Creativity

Creativity is the innate human capacity to invent or create useful and original objects, products, ideas or representations (Corazza 2016).

Creativity is the power house for change, providing us with a tool to work on problems by taking different approaches, find new solutions to known problems and draw connections between ideas that have never been considered before.

The World Economic Forum creates a list of 10 skills that professionals will need to tackle the job challenges of the future. In 2015, creativity was ranked 10th. By 2020 it had risen to 3rd place, and in 2025 the top 5 skills are all related to creativity.

If all humans have the capacity to create, we are all creative, although creativity is commonly associated with a quality present exclusively in children, artists or scientists. It is true that when we are children, our creativity is heightened, and we are able to imagine and develop ideas out of the ordinary. So then why do adults find it so hard to be creative? For several reasons: the fear of feeling judged for our ideas, of not fitting into the prevailing logical-analytical thinking style, and, above all, a lack of confidence in our creativity, since we so rarely exercise it.

The challenges and problems facing humanity today require more than academic knowledge and technical skills. Empathy, emotional intelligence, communication skills and especially creativity are fundamental in the search for sustainable answers and solutions.

The most creative people have a series of personality traits that set them apart from others: they are open to new, interesting, unconventional experiences (Feist, 1999; Ivcevic, 2007; Ivcevic & Mayer, HD 2009; King, Walter & Broyles, 1996; MacCrae, 1987). Creativity is applicable in all aspects of life, both in the professional and personal world, and encompasses a wide range of talents and skills. The four C model (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2007; Kaufman & Beghetto, 2009) proposes four categories of creativity.

The first of these categories is mini-c creativity. The creativity of childhood, which is perhaps less valued or praised, but which represents a personal type of imagination and intuition.

Little-c or everyday creativity refers to the products, ideas, inventions, or creations that, although we do them for ourselves, can have an impact and influence on our most immediate social circle, and above all, help us solve everyday problems.

The pro-c creativity of creators  is professional-level creativity. It refers to the creative product generated around the discipline of work or study, no matter how modest the contribution may be.

Finally, big-c or eminent creativity revolutionises a specific field of work or even mainstream culture in general, resulting in a lasting legacy through time and generations. This type of creativity is the one we associate with the great geniuses of history.

This model demonstrates how all human beings have the ability to be creative and how creativity is not just reserved for creative geniuses.

Despite the fact that, as mentioned previously, all human beings are creative, applying creativity is a choice. When deciding how to approach a problem, we all, consciously or unconsciously, make the decision to either follow the known path or embark on a new one and explore the benefits of change and originality, while also accepting the associated risks. During the creative process, our emotions can either benefit or hinder us, which is why it is important to be able to identify, manage and work with them as tools in the creative process.

There are several common steps in the creative process (Amabile, 1996; Wallas, 1926). The first step is to identify a problem or something that needs to be changed, gather information, generate ideas or solutions, seek the necessary resources to implement it, evaluate the outcome, and decide whether the solution is the most appropriate or if the problem needs to be reconsidered. It is not a linear, pre-programmed process; rather, each person will carry out their own process, which must always be based on change and experimentation.

The creative product is the final result of the creative process materialised in the form of ideas, products or projects, and it is essential when analysing and evaluating creativity, as without the final product, we would be talking about creativity as an unfulfilled dream. According to Plucker, Beghetto and Dow (2004), creative products must fulfil two characteristics: they must be original and appropriate, meaning they should propose something new or different from what already exists and adapt to the cultural and social needs of the moment.

The research we have carried out at Centro Botín in collaboration with Yale University among university and secondary school students shows that there are 3 types of attitudes towards life and work that are relevant to creativity. The first type would focus on blocking creativity due to the potential negative emotional consequences it may entail. The second type of attitude would be the one that postpones creative thinking until feeling complete personal security and mastery of the environment. Finally, the third type of attitude is to welcome creativity favourably. Working on projects while feeling open to creativity makes participants feel secure, important and useful. The studies conclude that when students adopt this attitude, they feel more motivated and willing to make more effort.

Centro Botín has been working in partnership with the Emotional Intelligence Center of Yale University since 2012 with the aim of generating a theoretical model to explain the role of emotions in the creative process and how the arts contribute to the development of creativity. All this knowledge is applied in the programme delivered by Centro Botín. The programme is designed for all ages and audiences: adults, families, young people, children, and babies and revolves around six arts: visual arts, music, literature, film, dance and theatre. The arts trigger emotions that, when managed properly, help us enhance the development of everyday and professional creativity among participants. Throughout the year, each type of audience has access to activities from each of the arts at different levels of depth and demand.

