What is creativity?

Is creativity the result of some stroke of genius? Are creative people just naturally gifted?

Creativity is a SKILL and a PROCESS. Like all skills, creativity can be learnt. Whether it is piano, badminton, cooking, maths or English, learning requires continuous and effective practice. Doing creative things = learning to be creative!

Our founder Jackie Loh noticed this over 30 years ago, when she was lecturing university students on Interior Design in Hong Kong. She saw that students that did more creative things when young were better at creative tasks.

Unfortunately, so much of our kids' lives (and also adults!) are spent on activities that do not require creativity. Copy notes in class. Do work books. Watch videos on TV / iPad. Just follow instructions. No need to think so much.

Which is why she founded Bilden, to nurture creative talent here in Malaysia.

So what does practicing creativity look like?

One part is to deliberately practice the 4 steps of creativity:

All our projects are designed to allow students to do all 4 - observe, analyse, test and refine. Our role as mentors and teachers is not to simply tell students what to do. Instead it is to set up the framework, and then let our students explore and lead, while we encourage and guide.

The other part is to keep doing different things! Which is why we cover many different topics at Bilden, including Art, Design, Nature and Culture. You can come for 10 years and never repeat a project! By exposing students to new things repeated, they build up the confidence to face new challenges head on.

Interested in how we can help nurture your child's creativity? Come speak with us and sign up for a trial class today!