Is creativity the heart of a healthy community?
community. noun.
a unified body of individuals, such as a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society
We have a natural urge to find our people. People who make us feel seen, understood - that we belong. The formation of communities is instinctual and tied to our survival as a species, and there are plenty of benefits to them. The formation of communities has a long history, tracing back 300,000 years. They provide safety, security, support, and shared identity.
We celebrate community as something positive. But they also have a drawback.
At some point, communities stop being supportive spaces and start becoming the catalyst for disparity and inequality. The more ingrained we become within a particular group that functions around siloed beliefs, the more we begin to develop an Us vs Them mindset.
We all do it to some degree. Whether it’s because of a mutual opinion or a shared experience, it often happens without us even realising. It’s not always harmful, but it can be.
Cliques, factions, friendship groups, whatever you want to call them, as a community grows, it’s almost inevitable that people within will polarise and disconnect from each other because of their shared views, beliefs or politics. As easily as we came together, we fall apart and form new communities.
Those divides can easily become isolating and polarising because they encourage prejudice and ‘outsider’ thinking. At some point, these groups stop functioning as the communities that kept us safe and understood, and start operating as organisations that isolate and persecute.
How do we stop that from happening? How do we bridge the gaps between groups that feel misaligned?
The role of creativity in community
Creative arts are proven to help facilitate social interactions between community groups that otherwise wouldn’t necessarily cross paths or interact with one another. According to British Future’s 2024 Creating Connections report, 47% of people who take part in creative activities said it helped them to meet people from different backgrounds.
It happens because of what creativity asks you to do.
In my own writing workshops, I always make time for participants to share their ideas and their writing. Creativity thrives in community, and that's because of the perspectives we gain through sharing our art. By talking about how we've individually interpreted a writing prompt, we show others how we think, how we feel, and how we're conditioned without having to make any political or controversial statements. It creates an opportunity for us to learn how others interpret information, how they view the world, and in turn it opens an opportunity for dialogue between people who may never have interacted outside of the space.
At a time when 8 in 10 people in the UK would say that Britain is divided, creating those spaces matters more than ever.
Creativity isn’t going to solve everything - it’s not going to fix the deep structural problems that drive communities apart. But at least it can facilitate the beginning of a dialogue. It can provide a safe space for people who might never otherwise share a connection to find common ground.
There’s a long history of marginalised communities using art to share their perspectives on the world and make their voices heard. When mainstream society has looked the other way, art, writing, music and performance have been the tools people reach for to tell their stories, assert their humanity, and find each other. That hasn't changed. If anything, in the current climate, it matters more than it ever did.
Making an impact in your community
The same British Future report I referenced earlier found that 80% of people say they’d like to take part in a creative activity, yet only 53% actually do. That’s a 27% gap between intention and action.
Imagine the difference it would make if that gap were to close, just a little. Imagine the conversations that would happen, the perspectives that would be shared, the connections that would be made between people who might never otherwise have been in the same room as one another. Just from more of us doing the thing we already said we wanted to do.
If you’ve been saying you’d like to do something creative, do it. Take the step. Book the class you’ve been thinking about. Attend the workshop that caught your eye. Go, be artsy, surrounded by other people, and help bring our communities together.
That’s what I hope to do.