Furthermore, working in conjunction with Yale University, we have created, implemented and evaluated specific courses, workshops and activities to enhance creativity in adults, families, teenagers and children.

The creative process, like any area of human activity, is full of emotions: frustration when we are unable to find the answer to a problem, bewilderment in the face of the unknown, excitement in the face of new challenges, and euphoria upon achieving success. Here at Centro Botín, we argue that creative accomplishments are contingent upon three conditions: firstly, we must have a strong conviction of wanting to be creative and an open attitude to contemplate the world around us from different perspectives, remaining interested and receptive. We must also develop certain skills to deal with the emotions that inevitably accompany creative work. Finally, we must commit to acquiring and working with knowledge, as well as awakening our curiosity.

In contrast to the majority of research studies that analyse how different moods promote or hinder idea generation, at Centro Botín, as Zorana Ivcevic explains in this article, we investigate how different emotions can be regulated and utilised to foster creativity. We take an innovative approach to nurture the creative potential of people through the arts, harnessing the emotions that they produce.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to accurately identify one’s own emotions and those of others, and to use them to facilitate reflection and problem-solving. Distinguishing the nuances of emotions, their causes and their potential consequences, and managing them helps us guide our thoughts and actions (Mayer, Roberts & Barsade, 2008; Mayer & Salovey, 1997). Emotional intelligence skills can be taught, practised and developed so that we can all learn to deliberately use our emotions to support the creative process and:

• Manage to take control and set a course for our actions.
• Get a better handle on any unpleasant emotions that may arise.
• Cope with ambiguity.
• Turn emotions into sources of motivation.
• Connect our emotional state to appropriate tasks at that moment.

The theory of emotional intelligence argues that those who have the ability to harness their emotions and understand the value that different moods have in their performance are able to enhance their creative thinking and productivity (Salovey, Mayer & Caruso, 2002).

Embarking on a long process of problem-solving can be an emotional challenge. The degree of discomfort that a person is willing to endure varies from one person to another. Psychologists call this willingness to tolerate uncertainty “ambiguity tolerance” and consider it to be closely related to creativity (Helson & Pals, 2000; Lubart & Sternberg, 1995). Emotionally intelligent people tend to anticipate that emotional discomfort during the problem-solving process, and are better able to deal with these feelings. Emotional intelligence skills are powerful when it comes to turning emotions into motivation for creative activity.

Centro Botín and Yale University conduct research and lead a series of workshops, courses and activities aimed at children, teenagers, families and adults, using art as a tool to enhance emotional intelligence skills and creativity development. Within the four variables of emotional intelligence – perceiving emotions, understanding them, utilising them, and knowing how to regulate them –, the sessions focus especially on understanding, utilising and regulating emotions.

The course is supported by the visual arts, through the exhibitions at Centro Botín and works from the Fundación Botín collection. Techniques such as continuous observation, visualisation, changing perspective, associative thinking and reflection are used.

There are many connections between the arts, emotions and creativity, starting with the fact that works of art convey emotions and are themselves the result of a creative process that captures the artist’s emotions. As explained by Jessica D. Hoffmann and Zorana Ivcevic in this article, artistic creation can teach us skills such as creative thinking, problem-solving and the development of critical thinking. Emotions are fundamental to connect with art and help us perceive the world from another point of view, that of the artist.

In an article by Specker and Pelowski about how art affects our emotional life, which you can read here, the authors explain some of the most recent studies on artistic creation and emotions, such as the Mirror Model of Art (Tinio, 2013). This model suggests that artistic creation and perception have a mirroring effect on each other. Although the artist may not be physically present, they are present in their work, which serves as a tool for communication through which the artist and the observer share an emotional experience.

In 2018, Centro Botín began working with the Fundación IE to analyse the impact of our programme on visitors’ creative capacity and how this affects the economic, social and creative development of Cantabria.

The study confirms that creativity increases parallel to attendance and participation in exhibitions and cultural activities. Once the effect of the Centro Botín’s programme was known at a group level, the next step was to understand its impact on society and how it is sustained in the long term. The Creativity Indicator of Cantabria, developed in 2015, gives us insight into the creative sector in the region. It shows that creativity levels increased in the 2017 and 2019 measurements. This indicator will allow us to make future medium and long-term measurements to understand and monitor the fulfilment of Centro Botín’s mission.

