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.

IDEA PLATFORMS
Take a space; do something with it. We're turning over high-traffic areas on campus for use as idea labs.


COURSE DEVELOPMENT GRANTS
Funding to make sure good ideas last. We're turning new approaches and innovative practices into courses that sustain themselves within the Hampshire curriculum.


CENTER FOR DESIGN
The Center for Design offers a unique laboratory for the exploration of design and fabrication. This facility features a shop equipped for work with metal and plastics and a design lab for manual and computer design. There are no prerequisites to use the facility, and all skill levels are welcome. We will work with you on design issues, teach you how to work safely in the shop, give instruction on the equipment you need to use, and provide ongoing assistance and supervision.


LENDING LIBRARY
The Lending Library offers students and faculty a diverse range of tools and equipment that encourage experimentation, tinkering, interactive art-making practices, and creative documentation.


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, both expected and unpredictable.


CREATIVE CONNECTIONS
Speed dating for the liberal arts. Fast-paced facilitated conversations designed to foster unusual meetings and conversations.


IDEA EXCHANGE
An online database of risk takers, free thinkers, and people making swords into plowshares.


CREATIVE COMMONS
A place to meet like minds and swap strategies. We're working to set up a collaborative space for all: the Creative Commons.


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.


STUDENT PROJECT GRANTS
Each semester we will award financial grants to Div II or Div III students for project work that is innovative, uniquely collaborative, and socially focused.


TEDx HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE
Independently organized TED events bring innovative thinkers to campus.


UN-LECTURES
Courses at Hampshire rarely take place in a traditional lecture format, so why ask invited speakers to lecture to us? This speaker series will experiment with original ways to bring outside professionals and artists into the Hampshire community.


OPEN SOURCE PROGRAMMING
We're setting out to highlight the innovative work happening on the Hampshire College campus and are committed to “open source” program modeling through the dissemination of materials and structures that can be easily adapted for use by fellow members of the Hampshire College community.


ORGANIZATIONAL MODEL
The Creativity Center's organizational structure incorporates three main team components: the leadership team, the visioning teams, and the advisory team. These teams serve as a permeable and collaborative organizational architecture that supports innovative working groups and interactive programs.