Being Creative And What Is A Creative Practitioner? October 3, 2011

What is a Creative Practitioner?

Creative Practitioner is a term particularly developed by Creative Partnerships.  It’s a term that took the notion of artists a step further – a way of describing people who in their professions exhibit and use creative behaviours.  This meant that Creative Practitioners weren’t exclusively from the arts sector (although largely were) as Creative Partnerships projects also appointed architects, landscape gardeners, education specialists, business owners and others, in order to open up the world of schools to greater opportunities and possibilities.

 A creative practitioner is more than being an artist who delivers an arts experience.  They are people who have wider skills, who can take their practice and work with others in similar or very different fields, in order to explore possibilities and support the achievement of an outcome utilising a range of creative behaviours.

What are Creative Behaviours?

Being creative is a vital and innate human quality – everyone has the potential to develop creative behaviours and skills if they are nurtured, facilitated and encouraged. It’s these creative behaviours that are increasingly essential to successful learning, living and working in the modern world.

Cre8us created some tips for spotting young people’s creative behaviours. You might see them…

Identifying and solving problems

…asking questions…being curious…testing out hunches…translating ideas into their own language…applying ideas and knowledge from one situation o another…

Exploring, developing and communicating new ideas, skills, knowledge and understandings

…experimenting with idas, materials and techniques…generating ideas…making connections…trying out an understanding with someone else…listening to discussion and extending ideas…learning new skills and knowledge…practising, refining and articulating learning…

Reflecting on learning

…talking about ac activity (process, feelings, value, purpose, implications)…questioning their own or others ideas…qualifying or exapanding on an idea…developing criteria for judging the value of work or ideas…

Working independently and collaboratively

…electing to concentrate / be apart from others to complete a task…taking initative to research / practise alone…recognising the value of team players and collective roles in planning and carrying out activities…listening, supporting, complementing and challenging each other…

Risk Taking

…being prepared to take a guess without a fully formed solution to a problem…voicing an opinion/idea…offering several different possible answers to the same question…attempting something outside of known comfort zone…setting self a challenge which will stretch known reach…