ISSN 2050-5337 - ISSUE 6 Find us in EBSCOhost Academic Search Ultimate Collection
The culturally competent creative recognizes the dramatic effect that culture plays in the creative process. Identifying and mediating the influence of tradition, audience, and authority in the environment will enable greater potential for creative success.
Written by Dr Tara Grey Coste, Leadership Studies, University of Southern Maine; Cassandra Coste, Social Work, New York University and George Fish, Leadership Studies, University of Southern Maine
In this age of the global marketplace in which the world's people have become linked through unprecedented connectivity, it has become quite obvious that cultural competency is key to successful creativity. The culturally competent creative must be truly committed to the pursuit of multi-culturalism, truly committed to respecting another's values and beliefs and acknowledging that assumptions resulting from these values and beliefs are logically connected. The moment one expresses an idea to an audience the concept is no longer what it was in the author's mind as it now belongs to the audience. We would suggest that placing usefulness as perceived from within the value system of the audience would be a preferred place to start if a creative idea is to find success. What is of utmost importance is that we have some mastery of cultural competency as it may be applied to the pathways creative ideas take once they enter the public sphere.
Creativity, culture, process, context, competency, tradition, audience identity, authority