Mary Blatherwick

Master Educator

Dr. Blatherwick teaches art, design, and creative education in the undergraduate and graduate Education programs at University of New Brunswick. Her research interests include intercultural understanding, visual literacy, arts-based resource development, community arts, and creativity. She has developed resources on intercultural understanding, conducted surveys on visual literacy, and produced a series of films which examine the concept of creative practice. Mary has received multiple awards for her excellence in teaching. Co-written with Robert Barriault, her most recent book, Gerard Collins: Fifty Years of Painting, includes over 75 images of works by this prolific Canadian artist.

You trained as an educator and an artist and have recently created a whole series of video interviews. Through your continuing leadership of the Atlantic Centre for Creativity (ACC) and expanding contributions to Canadian Network for Imagination and Creativity (CNIC) you’ve also become a significant advocate for creativity. What attracts you to creativity, as an artist, educator and as an advocate?

It seems to me that creativity encourages connections, requires perseverance, and leads to growth. When we connect ideas or approaches from different disciplines, we can invent unexpected solutions to any problem. Furthermore, starting at even the most basic beginning point, through a series of steps we can develop a pathway from where we are to where we want to be--if we can just persevere. Most importantly for me, creativity encourages growth. Rather than memorizing existing facts or doing things the same way over and over, creativity inspires us to see new possibilities and pursue new paths. Without creativity, humans would still be living in caves!

You are passionate about the value of each individual and committed to encouraging self-realization. What role does creativity play in this?

Each of us is a small miracle, a unique mix of propensities and potential. Through creative thinking, we can endlessly explore both the world around us and our own imaginations. No longer confined by a single 'right answer,' the world opens up, encouraging continual discovery. The ordinary can become extraordinary when seen through a creative lens.

Your assignment dealing with three kinds of seeing demonstrates this beautifully. Can you describe it? Who are the students, what are they asked to do, and what do they gain from the assignment?

When I begin to teach observational drawing to my education students, I start with a discussion about ways of seeing in order to increase their awareness of how through our ability to see increases our knowledge and understanding of the world around us. I have determined that there are at least three ways of seeing.

Superficial Seeing. In this mode, we quickly identify and label our surroundings. When we scan a classroom, we quickly note the positions of its contents and can navigate to our preferred seat. This mode of seeing gives us a very general overview.
Deep seeing occurs when we take time to observe closely and study our surroundings carefully. Artistic practices such as drawing and painting require this mode of seeing. Through deep seeing, we can translate reality into the lines, shapes, colors and so forth from which artworks are constructed. Blind contour drawing helps us to slow down, and record thoroughly record details in even the simplest object.
Mental images. When we observe our surroundings closely, we build visual knowledge that can feed and enrich the images we carry in our imaginations. Each way of seeing can be strengthened and thus feed our creative thinking.

Many of us tend to separate "the creatives" from the rest of the population. But having seen many 'untalented' students invent amazing art projects, I've come to see creativity as a human attribute.

I agree. So many people who consider themselves uncreative are simply defining it too narrowly. If creativity is only expressed by the ability to draw well, then most of the population gets left out. But if creativity can be expressed though carpentry, cooking, coordinating a conference and so forth, it is amazing how many 'creatives' there are!

As entrepreneurship has become highly valued, more and more in colleges of business are adding creativity coursework, often using design thinking as a framework. For example, Olin College of Engineering (near Boston) teaches students 'to be explorers and creators who design their own path forward.' Rather than follow a narrow path emphasizing math and science, students also take coursework in the arts and humanities and are given real-world problems to solve throughout their education. As a leader in the field of education, how would you describe the importance of creativity?

It comes down to this. Do we want to solve problems and more forward or remain stuck in the same spot forever? Creativity drives innovation and innovation drives both scientific breakthroughs and entrepreneurship. It encourages architects and engineers to approach problems from a wider range of perspectives and frees them to develop a wider range of solutions. Education is about growth. With every assignment, every course, every curriculum, we are trying to stimulate deep learning so that students can grow. And nothing stimulates growth more than creativity.

