Art Thinking: How to Carve Out Creative Space in a World of Schedules, Budgets, and Bosses

by Amy Whitaker Narrated by Kim Niemi

Overview

Anyone from CEO to freelancer knows how hard it is to think big, let alone follow up, while under pressure to get things done. Art Thinking offers practical principles, inspiration, and a healthy dose of pragmatism to help you navigate the difficulties of balancing creative thinking with driving toward results.



With an MBA and an MFA, Amy Whitaker, an entrepreneur-in-residence at the New Museum Incubator, draws on stories of athletes, managers, writers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and even artists to engage you in the process of "art thinking." If you are making a work of art in any field, you aren't going from point A to point B. You are inventing point B.



Art Thinking combines the mind-sets of art and the tools of business to protect space for open-ended exploration and manage risks on your way to success. Art Thinking takes you from "Wouldn't it be cool if . . . ?" to realizing your highest aims, helping you build creative skills you can apply across all facets of business and life. Warm, honest, and unexpected, Art Thinking will help you reimagine your work and life-and even change the world-while enjoying the journey from point A.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

04/25/2016
It’s easy to regard art and business as two wholly separate areas, but Whitaker (Museum Legs) shows how to seamlessly blend the two, offering a holistic and original approach to achieving success as an innovator. She explains that both creativity and planning are needed to establish and sustain any successful idea. At once philosophical and practical, this book challenges current perceptions of the ways that ideas (and their by-products) come to life. Whitaker insists that every great idea began “in the weeds”—that is, with the creator unsure whether the initial inspiration would ever bear fruit. Her examples include Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird; Thomas Fogarty’s balloon catheter, a revolutionary medical invention; and the start-up that eventually became Google. The main point Whitaker makes is that to turn a great idea into something tangible, it’s necessary to create a space for it by developing a business model and strategically investing time, energy, and money. For any readers nursing ideas they’d like to see become reality, this well-researched and engaging book is not to be missed. 60 line drawings. Agent: Pilar Queen, McCormick Literary. (July)

From the Publisher

In an age of engineering, it also helps to think like an artist. In this fascinating book, Amy Whitaker explores how to apply art thinking to our businesses and our lives. — Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs and The Innovators

An eloquent, inspiring book that will help creative people bring their ideas into the business world-and businesspeople become more creative. — Adam Grant, author of Originals and Give and Take

Let Amy Whitaker introduce you to Art Thinking a way of looking at your career that marries commerce and creativity. Whether you’re in a large organization looking for a way to carve out time for innovation, or a lone artist who wants to work smarter, there’s something for you in this book. — Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and To Sell is Human

Art Thinking is a spiritual guide to practical endeavor. It embodies a deep belief in both art and the market and the capacity of each to draw out and support our individuality. It also embodies a belief in the power of collectives: of conversations, businesses, and networks. Wise, savvy, humane, and beautifully written, Art Thinking is a celebration of the act of bringing new things into the world, including yourself — William Deresiewicz, author of Excellent Sheep

Insightful and engaging, Amy Whitaker has important things to say about the business of art, the art of business, and the art and business of being human. — Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness

A singular book that can help starving artists be better fed, and empower business leaders with the agility and openness of an artist’s thinking process. Through thoughtful examples that span centuries and industries, Amy makes the case that innovation, empathy, mindfulness, and commercial success are inevitable outcomes of art thinking. — John Maeda, Design Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and author of The Laws of Simplicity

The beautifully written, Art Thinking, shows us that a mindset of art and tools of business don’t need to be mutually exclusive-we can all dream big, embrace uncertainty, work passionately and live a sustainable life of creativity. — Ayse Birsel, Designer and author of Design the Life You Love

What color is your parachute? Art Thinking brings right and left brain together to create a palette of possibilities. — Barry Nalebuff, Milton Steinbach Professor, Yale School of Management, and coauthor of Why Not?

“A cheerful, encouraging, and practical guide to creativity… Whitaker proves herself a genial, informed companion for a journey toward ‘creative flexibility.’” — Kirkus Reviews

This book is for anyone who wants to make art that is commercially viable as well as those who wish to strengthen business with the vision and energy of innovative integrity. — Library Journal

Whitaker’s approach could not be more timely. Whitaker takes the human from the humanities and injects it back into the business world. She provides a program to cultivate art thinking, and how to leverage creative failure into progress, invention, and new products and services. — Success

Whitaker offers a rich array of theoretical challenges and practical solutions as she reflects on the thorny question of financial compensation for creative work… Art Thinking can be read as a business book for artists (however defined), a handbook for managing creative teams or a philosophical treatise on the nature of art and how it is made. — Shelf Awareness

Adam Grant

An eloquent, inspiring book that will help creative people bring their ideas into the business world-and businesspeople become more creative.

Walter Isaacson

In an age of engineering, it also helps to think like an artist. In this fascinating book, Amy Whitaker explores how to apply art thinking to our businesses and our lives.

John Maeda

A singular book that can help starving artists be better fed, and empower business leaders with the agility and openness of an artist’s thinking process. Through thoughtful examples that span centuries and industries, Amy makes the case that innovation, empathy, mindfulness, and commercial success are inevitable outcomes of art thinking.

Ayse Birsel

The beautifully written, Art Thinking, shows us that a mindset of art and tools of business don’t need to be mutually exclusive-we can all dream big, embrace uncertainty, work passionately and live a sustainable life of creativity.

Barry Nalebuff

What color is your parachute? Art Thinking brings right and left brain together to create a palette of possibilities.

Daniel Gilbert

Insightful and engaging, Amy Whitaker has important things to say about the business of art, the art of business, and the art and business of being human.

William Deresiewicz

Art Thinking is a spiritual guide to practical endeavor. It embodies a deep belief in both art and the market and the capacity of each to draw out and support our individuality. It also embodies a belief in the power of collectives: of conversations, businesses, and networks. Wise, savvy, humane, and beautifully written, Art Thinking is a celebration of the act of bringing new things into the world, including yourself

Daniel H. Pink

Let Amy Whitaker introduce you to Art Thinking a way of looking at your career that marries commerce and creativity. Whether you’re in a large organization looking for a way to carve out time for innovation, or a lone artist who wants to work smarter, there’s something for you in this book.

Shelf Awareness

Whitaker offers a rich array of theoretical challenges and practical solutions as she reflects on the thorny question of financial compensation for creative work… Art Thinking can be read as a business book for artists (however defined), a handbook for managing creative teams or a philosophical treatise on the nature of art and how it is made.

Success

Whitaker’s approach could not be more timely. Whitaker takes the human from the humanities and injects it back into the business world. She provides a program to cultivate art thinking, and how to leverage creative failure into progress, invention, and new products and services.

Stephanie Garber

A cheerful, encouraging, and practical guide to creativity… Whitaker proves herself a genial, informed companion for a journey toward ‘creative flexibility.’

Library Journal

06/15/2016
This is a detailed framework for applying an artistic mind-set to daily living using the tools and language of business. