On the importance of creativity in troubled times
When the world feels increasingly irrational and fragmented and we are facing so many crises, why is art more important than ever?
Neuk member Eleanor Buffam reflects on why creativity is not a luxury in times of crisis, but a vital force for connection, resistance and renewal.
Art and creative play can sometimes feel frivolous, especially as we’ve internalised capitalistic ideas about inherent value. Or it can seem superfluous. Surely we should be doing something more important in the face of the many crises we are facing? Sometimes it seems as though the act of creating, of making visual art, music, dance or poetry is not doing anything to help change the world.
Of course, direct actions and political struggles remain important. Protest, mobilise, do all the things! But alongside that mobilisation, and indeed within that mobilisation we need to nurture ourselves, we need to connect to each other, and we need to look for innovative solutions, and that’s where creativity is absolutely indispensable. With collaboration, reinvention, daydreaming, playing, singing, dancing, painting, and writing (indeed with any and all sorts of artistic actions) we can nourish ourselves while reinventing our present and our future, pivoting away from the neoliberal capitalist system that is destroying the planet and destroying our health.
Art is integral to humanity, it is part of us, and has been since prehistoric times, from the time of the earliest cave paintings and carved figurines. It is essential to our development. Children begin mark making at an early age, usually by the age of two. Marilyn Goodman writes that “Art is an integral activity to a child’s development. It allows children to discover, explore, experiment and learn independently… drawing with a variety of mediums encourages children to figure out how they feel about themselves and things around them.”[1] Art is how we make sense of the world, and importantly it’s enjoyable.
Yes, that’s right. Art is fun! Pleasure is important, and not something to feel guilty about. The fact that this seems revolutionary in our culture is wild to me. Let’s stop venerating suffering. Why are we on this earth if not to enjoy ourselves? I’m not talking about mindless hedonism here, which importantly is not actually pleasurable, as it leaves one with a sense of emptiness. Creativity does the opposite.
The importance of art and creativity is so huge, I feel that I could write a book on it. Maybe I will someday. For now, I will limit myself to illustrating my point with a few specific examples.
Art reminds us what we are fighting for, what a better world can look like. Iain M. Banks’s Culture series of science fiction novels describe a post-scarcity anarchist-communist society in which everyone is free to live the life that they wish to. Ursula K. Le Guin, in The Dispossessed, depicts another vision of an anarchist society, one that isn’t post-scarcity and for that reason is perhaps more relevant to where we are today. These books build worlds that feel believable, templates that we can imagine ourselves living in and can therefore work towards creating.
There are many examples of such utopias in writing and films, and of course the converse is also true, that there are many examples of dystopias. Terry Gilliam’s film Brazil, for example, depicts a nightmare of bureaucracy and state control. George Orwell’s 1984 is a book that describes a society so evocative and chilling that it has literally given us the adjective ‘orwellian’. These dystopias are critiques of the contemporary society and are also warnings as to what can happen if we remain on our present course, but importantly they are also beautiful and entertaining in the way that they evoke the imagery of their dystopian realities. We go on an adventure with the characters, we can imagine ourselves in their shoes, and we can start to recognise the parallels in the societies that we currently live in. Take warning!
Art can inform and give voice to difficult issues. Yinka Shonibare, who tackles issues of racism and slavery in beautifully patterned sculptures says, “I believe that art is not about giving instructions; it’s more of a poetic exploration… it provides a poetic lens through which we can explore and understand complex issues.”[2] Because his sculptures are so visually stunning, brightly patterned and beautiful, they invite us in, engaging us and enthralling us while giving us (and himself) a chance to consider and process the heavy and complicated issues he is referring to.
Two days after 900 people were arrested in London protesting against the banning of the group Palestine Action, Banksy installed a mural on the wall of the Royal Courts of Justice building in London depicting a wigged judge attacking a protester with a hammer. This mural clearly struck a nerve as it was immediately covered up and guarded, and later scrubbed off.[3] Ironically the scrubbed version, artistically speaking, is even more evocative than the original, as it rather proves Banksy’s point. Its shadowy form is a monument to censorship. The fact that the powers that be felt so threatened by a mural shows the importance of art in confronting oppression and speaking truth to power.
