What Creativity Means to the Arts Village

The programs of ARTS NC STATE are open to students of NC State regardless of their college or major. One of the many things that makes ARTS NC STATE so great is that it established an interactive community where students with a passion for the arts can reside in Turlington Hall — home of the Arts Village.

The village welcomes all students, granting them the opportunity to explore their creativity and share their artistic expression and appreciation through the engagement with others and their involvement in the campus arts events.

Creativity is a recurring topic that is subject to different definitions and meanings among different people. Residents of the Arts Village give their definition of creativity and share how it has effectively impacted their lives.

Fashion and Textile Design major, Anna Argentine, states that creativity is thinking out of the box and solving problems in an unconventional way to achieve exceptional and innovative solutions. She shared her experiences of Odyssey of the Mind (an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities) where she participated in a Competition of Creativity.

“It made me a better problem solver. It made me a critical and analytical thinker and a better designer. Generating multiple iterations requires me to come up with new ideas, especially when I’m turning old, unwanted clothes into something new, stylish, and functional.”

Camerian Williams, a psychology major with a double intent in biology, claims a different meaning of creativity. Williams found his simple pleasures in music and lyricism. He leisurely plays the piano and acoustic guitar, writes songs, and partakes in spoken word.

“Creativity is taking your inspirations and passions and putting them into words to achieve something. Creativity has been my guiding tool to the arts, allowing me to express myself in a way that not only touches me, but others as well.”

Williams is also the Executive Event Coordinator and Co-Artistic Chair for the Spoken Word Committee of S.P.E.A.K, a new student organization focused on teaching the art of spoken word and how to perform it well.

Although these students are absorbed in academic majors that are located on opposite ends of the spectrum, both share an immense adoration and sincere appreciation for the arts with similar definitions of creativity, even though their versions of creativity were derived from different approaches.

In essence, creativity is an inclusion of your own elemental uniqueness in a whole of something greater. This is what makes the Arts Village such a close-knit community and one of the best engaging, interactive communities that I have ever had the good fortune to be a part of. Each student shares and contributes a part of their creativity and uniqueness that becomes an integral component of the village.