Creativity and class
(Nimue)
If you were a working class kid, or someone who went to an ordinary school, your sense of yourself as a potentially creative person has likely been impacted by this. I suspect it’s even more of an issue if you were part of a minority group and that there’s likely to be a big racial aspect to this too, but I don’t have personal experience of that.
If you aren’t privileged, you have to be good. Really good. Stunningly good without anyone even needing to teach you much. If you are stunningly good at something, there’s a chance that you might not be actively discouraged from doing the thing you are interested in. Otherwise you probably grew up with pointers about what you should do to get a ‘proper’ job. If you were lucky you were allowed to do something creative as a hobby, but many people don’t even get that.
This, I think, is a major contributor to the idea that a lot of this creative stuff is either a magical gift from the gods, or unavailable to you. This is not how it goes for rich kids. Rich kids get lessons, and tutoring and opportunities around things they express interest in. Most of them do not grow up hearing that it isn’t for them. It’s not a coincidence that an awful lot of people who do well in the creative industries came from well-off backgrounds. They do not have to be stunningly, naturally good in order to be given the slightest chances.
The myth of talent stops people from having a go. It encourages you to give up on yourself if you aren’t immediately brilliant at something. In reality, most people need time to learn, practice, study, develop and grow. That time has a far bigger impact on what you can do than any other consideration. If you aren’t allowed that time you will not find out what you might be capable of. The good news is that it’s never too late to start.
I was lucky. I had a grandmother who played the piano and the guitar and who sang and created art. I had a mother who had gone to dance classes growing up and wanted me to have those opportunities too. My father wrote. I grew up with plenty of loud and clear messages that I could not expect to do any of this professionally, but at least I could get to do it a bit. So I had a better start than average when it came to being creative, and the nerve to try anyway. I have done all kinds of jobs along the way, but I’ve managed to hold onto the creative threads.
Creativity is not a rare gift a few people have. Support to explore, study and create is however a much rarer thing and has everything to do with privilege and wealth. If you want to create, then trust yourself and give it whatever time you can afford. You did not miss out on the magic artist genes. There are no magic artist genes. If you want to create then you have all the core features a person needs to be creative. Everything else is learning and practice, opportunity and trusting yourself.
It’s very hard to make a living in the creative industries.That makes it difficult to work creatively without someone supporting you financially. That in turn means that being creative often depends on what resources you have. It’s difficult to work full time and significantly invest energy in creativity. If you’re ill or have caring duties on top of that, it’s nigh on impossible.
Creativity should be for everyone. Making things, expressing yourself and having room for ideas is intrinsically human stuff and it seems very wrong to me that the vast majority of people get little opportunity for that. Worse, so many people are convinced that they can’t create when the truth is that they just haven’t been given enough of a chance.
