There's an interesting post with reference to my recent Creativity and Wellbeing piece on Chris Fremantle's excellent and insightful blog here
He says: 'If the ambition for the arts to have a wider role in society is still on the table, then perhaps its time for artists to challenge the values that are being ascribed to creativity ...to help sharpen the distinction between creating art and being creative, rather than eliding this distinction in the process of attempting to secure greater economic relevance and power.'
This is a very fair point and a fair distinction to make, but it means that we, as creative writers, artists, and others, have to make our voices heard, otherwise, people will carry on presuming to define our roles for us. And here's an example:
http://www.creative-choices.co.uk/develop-your-career/article/be-a-creative-leader
This potentially useful site - which has some excellent case histories - also manages to include statements such as 'The future of the creative industries lies in its leaders.'
Might the whole future of those same creative industries not depend a bit more on the quality of the work? You can lead a horse to water, but if he refuses to drink, he'll keel over and you'll be stuffed.
We find small mention of passion, dedication, exploration, the pain and the joy, the incessant demands of the real creative impulse here. Instead, it's mostly quantified as some straightforward means to an economic end. Which can result in some useful practical advice, I'll not deny. But it's by no means the whole picture and we really have to do something to temper this approach while there's still time.
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