These days, it can feel hard to feel creative. There’s so much being thrown at us, so much overwhelm and unease and downright disaster. How can you come up with new, effective ideas to inspire your community to do the work that needs to be done?
In January, our Co-Founder and Artistic Director Steve Lambert and I went to Jakarta to lead a workshop for 30 Greenpeace and Amnesty International staff from Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Philippines. These amazing activists are fighting to end police brutality, clear highly-polluted skies, help victims of deadly typhoons, and so much more.
They asked us to travel around the world to train them because they know they need to approach their work with more creativity and innovation. These activists are doing serious work, in places where activism is exceedingly difficult. But our days together were fun and energizing. Their feedback said it all:
Creativity is critical when times get tough. It’s in these times that we need new ways to break through and move people to action. So this week, we’re sharing tools to help spark your creativity. Read on to find them — and write back to share your own.
In fun and seriousness,
Rachel Gita Karp
Programs Director
Center for Artistic Activism
Some of the happy workshop participants.
Think you’re not creative? Think again! Creativity is a natural part of being a human, and so you’ve got it, no question. Maybe you’re not a Capital A Artist, but you bring creativity to so many things you do, be it how you arrange your home or what you decide to wear each day or how you play with pets and kiddos. I bet you didn’t think outfits and playtime could supercharge your activism, but it can.
Do our Uncovering Creativity exercise to identify your creative outlets and learn how you can apply them to your advocacy work.
Participants have fun getting serious about audience analysis.
A great way to start thinking creatively is to combine things that couldn’t possibly fit together — and then figure out how they do. Do this quick Creativity from Combination exercise, adapted from a legit creativity expert, with a coworker or collaborator to get you on the way to making things that are new, surprising, and impactful.
Participants act out scenarios to find new ways to activate audiences around climate change.
Sometimes it’s just about giving yourself permission to be creative. Something that helps a lot of the folks we work with feel more comfortable doing this is understanding the creative process. We break the creative process down into four steps:
- Observe
- Invent
- Critique
- Act
Read more about each step in our Unleashing Creative Campaigns toolkits.
How do YOU get your creativity going?
We’d love to hear your go-to exercise or framework that helps you create even in the hardest of circumstances. Write back and we’ll share our favorites!
Want help adding creativity to your social justice work?
If you work at an advocacy or arts organization and are looking to make your efforts more creative and impactful, you can hire us to lead a workshop like the one Steve and I led in Indonesia. Reach out to set it up here.
