collaboration

Collaborations become great only when everyone in them is free to do his or her absolute best--and is committed to seeing other members do their best as well.

--Richard Loveless

People can work together to get a job done more efficiently or more creatively.

In a true collaboration, everyone emerges with a sense of ownership and pride in the task at hand. A positively structured collaboration exists when participants believe that they are linked with others in such a way that one cannot succeed unless the other members of the group succeed (and vice versa). Interaction and communication between members of the group is essential. It should be remembered that collaborative skills are learned skills. Effective collaborations require leadership, decision-making, trust-building, communication, and conflict-management skills. Good collaborations also develop mechanisms for self-assessment and maintenance strategies that give members positive feedback for their participation and help to sustain and refresh the group beyond the intitial contacts.

In art, collaboration can lead to unexpected outcomes and "boundary breaking solutions" of the most creative kind.

Inquiry Questions

1) How can collaborative groups be organized to work efficiently and creatively on a given task?

2) What are some examples of art forms that are almost always collaborative in nature?

3) How can a creative person learn to become a more effective collaborator?

Projects

1. Group Unity Principles (ref., 2D Studio Fundamentals, UNIT III: Unity)

2. Building Teams | Team Building (ref., 3D Studio Fundamentals, UNIT VII: Structures)

For Further Reflection

1. Nucleo de Arte (New York Times article on an artist collective in Mozambique, AFRICA)

2. Creative Collaborations (compilation of notes by Richard Loveless)

3. Organizing Genius...The Secrets of Creative Collaboration (compilation of notes by Richard Loveless)

4. ASU-YWCA Internet Art Workshop. Collaboration bewteen ASU MFA candidates and "Haven House" women.

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