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Katie Rose
from: Katie Rose
Category: Creativity

Why Creativity Loves Collaboration


Why Creativity Loves Collaboration

Over the last few months I’ve been involved in an organically wonderful collaboration - Croydon Creative Business Hub - and witnessing the magic that happens when creativity finds good company.  We’ve been having weekly meetings at Croydon’s central arts venue Matthews Yard and inviting local creatives to come and chat with us about their visions and challenges. As a result our first event has grown from a healthy soil of collaborative conversations and will take place on 29th May - Access All Areas - Practical Solutions for Creative Businesses - to which of course you’re all invited.

Experiencing this process with my wonderful collaborators (
Leena Sowambur - Positively Music, Rob Wilson Jnr - Fluid4Sight and Peter Coulston - RealMusik) has lead me to reflect on what happens when we collaborate and why it promotes creative growth.

Creativity Loves Company
One of the comments made frequently by creatives is how much they benefit from meeting each other in physical rather than virtual reality.  Many creative arts require essential periods of focused solitude - writing, composing, designing etc.  However without collaboration we can end up feeling shy, isolated, demotivated and disconnected. Whilst the process may be solitary, a creative product needs to be shared - to be taken off the shelf and be handled, touched, listened to, experienced, seen, tasted.  Most marketing drives are powered by this simple need to share with others - to find a creative companionship with readers, listeners, clients, fans.

Creativity Loves Connection
Creativity grows fast with connections - just as fruits, shoots and flowers grow from roots and branches.  In business speak this means building contacts and networks. Creative communities grow organically from the conversations, ideas, projects, referrals, shared resources and skillswops that thrive in the soil of collaboration.

Creativity Loves Caring
We all as human beings need affirmation, support, nurture - as do our creative visions, projects and businesses. Finding the right creative crew helps us to build confidence and a support system around our dreams.

Creativity Loves Challenge
The best creative collaborators challenge each other - lovingly and respectfully - to grow.  We need people on our team who keep us accountable and ask - how’s the book going? when’s the album coming out? have you contacted that VIP yet? when are you going to put your prices up?  There can also be challenging and chaotic periods in the best of collaborative relationships - which serve to refine our purpose and help us learn about ourselves and each other.

Creativity Loves Clarity
The creative process often involves taking risks, following hunches and being ready to follow the mysterious call of the muse into the unknown. Just like No Mans Land is defined by the Known that surrounds it, all of these numinous processes are grounded and supported by clear agreements, contracts, commitments and boundaries.  Just as my voice grows when I commit to singing everyday, my album grows when I commit to a clear collaboration with a Producer.

Creativity Loves Celebration
It’s so much more fun when there are friends to celebrate with us when the book has been published, the album has hit the top 10 on iTunes, the theatre piece has had a sell out tour or the exhibition has launched.  Creativity is incubated in periods of solitude and birthed into our communities and societies where it has an invaluable contribution to offer.  Collaboration offers us empowering choices and connections, enabling us to flourish as confident communicators. We become aware of the context within which our own work grows and are able to celebrate everyone’s creative contribution to our communities.


Wishing you a wonderful creative May

Tips for Creative Collaboration


* Grow slow - take time to grow organic relationships
*
Set clear agreements - and renegotiate as you go along
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Be accountable - commit to actioning ideas and support each other to follow through
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Care - affirm, uplift and celebrate each other

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