No matter where your creative passions lie, there are many benefits to engaging with others in your community. Discover the value of creating within your community, best practices for finding your community, and ideas you can leverage for getting creative with others.
Why Are Communities Valuable?
As a creative person, finding a community has immense value. From finding inspiration to leaning on others for motivation, there is much to gain from joining a community online or in person.
Connect with Like-minded Individuals — Sometimes, creating can be inherently lonely. By finding others interested in similar activities, you can stave off loneliness and re-ignite your creative passions.
Be Inspired — Inspiration is the first step toward creativity, and being around others can help ignite new ideas. Join communities to draw inspiration from others around you, creatives and non-creatives alike.
Get Motivated to Accomplish Your Goals — An accountability buddy can do wonders for helping you achieve your goals. Building a community and sharing your aspirations will help you stay consistent in your habits.
Learn from Others — Everyone has something they’re great at and a unique perspective on the world. By surrounding yourself with people, you can open yourself up to new opportunities and broaden your view. Creative communities are key to innovation. Participating in various communities opens up significant opportunities to innovate.
Find Yourself — Perhaps the most impactful benefit of communities is the ability to find yourself. By interacting with others who share your interests, you can discover who you are, what your passions are, and what’s most important to you.
How Can You Find Your Communities?
If you’re new to an area or just starting out with a hobby, you might struggle to find other individuals with similar interests. Thankfully, there are a few strategies you can leverage for meeting others.
Give Back with Your Talents
One of the most effective ways to meet others interested in similar things is to volunteer within your community. While giving back, you can meet other individuals doing the same thing, as well as people who benefit from your volunteer work.
“Volunteering with the Red Cross has been a fantastic way to build community,” highlighted co-founder, Kadijiha. “The thing that brought us here may be slightly different for each of us, and yet, allowed us to find other commonalities to strengthen our bond.”
You’ll get fulfillment through your work volunteering and benefit from strengthening your bonds with those around you.
Spend Time Where Creatives Are
There are likely many spots in your local community to run into other creatives, you just have to spend time in them. Hit up your local coffee shops, maker spaces, and coworking spots. Sometimes the best way to meet others is by showing up and being active where they are.
After spending time at a few different spots, you’ll begin to discover what places have the best energy for you and where other like-minded individuals are likely to hang out. As long as you’re respectful, don’t hesitate to strike up a conversation with someone you notice creating. Complimenting what they’re working on can often be a fool-proof icebreaker.
Attend Events — Going Solo is Okay!
Seek out local maker fairs, farmers markets, and creative events to attend. It might be intimidating to go to new places alone, but this is often the best way to make new connections. If you’d feel more comfortable going with another friend, bring someone along with you while you become more comfortable with a new environment.
“You have to take risks to form those connections,” shared co-founder Amber. “We like to do things we're comfortable with, but sometimes you can take an uninterested friend with you so you feel safe initially while taking a chance. If you’re struggling to find your community, seek out different neighborhoods, try to find a new activity, or try a creative process that you haven't used before.”
Look Online
Your communities don’t always have to exist IRL. Some of the best groups exist in virtual spaces. Explore Facebook groups, Discord communities, or subreddits to find other like-minded people interested in similar things as you.
Sharing your creations online is also a great way to meet new people. By highlighting your work on Instagram or TikTok, you become exposed to the communities that exist there. Similarly, by browsing hashtags, you can find other creators to engage with. Don’t be afraid to leave a comment on their posts or reach out asking for insights. Often, artists are happy to share their experiences and connect with others.
Ideas for Creating Together
Spending time with other creatives won’t always look the same. Find what works for you and your community — you might enjoy a mix of the following ideas.
Work in Parallel
Creating together doesn’t always mean working on the same project or interacting throughout the process. Sometimes it’s inspiring to just create next to others working on their own projects. In between working on your art, you can glance over at what others are doing for inspiration.
Take Turns Providing Lessons to Each Other
There’s so much to learn from other creatives! It can be refreshing to share skills and learn new mediums. Meanwhile, teaching others can give you a boost of confidence while reigniting your passion.
Consider starting a skillshare rotation where you take turns hosting a creative session. Each person can plan their own “lesson” to share with the group.
Collaborate on a Project
Sometimes it can be exciting to collaborate with others on a joint project. You may choose to each leverage your own skills or try your hand at one medium. It’s exciting to see your efforts come together as part of something bigger.
Find Your Community with Brush Box
Communities are critical for all areas of development. A well-rounded community helps you find yourself as an individual while gaining inspiration and motivation from like-minded people. Whether you’ve just moved or are getting into new hobbies, don’t be afraid to seek out new opportunities to join communities.
We want to be part of your creative community. Join us on March 28th at 6:00 PM CST on Instagram live to create in parallel with us. We want to meet you and hear about your latest projects!
We founded Brush Box to support healing through art because we believe everyone is creative and taking time to channel that creativity can be transformative. We’d love to see how you’re creating within your community, so tag us on Instagram (@abrushbox). Be sure to also sign up for our newsletter to get exclusive deals and find out about our latest drops and upcoming events.