Toni Morrison talks about the threat to power that art has at great length in her 2015 essay ‘No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear: In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent‘. She writes about feeling paralysed with depression and unable to write after George W. Bush wins the election. Then a friend points out to her that “This is precisely the time when artists go to work — not when everything is fine, but in times of dread. That’s our job!” She remembers that: “Dictators and tyrants routinely begin their reigns and sustain their power with the deliberate and calculated destruction of art: the censorship and book-burning of unpoliced prose, the harassment and detention of painters, journalists, poets, playwrights, novelists, essayists.”[4] Do you think that censorship of art would occur if art had no power to change the narrative, to change the world?
Recently, in the city of Portland in the United States, an unlikely hero has emerged on the streets: an enormous puffy frog. As the government attempted to frame protesters as dangerous and violent, Portland fought back in a very creative way. Protestors donned costumes of every kind, danced, sang, and staged tea parties in the streets. There were unicyclers and jugglers and flash mob dancers. When a protestor named Seth Todd, wearing a puffy frog costume, was pepper sprayed, the video went viral. Soon the frogs had become the symbol of the resistance.
An article in the Associated Press notes that: “For protesters like Todd, the costumes are a way of fighting absurdity with absurdity: a playful counter to Trump’s portrayal of Portland as ‘war ravaged,’ ‘burning down’ and ‘like living in hell.’”[5]
So far, these examples have examined art that is specifically and consciously political. But what about art that is not consciously political? Is it also important? I say yes, indeed I would argue that all art and creativity is inherently political, whether it seems so at first glance or not.
One powerful thing that art can do is to show us what the world looks like through different eyes, what it’s like to be someone else, how another soul lives and feels, which plays an enormous part in nurturing empathy and respect. Art can speak across different languages and cultures to connect and nurture us. A film or a painting can also teach us to look at the everyday in a new way, in the way that the artist sees it, and of course the making of art helps us to share this insight into the heart of ourselves with others. This kind of communication and empathy is a direct threat to those who would seek to divide us, for example those who demonise migrants, refugees, disabled people, neurodivergent people, queer people, and so forth.
Visual art, film, writing (if translated, obviously), and music can speak across languages, and can put us in touch with others in very different situations than our own.
Several nights ago I watched the film Un Dessert Pour Constance.[6] This is a film set in Paris which follows a pair of African immigrants who are best friends. In their job as street-sweepers they find a cookbook which changes their lives and enables them to win a large sum of money in a competition. With the money they are able to send their sick friend home and then open an African restaurant. This film brings the viewer into their lives. I experienced an intimate portrait of their friendship, of their joy and despair, of their progression from street-sweepers to restauranteurs, and the diverse society which forms around them. The protagonists are not people that I am ever likely to meet. They live in another country, they speak in a language in which I am not fluent, they live in a world which is very different to mine. And yet I now feel that I know them, at least a little. What matters to them has mattered to me. The film has expanded my empathy and my compassion for people who are different to myself.
Films that are made by people from a similar background can also spark revelations, as they show us the very specific viewpoint of the director. For example, after watching David Lynch’s film Mulholland Drive, I found myself looking at reality in a new way, hearing incidental sounds in the environment as charged with meaning. Reality itself seemed to have changed somehow, but the change had merely been in my perception. Reality had always been this strange, this beautiful, this tinged with magic and adventure. This point of view is incredibly inspiring. It opens my eyes to the magic that is all around me in my own life, and encourages me to express my own personal viewpoint, to share and connect with others.
This is perhaps one of the most important things that art can do: art creates new artists. And we need all the artists we can get. We need to hear from everybody’s specific and personal viewpoint, we need all the diversity and creativity in the world if we are to survive as a species.
