Creatives opening doors in the imagination for a better world
The Art and Energy Collective helps people take creative steps towards a brighter greener future.
Here is a video from the OU about why developing creative practice and skills is so important for helping us respond to the climate emergency.
What do you think?
There are many reasons to employ creative activities in your group development and team-building plans. Well-designed and easy-to-access creative engagement activities can increase and improve people’s physical and mental well-being.
These are just some examples of the benefits of creative activities organised using the Recovery College Cambridge CHIME Framework of key defining elements for well-being.
CHIME Framework
Connectedness:
Be attractive, including to those who find it hard to join in
Build a sense of shared experience and connectedness
Consider new perspectives and build empathy and understanding
Create time and space for better conversations
Help people access and share tacit knowledge
Hope and optimism:
Kindle a sense of wonder
Mark moments and celebrate good things
Increase energy and motivation
Be enjoyable, relaxing and stimulating
Set a positive or engaging tone
Identity:
Be levelling, helping to overcome habitual hierarchies and patterns.
Honouring and celebrate people’s uniqueness
Give voice and platform to those who are not usually heard and allowing non-verbal expression
Practice and improve self awareness and communication
Meaning:
Disrupt expectations, helping people refresh and renew perspectives
Focus attention, especially on topics that can be perceived as tricky or dull
Open doors in the imagination, allowing people to explore a topic more deeply
Make meaning and objects that help people share stories and memories
Empowerment:
Create space and time for contemplation
Use a wide range of senses and ways of being
Help us enter and be with the mysteries of the as-yet-unknown
Develop skills and learn new things
Create safe space for risk-taking, experimentation, playful practice and failure
Practice navigating the unknown to Ideate new steps and things to try
Ease people out of their comfort zone and into the learner’s mind.
What other benefits do you notice in creative experiences?