May 2023

HUMANITIES AND HUMAN FLOURISHING NEWSLETTER

Advancing the understanding, assessment, and cultivation of well-being by means of a deep and sustained collaboration between the arts, humanities, and social sciences

Creating Human Flourishing

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” – Mary Lou Cook

A common misconception about creativity, often perpetuated by pop culture, is that creativity goes hand in hand with “madness” or mental illness. If we consider creativity within the arts specifically, we often hear that artists must suffer for their art to produce high quality art. But the science of creativity suggests the opposite—creative engagement is often associated with positive outcomes, such as feeling positive emotions, experiencing autonomy, and flourishing more broadly!

Within positive psychology, creativity is viewed as a character strength that can contribute to a thriving life. Although we often think of creative luminaries, such as Georgia O’Keefe, Salman Rushdie, or Maya Angelou, it’s important to recognize that we are able to be creative in our day-to-day lives. Kaufman and Beghetto propose that we often employ creativity in our everyday lives, like when we come up with a new joke, tweak our favorite recipe, or participate in the newest TikTok dance challenge. Importantly, research suggests that these types of creative engagement are important for our flourishing.

Engaging with the arts can be a great way to exercise your creativity muscles. Producing a piece of art, music, or writing—even if just for yourself—will help you become immersed in the creative process. You’ll be able to let your imagination wander to come up with different ideas of what to create, then refine and develop your idea, and finally complete your work. Through this process, you may experience a variety of positive emotions, will perhaps enter into a flow state, and might well feel a sense of accomplishment when you look back at what you’ve made.

Consider moments of artistic creativity from your past. What medium did you use? How did the process feel? Was it swift or prolonged? Where did the idea start – and how did it evolve?

Within the next week, how can you be creative? How can you use a few moments to engage in a creative process that centers play, learning, curiosity, imagination, and expressiveness?

Creativity and the Arts in Research

A recent study by Stutesman and colleagues found that children who participate in theater classes show improvements in 21^st Century Skills, one of which is creativity.

Creativity and the Arts in Practice

The LA County Arts Education Collective offers a Creative Well-being initiative that centers healing-informed youth arts education and creative practice in tandem with well-being support for the adults who serve as teachers and mentors.

HHF News

HHF Project Director James O. Pawelski serves as the editor for the Humanities and Human Flourishing book series with Oxford University Press. This month, we will publish the sixth volume in the series:

Music and Human Flourishing edited by Anna Harwell Celenza

In case you missed them, previously published volumes in the series include:

Philosophy and Human Flourishing edited by John J. Stuhr
History and Human Flourishing edited by Darrin M. McMahon
Cinema, Media, and Human Flourishing edited by Timothy Corrigan
Literary Studies and Human Flourishing edited by James F. English and Heather Love
Theater and Human Flourishing edited by Harvey Young

Look out for the remaining books in this nine-volume series over the course of the next year.

Upcoming Events

The HHF Colloquium Series will resume at the start of the Fall 2023 semester. Until then, check out recordings of some of our previous colloquia as well as interviews with editors of the newly published HHF Series.

This newsletter was created by Katherine Cotter, Sarah Sidoti, and James Pawelski.

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