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Traveling for Art
Sure, travelling is fun, but for artists it can be a necessity
“Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.”
Artists, makers and other creative types eagerly follow the Dalai Lama’s advice. They sketch in Tuscany, paint afloat cruise ships, and sculpt in Japan. Hemmingway went to Spain and France; Gauguin, to Samoa; and Robert Louis Stevenson, Tahiti. For centuries, artists have gloried in exotic locales.
Travel sparks creativity
Adam Galinsky, Ph.D., Chair of the Management Division at Columbia Business School, has researched the effects of travel on creativity. In one study, Galinsky looked at the fashion industry. He found designers’ originality blossomed with travel. The more the designers had immersed themselves in the foreign cultures they visited, the greater the innovation in their fashion collections. Travelers who eat at McDonalds in Paris — and you know who you are — should not expect much of a creative bump up from the trip. However, a little adventure changes the story. Visitors who take the trouble to find vegetables in the open-air market, negotiate…
