by Stephanie Joynes

Created on: July 15, 2008

Creativity is not a dying art, but it is struggling to show itself. We are lucky to live in an age where we can be creative with our graphic design on computers, our paintbrushes on canvas, and our words on the page. We take our freedom of speech for granted, and all of the design that makes our lives easier around us. Now we are creating in a new and different way, and it's better to adjust now.

We need creativity to create new environmentally-friendly lifestyles. New technologies, architecture, and city planning are now necessary to create cities that can help rather than hurt our planet. While technology may seem uncreative, these new ideas change everything about what surrounds us, from our iPods to our interior design. We learn how to use solar panels and windmills while integrating them into our current architecture and landscape.

We need creativity to embrace the new social roles of men and women. With some men staying at home to raise children, a new line of "daddy" products emerged in the marketplace. With moms going to work, new products for active mommies were developed by "mompreneurs" to fill the void. Social roles and economies are changing, and with that change, business look at new ways to market their products.

We need creativity to find new ways to educate our children for a new global world. Not only are our children expected to develop their communities, they are now part of a global village which includes new languages, business models, and politics. We must teach new ways of thinking to approach these issues. We can't just test their skills, but rather open their minds to new ways of addressing problems and finding solutions.

Creativity in the age of Michelangelo has definitely changed. We no longer can spend decades working on a single painting. We don't have the luxury of taking our time with one single project for our entire lifetime. The idea that one person would focus on one masterpiece for his entire life is foreign to us. Our lifestyles are faster, the expectations are higher, and from this frantic energy is a new kind of creativity.

In many ways, certain art forms have suffered in this new age. Music, modern art, and some forms of architecture seem stoic, repetitive, disposable and bland. But during these less than stellar times, there becomes an underground movement for transition and change. Eventually this change evolves into our mainstream lifestyle, and although we may not classify it as a traditional creativity, this new way of expressing ourselves develops into a new art.

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