Creative Work and the Work of Creativity
Steven J Tepper, Associate Director of Vanderbilt's The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise & Public Policy, makes his point by first stating the obvious: today's world moves faster than ever before and this is, for many, resulting in increased stress and anxiety. Most likely we can all agree on that! And then he says that the secret to dealing with these symptoms is found in the nature of the creative spirit. Creatives are; less ideological, less authoritarian, less punitive, more flexible, more resilient, more adaptable. In short "we need to be creative in order to survive".
To support this statement he shares some statistics:
• Creative businesses added $931 billion to our GDP. That's 3 times the value of the construction business.
• 1500 CEO's of top businesses across the country say creativity is THE key skill they look for in new employees
• People send on average $350/month on entertainment
• 17% of college graduates want to be artists. That's equal to the number of students choosing medicine as their career. Compared to 3% wanting business degrees
• Creativity is a better predictor of a successful graduate than SAT scores
• The vast majority of graduates first choose the city they want to live in based on lifestyle they want and the cultural life of a city. They first move to their city of choice and only then look for work. This is the exact opposite of how things worked 15 years ago when most grads found a job then moved to where the job was.
• Science majors on average make $66,000/year upon graduation. Add an art degree and that salary jumps to $72,000.
Bottom line? CREATIVITY - employers want it, graduates want it and its actually necessary to survive!
We at Thriving Artist Alliance agree whole heartedly! And we can't help but wonder: Is creativity an evolutionary trait being weeded INTO our culture as a method encouraging "survival of the fittest"?
A special thanks to Coloradans for The Arts for sponsoring professor Tepper's trip to Denver! Want to learn more about The Curb Center? Visit www.vanderbilt.edu/curbcenter/