You've talked a lot about the importance of learning how to learn. Can you elaborate?

MB: I think it is easy to underestimate the importance of learning to learn. In a traditional lecture system, the chairs face forward so that students can better learn from a single authority, the instructor. Experiential learning, which is widely used in creativity courses, distributes conversation, and encourages collaboration. Rather than ingesting existing knowledge, students are challenged to invent their own problems and pursue their own solutions. When everyone is a teacher and a learner, the classroom becomes charged with energy.

Many American educators have long championed such inquiry-based teaching and learning. In its purest form, neither the student nor the instructor knows the answer when they begin an assignment. The process of learning is highly valued, and deeper, more personal answers emerge through a process of investigation.

And, because students are actively identifying their own problems and inventing their own solutions, they tend to be more highly motivated.

Furthermore, on a more personal level, creativity encourages independence, a can-do attitude. By steping into the unknown during a creative workshop, students can build confidence and resilience. When something doesn't work, they learn to adjust and move forward, rather than being shackled to the single right answer and terrified of failure.

Decision-makers in many fields can often view creativity as optional, a pleasant add-on to students' 'real' learning in traditional academic subjects. How do you counteract that?

The first step is to encourage decisions-makers to have a positive experience with creativity themselves. Many have only experienced failure as they struggled to master drawing or felt clumsy in an elementary school music class. Equally painful is the rejection of 'deviant' students who wants to draw their own rabbits rather than dutifully coloring in the rabbit drawing they are given. We must start at the beginning, by encouraging deep creative engagement for every student.
Secondly, I use humor, diplomacy, tenacity, and collaboration to move things forward. Rather than 'telling people what to do,' I try to model creative and collaborative behavior. I seek to remain open, balanced, encouraging.
Thirdly, I encourage and highlight creativity through the organizations I lead. For example, the Creative Connections conferences offered by the Atlantic Centre for Creativity (ACC) have included scholarly presentations, hands-on workshops, and discussions from all sorts of disciplines.

Education can drive creativity in every discipline, and since this is my primary field, education tends to provide the connective thread.

It is appropriate that ACC organizes Creative Connections conferences--collaboration is such an important aspect of your work. How does collaboration expand creativity?

When we create individually, we tend to focus on personal challenges and interests. When we work collaboratively, we can take on bigger problems and share the experiences, knowledge, and skills of each member of a group. As a result, both the questions we address and the answers we develop can expand. The ACC is based on collective and collaborative creativity. A diverse committee representing multiple disciplines explores ideas for workshops, topics for symposia or conferences, and challenges to address. The multiple perspectives presented results in richer, more complex conversations.

What are some of the qualities of a great collaboration?

Determining essential goals or objectives early on helps collaborators move forward together. If some members of the group are pursuing a goal that is at odds with the goals of other members, conflict is likely! Beyond that, sharing, openness, mutual respect, listening, and positivity are embraced in a great collaboration. By contrast, a collaboration can quickly get derailed if one person dominates the group, thus diminishing or limiting the contributions of the other members. Active listening is essential.

What advice do you give your students so that they can expand as creative educators?

To become a creative educator, my students need to realize everyone is creative. Even everyday actions such as choosing the clothes we wear or the meals we cook can spark creativity. And creativity is at the heart of innovation in every discipline, from business and engineering to science and beyond.
Because, creativity can be cultivated in many different ways, educators should introduce different ways of thinking, so their students become comfortable with divergent, convergent, and critical thinking and so forth. Each of these approaches helps to expand creativity.
Sensory learning is also important so I would suggest that they design lessons that emphasize the use of sight, hearing, touch and/or smell.
Creativity requires the courage and the capacity to view failure as part of the process. A positive and receptive learning environment encourages everyone to explore unexpected problems and inventive solutions.
Embracing our own creativity is extremely valuable. I advise my students to take risks by learning something new--and I continually challenge myself by engaging in new organizations or areas of research. Creativity encourages continual growth and greatly expands our opportunities!