Creativity for Healing and Transformation
"Creativity is fundamental to everyday life: it opens up imaginations, helps build meaningful connections, drives problem-solving and innovation, and feeds the soul."
In an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence and automation, the distinctly human capacity for creativity has never been more vital for building resilient communities and fostering the understanding needed in moments of deep division.
“Creativity is so fundamental to everyday life: it opens up imaginations, helps build meaningful connections, drives problem-solving and innovation, and feeds the soul,” says Vivian May, director of the Syracuse University Humanities Center.
The Syracuse University Humanities Center's spring programming for the Syracuse Symposium demonstrates this multifaceted power of “CREATIVITY” through events that span art, literary translation, textile arts and video production. Participants can engage with or witness creativity as a mode of healing and as a medium for social change. Events range from writers navigating trauma to translators bridging languages, and youth filmmakers envisioning hope to artists with disabilities exploring environmental concerns. The programs center marginalized voices—incarcerated individuals, refugees, teenagers and disabled artists—while bridging communities through collaboration.
The humanities offer essential tools for navigating this moment. Creative thinking lies at the heart of a liberal arts education, which offers students the chance to experiment, become more agile thinkers and be open to the world's wondrous complexity. The liberal arts' emphasis on creative and critical thinking means that students who are driven to address challenging problems, including human harms and injustices, have the tools they need to make a positive impact. Students in the College of Arts and Sciences are invited to become ethical leaders equipped to listen to opposing viewpoints, facilitate dialogue in divided spaces and pursue change through community partnership.
"A liberal arts education invites us to come together to pursue life's most expansive possibilities,” May says. “The Humanities Center is proud to help advance our shared creative potential as a community and showcase all the liberal arts can do."
Syracuse Symposium events are free and open to the public. This programming is made possible with support from the Office of the Associate Provost for Strategic Initiatives. [Read the full A&S News story.]