After looking at impressionist paintings such as Claude Monet’s Poplars on the Epte, I find myself appreciating the way that sunlight moves through trees. This painting of some trees in France has caused me to appreciate the trees that I see every day in Edinburgh in a new way. I admire the brushstrokes, the use of light and shadow. It’s a beautiful painting, and beautiful paintings make me want to paint.
It seems possibly ironic that many of Monet’s tranquil and colourful paintings were created as a personal response to the senseless violence and death of the First World War. Monet could hear the gunshots from his studio. Fighting was taking place just 50 kilometres away, and he had family members in the army.
Painting, for Monet, was his life. It was the way he expressed himself, the way he understood the world around him, and the way he processed his emotions. He wrote, “It’s the best way to avoid thinking of these sad times. All the same, I feel ashamed to think about my little researches into form and colour while so many people are suffering and dying for us.”[7]
Should he have felt ashamed? I think not. I think it is wonderful that he responded to ugly, savage brutality with its opposite: with the beauty of the natural world. If only more people saw the world this way, the futility of war would be obvious.
Monet was also processing his emotions by painting. The power of creativity to process trauma has been well documented and has spawned the practices of art therapy, music therapy, dance therapy, and so forth. The process of creating art is known to reduce stress, to improve mental health, and to help transmute difficult emotions. Visual art can do this when words fail.
The benefits of becoming more mentally healthy are not confined to the individual, of course. Anyone who heals emotionally will have a ripple effect through the society that they live in. Healthy people are less likely to traumatise others, for one thing.
All art conveys difficult emotions, but music especially excels in this. Anyone who has ever lost themselves dancing to their favourite song while singing along at the top of their lungs can testify to this power of music: it’s cathartic.
Not many people can listen to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and fail to be moved. The Ninth is famously a celebration of the interconnectedness of humankind, using the lyrics of Friedrich Schiller’s poem “Ode to Joy” in its final movement. Beethoven also overcame his own physical impairment to write the music, as he was profoundly deaf at the time. Its power is perhaps best encapsulated in a famous quote by Mikhail Bakhunin, the Russian revolutionary anarchist: “Everything will pass and the world will perish but Beethoven’s Ninth [Symphony] will remain.”[8]
Incidentally, this quote is reminiscent of a Scottish Gaelic proverb which states “Thig crìoch air an t’saoghal ach mairidh gaol is ceòl” (The world will pass away, but love and music will endure).
As I type this, I am listening to a particularly moving performance of Beethoven’s Ninth by the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. This orchestra is made up of young musicians from Israel, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Spain, as a conscious effort to bring young people together who would otherwise learn to hate and fear each other.
The proceeds from this benefit concert were donated to music education programs in Palestine.[9]
When struggling to process difficult emotions, I have always found release and comfort through punk music that expresses sheer visceral anger and joy. Operation Ivy expresses this well in their lyrics to ‘Sound System’:
Sound system gonna bring be back up, yeah
One thing that I can depend on
Static pulse inside of music bringing us escape
It’s always temporary, changing nothing in its wake
Just a second while were leaving all this shit behind
Just a second, but it’s leaving just this much in mind
To resist despair that second makes you see
To resist despair ’cause you can’t change everything
To resist despair in this world is
What it is, what it is, what it is to be free!
I’d like to take a moment to look at creativity through a specifically ADHD lens. I have ADHD, perhaps you do as well, or perhaps you know someone who does? Or perhaps you don’t and you feel that this is an irrelevant diversion, in which case please feel free to skip ahead to the penultimate paragraph. I’ll see you there.
Now, where was I? Those of us with ADHD can often get distracted, can wander down side paths when we meant to be sticking to the main one, can go to the shops for milk and come back with a solar powered blinking owl and a lifetime supply of aluminium foil. ADHD is sometimes referred to as a “superpower”, which honestly I find annoying. Losing keys, forgetting important events, double-booking, getting constantly distracted… a superpower? Please.
