Environmental Social Sciences student Katie Hargrave-Smith launches a Creativity Campaign to highlight the enjoyment of letting go and releasing creativity.
Creativity comes in all shapes and forms. It can mean artistic creativity, like sculpting and painting, or it can be less obvious, like having the idea to tweak a recipe to make it even better. We show our creativity every day, even if we are not aware of it. However, it is also important to train your creativity. It acts like a muscle, the more you use it, the more it grows and strengthens. If you look at some famous artists’ first work, and then their professional work, you can see how they have grown. You might need to start out small, by learning a commonly used technique and mastering it, but as you get better, you’ll find that you have your own style, and it will start to become more prominent in your work. You’ll find by doing this, even your everyday life will improve; you’ll start to come up with more creative solutions to problems or maybe you’ll come up with more creative ideas for your work.
One of the few good things that has come out of this pandemic, of which the negative impacts cannot be minimised, is that people have started to embrace their creativity. You probably would have seen your socials filled with people trying new things, from jewellery making to embroidery. Independent handmade shops popped up all over my Instagram feed, meaning I was able to purchase all my Christmas gifts from independent artists, most of who were fellow university students. The Open University reported receiving a 622% increase in registration for creative subjects during the first lockdown. The world is waking up to the importance of creativity, and the joy it brings people to learn something new and take pride in their achievements.
I know that our School is filled with creative people with incredible hobbies outside of academia. This needs to be showcased, and so we want to run a ‘Creativity Campaign’. If you have tried a new hobby, or continued to work on an already existing one, we want to hear about it, and we want to post about it. If you have started up a business or if you have a professional social media, send it to us and let us promote it for you! Have you given paint-by-numbers a go? Have you ordered an embroidering starter kit? Have you bought clay to mould at home? Tell us! Send us pictures of your work, or better yet, send us videos of you showing and talking about your work!
And if you haven’t embraced creativity yet, hopefully seeing other’s work will inspire you to try something new.
If you would like to submit something, either email hssmarketing@kent.ac.uk or send us a message on Instagram @unikentSAC. If you’re nervous about sharing your work publicly, you can always ask it to be posted without your name, but we want you to be proud of what you’ve accomplished.