I am glad to see a reply from you because I was surprised that you hadn't submitted an entry for the micro fiction, so I was worried
whetheryou were okay. I haven't submitted yet but I do plan to submit and read more in the second half. Actually, I logged on to put my entry in because I kind of thought that I had until midnight and, when I couldn't I created this thread instead.
Thanks for the link and I will read it later and I haven't even finished reading 'The Philosophy Now' issue on creativity. It probably is a topic that is too wide for a thread but I wanted it to be fairly broad because it often seems science has monopoly over the arts in philosophy. There are not that many arts based philosophy threads on this forum and the one which I enjoyed in particular was the one by
@Gus Lamarch about a year ago on 'The Metaphysics of Poetry'.
On this particular forum there do appear to be so many extremely creative people and that is why I thought that it was worth making a thread on it. I do agree that the question whether creativity is valued is a very worthwhile one. My own answer is that it varies so much.
Certainly, when I was working in mental health nursing I felt creativity was being squeezed out of importance. The arts therapies were almost being phased out, for financial reasons and I found that on a day to day it was like work was becoming more and more robotic. I felt that staff were meant to be able to do just about all tasks except for arts and creativity. Even writing reports were done on templates with such strict guidelines.
Even some areas are more creative than others. I am not very keen on the area I live in because it is so lacking in art activities of any kind. If I can I prefer to spend time in places like Camden Town, but even this has become far less bohemian and arty than it used to be. Most of the record and bookshops have been closed down and so many venues where creative people used to go. Part of this may be related to so much being done online. I do like a certain amount online, such as this forum, but I do like face to face activities too.
It may be that creativity is valued by many still but its platforms are changing. Also, there is often an idea of the arts as recreation, as opposed to it as a source of meaning, which is the way in which I value the arts, and from my understanding of your approach, you are interested in a far deeper way than just as entertainment as a way to wind down from so-called 'important' tasks. About the worst work experience I had was with a manager about a couple of years ago who seemed to dismiss the arts and my interest in this in working with patients. She thought assisting them with cooking and cleaning tasks was far more important.