And yet, when it comes to creativity, ADHD really might be a superpower. We excel in pattern-spotting, innovation, and as we tend to jump in and out of obsessions we can draw on many different fields and influences. Leonardo da Vinci, that quintessential Renaissance man, is believed to have had ADHD.[10] One minute he’s inventing a helicopter, the next he’s dissecting a cadaver, then he pulls out his paintbrushes to work on his masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, endlessly refining the painting.
Our brains move at lighting fast speeds. We’ll spot connections and patterns while everyone else is still putting their reading glasses on. Our minds wander, darting like butterflies from idea to idea. Often this is seen as a negative feature — we can’t concentrate, we can’t stick to a task! But it is precisely this mind wandering that leads to greater creativity, as has recently been confirmed by a study at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. K.P. Lesch (Professor of Molecular Psychiatry, University of Würzburg, Germany) said regarding the study, “Mind wandering is one of the critical resources on which the remarkable creativity of high-functioning [sic] ADHD individuals is based. This makes them such an incredibly valuable asset for our society and the future of our planet.”[11]
Yay! We’re going to save the world! No pressure, my fellow ADHD creatives. That quote is a little condescending, but on the other hand it is refreshing to have our talents valued in a time in which the mainstream media seeks to demonise us, constantly talking about ‘overdiagnosis’ when the truth is that ADHD is massively underdiagnosed in the UK, and many people wait years for an assessment. (I waited 4.5 years, and I am still waiting for medication.)
We need creativity and innovation more than ever in today’s world, as we are facing multiple civilisation-threatening crises. Please, all of you, whether you have ADHD or not — express your creativity. Release your inner child. Sing out loud, move to the rhythm that you hear, play in the grass like a toddler, frolic through fields of wildflowers, create a beautiful garden, paint a portrait of your cat, play the guitar, dye your hair, design a tattoo, colour your walls bright purple, make a stop-motion animation about three enchanted magpies, recite poetry, perform a one-person opera to a squirrel, write a novel, bake a delicious cake, design a complicated hat that turns into a pillow, build sculptures out of discarded pickle jars, perform an interpretive dance — express your soul in whatever way you want to. We need you and your specific creativity and we need the art that emerges from it, to nourish us, to heal us, and to inspire us.
The expression of creativity isn’t frivolous, it’s quite the opposite. Creativity not only helps us understand and process reality, it also shapes reality. Let’s change the world for the better together, creatively.
[1] Goodman, Marilyn JS. Children Draw. Reaktion Books Ltd, 2018. p. 8
[2] “Restitution and Reflection: Yinka Shonibare Challenges Colonial Legacies”, Whitewall. https://bit.ly/3M4K5kU
[3]“New Banksy mural appears at Royal Courts of Justice”, BBC, 8 September 2025, https://bit.ly/4oHyaXv and “Banksy Mural Scrubbed from Royal Courts of Justice”, BBC, 10 September 2025, https://bit.ly/4pmjZIz
[4] Toni Morrison, “No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear”, The Nation, 6 April 2015, https://bit.ly/4q7Wbbo Please, read the whole essay, it’s amazing.
[5] “How inflatable costumes ballooned at anti-Trump rallies due to a protester’s frog outfit”, The Associated Press, November 2025, https://bit.ly/4oHMC1L
[6] “Un Dessert Pour Constance”, Directed by Sarah Maldoror, France, 1981.
[7] As quoted in “Wartime water lilies: how Monet created his garden at Giverny” by Ann Dumas on the Royal Academy website: <https://bit.ly/4rIjZUT>
[8] As quoted on Classical Music dot com, by BBC Music Magazine. <https://bit.ly/48EICub>
[9] On YouTube here: https://bit.ly/48FmPT5
[10] Daley, Jason. “New Study Suggests Leonardo da Vinci had ADHD”. Smithsonian Magazine, 5 June 2019. <https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-study-suggests-da-vinci-had-adhd-180972359/>
[11] European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. “New research reveals how ADHD sparks extraordinary creativity.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 October 2025. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/10/251012054608.htm>.