Editor’s note: This new column from the Center for Creativity will appear regularly in the University Times.

By KIT AYARS

Creativity is central to the mission of the University: It powers the leaps of imagination and practice at the heart of new ideas and discoveries. And of course, in our new AI era, creativity is an essential means for us as individuals to connect with what makes us human: imperfect learners, innovators and mess-makers.  

Pitt’s Center for Creativity (C4C) was founded as a no-barrier-to-entry space for everyone in the Pitt community — faculty, staff, and students. You are welcome to use our resources in your work as an instructor or staff member, but, just as importantly, you are welcome to use our resources as an individual.

Diana Khoi Nguyễn, assistant professor of English in the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences, has observed in her students “the activation of childlike wonder” when her classes are engaged in the Center for Creativity spaces. That sense of wonder, of being outside our work personas and fully inhabiting our own personal selves, is important to everyone. And it is available to you — a Pitt staff or faculty member — at any of the Center for Creativity spaces. 

The Center runs three spaces (or spokes) on the Pittsburgh campus, as well as a virtual spoke.  

• Our original space, C4C: The Workshop, located in the University Store, offers a broad array of creative engagement opportunities: paints, pottery wheel, laser cutter, a wall full of creative re-use materials, typewriters, origami paper, chalk, fabric and more. 

• The Text & conText Lab in Hillman Library, a partnership with the University Library System, focuses on the work involved in creating a physical book: making paper, setting type, marbling paper, running a letterpress, designing a linocut, and more. Its proximity to Archives & Special Collections provides a unique opportunity to be inspired by how others have engaged with paper and texts throughout history. 

• C4C: The Understory, in the basement of the Cathedral of Learning, focuses on performance: A sprung-floor rehearsal area with a professional lighting grid and sound system, music practice rooms, a small podcast studio, instruments (from a drum kit to an electric violin), sewing machines, and a project table with whiteboard walls. Regular Open Mics here foster not just a creative outlet but a sense of supportive community.  

• The Pittsburgh Lens, a virtual spoke of the C4C, provides targeted opportunities for telling stories of our region through media such as film or podcast recording. For instance, Season 2 of “Processing…,” the Center’s podcast, engaged members of the Pitt community in conversation about how the intense personal and political uncertainties of 2020 affected their creative work.  

All of the Center’s spaces are staffed with experienced employees who are delighted to show you around or to help introduce you to materials or processes. Staff members have backgrounds as poets, carpenters, fiber artists, filmmakers, musicians, cartoonists and printmakers. Our spaces are judgment-free. Explore. Get outside your head. Discover what happens when you are doing something with your hands or your body and your mind can reset itself. Enjoy the connection you can make with a coworker or stranger when you are both trying something new for the first time.  

Thinking of a group or class visit? Our website (creative.pitt.edu) includes information on how to reserve a space. If you’re not sure what your group would like to do, Erik Schuckers, manager of programming and communications, can help you with ideas on how best to make use of the C4C to fit your goals. Email creative@pitt.edu

Looking to connect with your creative self? You, as an employee of the University, are welcome to use the Center for Creativity spaces for your own enrichment, mental health, or creative outlet. Our hours, locations and specific resources are outlined at creative.pitt.edu.  

You don’t need an excuse to stop by during a frustrating moment in the workday and knit for 15 minutes until you’ve reset. Come! Play the drums or the piano. Try those Tik-Tok dances. Learn something new or practice something you haven’t touched in 20 years. Sing or tell a story at an Open Mic. Embrace wonder.   

Kit Ayars is the director of the Center for Creativity.