I recently shared in an interview on Akimbo, that “I believe in the importance of art and creativity to improve our daily lives and our understanding of the world and each other. I truly see artists and creatives as critical to the future of humanity and the world.” I believe that our work as artists and creatives is impactful and has influence!
Let's first look at the impact of our creative work. Consider that impact is defined as having a strong and direct effect on someone or something. Impact typically happens suddenly in a specific moment. For example, whenever our creative work resonates - with ourselves or someone else - that is a moment of impact. When I consider impact in relation to our work as creatives, I consider it from three angles.
The impact of engaging in creative work on ourselves as creative professionals.
We artists and creatives experience the impact of our work in moments of creating and sharing our creations. You may have experienced the direct impact of your work in such a moment as a sense of satisfaction, connection or being of service. For many creatives, the act of creating has a positive impact on our day-to-day mental health and happiness. Our creative process can help us work through personal challenges and experiences or make sense of the complex issues and our world in general.
2. Factors that impact our ability to be creative and do our work as artists and creatives.
Another way to look at impact in relation to our work as creative professionals is to consider factors that impact our creativity, focus and productivity. A big part of my work as a coach is supporting my clients to increase their awareness of these factors and build practices of paying attention to and taking action to address where they need to make changes. Last year, I wrote a whole article about how small changes to our habits, routines and pace can have a big impact for artists and creatives.
The impact of our work as artists and creatives on others - our audience, clients and peers.
Apart from ourselves, as creative professionals we must also consider our clients or audiences. The impact of our work on them is in how they experience it or connect with it. How it directly affects them - or not. The impact may be a sense of awe and appreciation for the sheer beauty of our work as an art object, piece of music or architecture, cinematography or written work as examples. It can also be the impact of providing entertainment or a much needed moment of escape from day-to-day life. Sometimes the impact of our creative work for an audience or client may be a new sense of understanding, awareness, belonging or perspective.
I read recently that” influence is the impact that keeps on impacting” (Mark Goulston, co-founder Michaelangelo Mindset, Source: Quora). Influence involves changing someone or something. Some creatives very deliberately dedicate their lives and work to influencing positive change in the world. I can share numerous examples and you might be a creative seeking to have this kind of influence yourself. An example close to my heart is the 600+ artists involved with Workman Arts, an arts and mental health organization that I spent several years of my career working for. Workman Arts and these artists are “dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of mental health and addiction issues through peer-to-peer arts education, multidisciplinary arts presentations and performances and partnerships with the broader arts community”. Over the course of decades, they’ve worked hard to change how we understand and talk about mental health and addictions in our society. I can also think of numerous artists in my coaching practice whose individual or collaborative creations and bodies of work are dedicated to influencing positive change through community building, educational initiatives or advocacy.. They consistently, persistently create work towards specific issues or causes that they have experience with or are passionate about.
I think that it’s important to also make note of the influence that making art and being creative has on ourselves as artists and creatives. On a personal level, I recognize that over the course of my career, changes in the focus and nature of my creative work have changed how I think of myself and identify as a creative professional. Our work as artists and creatives has a powerful influence on our sense of purpose and identity.
As the year is drawing to a close, I hope you will take some time to reflect on the concepts of impact and influence in relation to your work as a creative professional.
Image Credit: Cylla Von Tiedemann
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