The Everyday Creativity Network: Developing Understandings, Methods and Applications Across Boundaries

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'Everyday creativity' (EC) is characterised by day-to-day actions understood in terms of little and mini 'c' creativity; the former focusing on observable creative actions/products, the latter on more fleeting "interpretive and transformative aspects of thought" (Silvia et al, 2017). The boundaries of EC stretch well beyond the arts to a diverse range of immersive creative activities that millions of people engage in individually and in groups, at home, online and in the community. These include activities such as cooking, crafting, gardening, podcasting and citizen science. Such activities are often removed from established hierarchies, economic models and notions of excellence, but play a vital role in enabling people to explore their creative potential, maintain health/wellbeing, connect to others and to nature, learn/develop, and discover meaning/purpose. As steps are taken towards a wellbeing economy (APPG, 2022), these everyday creative activities become increasingly important. The proposed network pursues a research agenda that develops and supports understandings of this growing importance, facilitating the unfolding, broadening and democratisation of EC. This is a process of reparative discovery in response to what Jarman (1993) calls "the theft of everyday creativity which the entire world should share." Since the emergence of the concept of a cultural ecology or ecosystem framed by the Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Value (2015) and the AHRC's Cultural Value Project (2016), there has been an increasing focus on the complementary role that EC plays alongside professional, subsidised and commercial culture and the arts. Eg. Arts Council England's 2020-2030 'Let's Create' strategy looks towards "a blossoming of creativity across the country," arguing that "the surest way to fill the future with every variety of flower is to recognise that we can all be gardeners". What this means or how it can be achieved in practice remains somewhat unclear. Definitions of EC are contested, with little consensus as to how this is enacted/understood in different socio-cultural contexts (Villanova & Cunha, 2020). Further, as Crossick, Director of the AHRC's Cultural Value Project, said at an event organised by Network partner Creative Lives (2021): "We do far too little to understand what makes that ecosystem work. It's become a slogan we talk about, rather than something we can really evidence the connections within."Responding to the above, the proposed network will address issues around the definitions, scope, processes, assessment and impacts of EC, under 4 guiding themes:1. The role of EC in enriching creative research methods2. EC, the home and placemaking (including pandemic responses)3. EC, health and wellbeing4. Arts, science and technology interfaces in ECThrough these themes we seek to advance understandings of EC and enable future research pathways to be delineated, while contributing to policy debates.The funded period will enable researchers from across the humanities, arts, social sciences and natural sciences to come together with creative practitioners, community groups and other key stakeholders through 4 participatory sandpit events across the UK and a final, concluding conference with international reach. Core network participants include Daykin (Prof Emerita UWE); Mansfield (Vice Dean Research Brunel University); Contera (Prof of Biological Physics Oxford University); Coulter (Director National Centre for Creative Health); and Simpson (Chief Executive Creative Lives). The group will collaborate to produce outputs including an edited volume, policy document and online articles. Following the funded period, we will consolidate and expand the network by forging wider research partnerships and associated policy impacts within the UK and internationally, and developing a follow-on bid focusing on the democratisation of EC in a more global context that takes account of decolonisation.