tuning into your instincts will keep you on the path that’s right for you.

10. Creativity is vital.

It’s a cathartic, positive force we should find a way of tapping into because it can give us so much satisfaction.

I know that I’m going to be keeping in view as a reminder for myself. I hope you find it useful too.