Learn more about The Creativity Center at Hampshire College.

The Creativity Center is a trans-disciplinary mash-up of students, faculty, and staff engaged in open-ended inquiry. It is a network designed to create unexpected dialogues and to support new ideas.

We do not assume that creativity behaves a certain way; nor that it happens in a certain place. The Creativity Center will encourage Hampshire students to be fearless about questioning established modes of thinking, and ambitious about creating new ones. The creative process must also allow for pure, seemingly random insights, failure, and be valued always for its own sake. Students who are encouraged to move fluidly in and among disciplines are uniquely equipped to discover new patterns within a traditional landscape.

CREATE

Creativity is not just for “creative types.” No matter what your project is, you're looking for innovative solutions. Sometimes the best way to do that is to surprise yourself. Escape the feedback loop of your own thought. That's where we come in. By providing equipment, materials, and funding to student and faculty work, we incentivize and bolster creative practices. Workshops, courses, and online information bring this work to another level, readying it for engagement with the world.

CONNECT

So you've got a great idea. You need a partner who can see its potential or a superhero to make it fly. Or a troublemaker to turn it on its head. Where do you meet these people? The Creativity Center focuses on connections, bringing people to people; people to resources; ideas to makers; makers to funders; and solutions to the world. From online networks to Creative Connections, we make connections, expected and unpredictable.

CHANGE

The program fosters experimentation in the classroom, in our structures and programs, and in our vision of education. The program encourages risk-taking and expects a certain amount of failure to make progress. The Creativity Center provides safe spaces and opportunities for experimentation and will shepherd new ideas or processes into the Hampshire community. The projects taken on at Hampshire address an array of local and global issues, and the Creativity Center supports their engagement with the world. The Creativity Center is a network designed to create unexpected dialogues and to support new ideas.