Exploring Creativity- an Interactive Event

         On Wednesday February 8th, Avila University & Steven Fischer presented select Avila students with an all-day event in which they explored ways to tap into their full creative potential.  These students all had a background of talents in the arts, such as theatre, choir, drawing, or creative writing.  The goal of the symposium was to get students thinking.  Everyone was asked to reflect on certain questions throughout the day, among them were the following:

         -What makes us passionate and willing to take risks?

         -What prevents us from responding creatively to challenges?

         -How do we develop creative self-improvement?

Symposium students ponder a brick during an exercise on Wednesday, Feb. 8

         In order to come to some conclusions about these questions, students were confronted with a variety of exercises.  Their day began at 10 a.m. with a film screening, followed by an artist panel in which three exclusive guests were brought in and the students had the chance to ask this Artist Panel questions.  Following a lunch break, interactive stations were underway.  In this activity, the students were divided into five groups and rotated between five stations where they had five minutes to complete the presented task.  Among the stations was one named Blackout Poem where the students had to use newspaper articles and cross out unwanted words, creating a poem from the remaining words in the article.  In another station, the students were given a piece of paper with one squiggle on it and had to create a drawing surrounding and utilizing this one seemingly insignificant mark.  In yet another activity, a brick was simply placed in the center of the table and students had to brainstorm on various ways to use the item.  Most of the time, students were very interactive, constantly bouncing ideas off of others, and at certain moments it was evident that ideas were flowing and students kept to themselves, working diligently with their profound concepts.  After having a reflection session following the stations, the event transitioned into the next activity at 2:00 in which students worked in interdisciplinary groups to create a work of art to be presented at 4 p.m.  Following presentations, everything wrapped up around five o’clock following closure and final reflections. 

AU students embrace the crayons of their Kindergarton days during an activity.

            All in all, this interactive symposium induced students to explore and familiarize themselves with their full creative potential.  Many left the day feeling refreshed and ready to tackle things with a new, more creative mindset.