Creativity and the Community | Moth and Rust DIY Mission Series, Part 3

Welcome to part 3 of my short series on why I blog; if you haven’t yet, you can read part1 here and part 2 here.

As important as creativity is to the individual, it’s also crucial to a community, whether that’s a small group of crafters, a city, or an entire region.

I feel like there are two main ways creativity relates to communities:  it can reflect an existing community’s spirit, or it can be the actual catalyst that creates a community (especially in the case of craft groups.)

The latter is a pretty straightforward concept; people who have similar interests come together and create a community of just a few, or maybe even thousands (at least, online.)  This can be extremely valuable, especially when someone feels that no one else around them understands their craft or gets why they do it.  These kinds of creative communities, though sometimes small, can continue to thrive because are built on a very specific shared value of their particular craft.

Then there’s the way in which creativity can reflect an existing community’s (like a city or town) personality, and this really fascinates me.

This is one reason I am so captivated by the concept of fibersheds, which are “geographical landscapes that define and give boundaries to a natural textile resource base.”  This was a term coined by Rebecca Burgess, founder of fibershed.org.  Now there are fibersheds across the country: regions that grow, process, then sew, weave, or knit their fiber into clothing and other textiles.  What better reflection of a community than a product that is lovingly grown, crafted, and then worn there?!

This is also the beauty of a good farmers’ market.  Really, any time members of a community use their own special personality and style to produce local goods, it’s a wonderful way for the unique character of that community to shine.

And creating goods locally can mean lots of ecological benefits, too.  Sourcing goods locally means less fuel burned in transportation, less packaging, and so on.  (This is something I’ll talk about more in the next part of this series…!)

Crafting together can strengthen existing relationships and create new ones.  One person’s work can be an inspiration to countless others.  Creating offers so many opportunities for building community, so it’s important that we continue to make creativity a priority, for the good of us all.