By Noah Scalin and Mica Scalin

 

When you think of creativity, what comes to mind? Is it an artist painting a picture or an author writing a book? Is it yourself? As siblings from a family of artists, we never questioned that we were creative, but when we started teaching creativity to the business world, we were shocked at how many people believed that they were not creative at all.

Even professional creatives, like us, can sometimes feel like we’ve used up our creative energy and worry that it may never return. In fact, that’s what drove Noah to start his yearlong Skull-A-Day art project back in 2007. That journey sent him down the path that led to the restructuring of his company, Another Limited Rebellion, into a consultancy focused on creative development. It’s also what led to our launching Creative Sprint from our Richmond home base.

Each day, for 30 days, the thousands of people who signed up for the Creative Sprint challenge received an assignment. Things like “make something that fits in the palm of your hand” and “break a rule” were meant to be completed in whatever time was available. The point was not to make perfected works of art, but to practice creative thinking every day for the month and have fun doing it. More importantly it showed people firsthand how creative practice can be hugely motivational and ultimately become a building block for positive change on a larger scale.

“I had no idea we had so many hidden talents in the office,” says Kristine Johnson, who participated in the project as part of a company-wide Columbia Gas of Virginia initiative. “Walking past the bulletin board where we posted our creative projects was so fun every day and we had a lot of great conversations about them. Also, there is a camaraderie among the participants, even after the challenge finished.”

While the challenge was open to anyone in the world, our passion for the local creative community led us to make a special effort to connect with our hometown. We partnered with business consultancy Floricane and Richmond Chamber of Commerce’s young professional group, HYPE, to kick off the month with an event at One South Realty in the Fan. It drew a diverse crowd representing Richmond’s creative and entrepreneurial communities. CPAs and real estate agents mingled with arts educators from VMFA and students from VCU and University of Richmond.

Julian Cook, who participated in the Sprint as part of his larger yearlong 365 Buddhas project, discovered firsthand how transformative the experience could be. “Daily creative work has changed making art from something I do in spare time to something that is as important a part of my daily life as eating. It has increased my confidence tenfold and shown me that I can accomplish a lot more in visual mediums than I ever thought possible.”

Along with individual participants, we also specifically reached out to a variety of local groups – from schools like Short Pump Middle to small businesses like Shoryuken Ramen and even larger businesses like Markel Corporation. We were thrilled by the variety of people and organizations that were enthusiastic about getting involved.

Earl J. Vallery, Jr., pastry chef at Whisk bakery, found out about Creative Sprint from a customer and knew he needed to participate. “I didn’t always finish on time and it wasn’t always a masterstroke, but it forced me to produce something every day and exercise those creative muscles while reminding me that the difference between artists and everyone else is all in the follow-through. The experience reminded me to keep an eye out for creative opportunities all around me.”

Wendy Umanoff of the Richmond-based Umanoff Design says about her Creative Sprint: “I feel I am more successful and freer in my design process. I understand that what I see, others don’t, and that sometimes it’s okay to embrace the imperfections seen in the end result so that you can release your creative work and share it.”

Watching the local participants in action truly demonstrated to us what we already believed about RVA: It’s a community that really values creativity and is eager to put it to use. Our next Creative Sprint starts October 1. Join us at CreativeSprint.co.