Creativity and the Charged Community: "The Hothouse Effect"

We tend to view creativity as the fruit of one gifted person's inspiration and dedication, but in fact, most of history's creative luminaries required a highly charged community of fellow-creatives to fully express their gifts. Whether ancient Athens, the Bauhaus, the U.S. jazz community, or a group of impassioned artists working in the same loft building, creative advances in all fields usually percolate within a group before their final individual expression.
This course will consider what makes one community more creative than others, and the role of the individual practitioner within it. We will also focus on creative tools and techniques for raising the level of creativity within a group, be it a classroom, urban area, or the entire globe. The impact of leadership and social organization upon creativity will be considered within the context of the impact we hope to make with our own work, and we will conclude with tracing the golden thread that connects the most internal perceptual processes with a creative action orientation in the world.
This is an on-line course that will include discussion threads, assignments, and significant participation by the professor. There will not be any specified time when you must be on-line (no "real-time" chat rooms). You can fit the work to your schedule, although there will be a fair amount of reading and writing involved. Training and support will be available to anyone new to on-line learning.

Instructor, barleeku@comcast.net

Assignments

Discussions

Discussion 1: Is there truly a "creative class"?