Click here for the full article by Patricia Gabaldón, a researcher with IE University, presenting the Creativity Indicator of Cantabria.

In recent decades, the role of museums and art centres as instruments of social and cultural change has been researched and questioned. It has been shown that artistic activities are a very effective way to work on emotional intelligence and creativity, which is why art centres are places with great potential for innovation and empathy. Furthermore, these are spaces that generate a sense of psychological security, which promotes creative freedom.

As platforms for informal learning, museums and art centres are ideal civic spaces for visitors to imagine, explore and experience firsthand the rich heritage of humanity through creativity and emotions. In this article, Elif M. Gokcigdem talks about museums and art centres as spaces for empathy and creative imagination. She also gives five reasons why museums are extraordinary platforms for enhancing creativity:

• They reflect society.
• They tell stories that facilitate emotional connection with others.
• They offer experiential learning.
• They offer experiences of amazement and awe.

They are places of contemplation where you can slow down and have a more fulfilling experience.

Centro Botín’s programme is structured around six arts: visual arts, music, theatre, dance, literature and film. Each one of them excites and impacts us in different ways to work on various creative skills.

• The visual arts promote observation and introspection. They connect reason and emotion, feeling and thinking, intuition and perception, and increase creativity and personal well-being.
• Theatre allows us to communicate complex ideas, sparks curiosity and fosters empathy. It promotes teamwork, self-control, trust and communication skills.
• Dance allows us to communicate and express emotions without the need for words. It reduces stress and has been proven to facilitate the resolution of complex problems through movement.
• Music inspires and triggers deep emotions and fuels our imagination. It can be used to achieve specific psychological states.
• Literature helps us to be more empathetic, more tolerant of differences, and reinforces self-esteem and social intelligence.
• Cinema is an art of synthesis, the sum of all the arts. It is the natural space of imagination and fantasy. It promotes interconnections and enhances imagination and inventive capacity. It teaches us to look and helps us see the world from different points of view.

In addition, around the arts programme developed by Centro Botín in partnership with the Emotional Intelligence Centre at Yale University, we have designed, developed and evaluated four specific courses to promote the learning of emotional intelligence and creativity through the arts.

Each course is aimed at a specific audience: children, teenagers, adults, and families. Each course works on the four skills related to emotional intelligence:

1. Perceiving emotions in oneself and others by interpreting body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice.
2. Understanding the causes of emotions to differentiate and classify them accurately.
3. Using emotions to facilitate creative thinking.
4. Managing emotions appropriately by knowing and using the most useful strategies.

Likewise, of the three skills involved in the creative process, we mainly focus on the first two:

1. Problem identification, perceiving, detecting and developing opportunities for creativity.
2. Idea generation.
3. Assessment of ideas, analysing them according to their feasibility.

The course design is based on ‘spiral learning’, which involves repeating techniques to reinforce concepts over time. The strategy focuses on enhancing emotional intelligence and creativity, and one of its objectives is to change the participants’ creative attitude.

Click here to read the full article about Art Courses, emotions and creativity: a centre for art in the centre of everything.

To better understand the application, development, and analysis of the courses, let’s analyse the course for adults:

• Eight sessions in eight weeks.
• One 60-minute session per week.
• Two groups. One experimental and another control group.
• The impact is measured through a test taken before starting, one at the end, and another two months later.

Within the four variables of emotional intelligence – perceiving emotions, understanding them, utilising them, and knowing how to regulate them–, the sessions focus especially on understanding, utilising and regulating emotions.

Regarding the three variables of creativity; problem formulation, idea generation, and idea evaluation and implementation, the main focus is on problem formulation and idea generation.

The course is supported by the visual arts, by current exhibitions at Centro Botín and works from the Fundación Botín collection. Techniques such as continuous observation, visualisation, changing perspective, associative thinking and reflection are used. None of this is explained to the participants; it is simply practised and repeated until it becomes a habit.

Summary of the outcomes:

• The creative behaviour of the participating adults increased and remained significantly higher two months later.
• Regarding the formulation of problems, 21% of the participants acquired a greater ability to think and analyse problems from different perspectives, and two months later, this percentage increased to 69%.
• The participants’ ability to generate original ideas improved, with a 47% increase in the creative thinking test, and two months later, a 25% improvement was maintained.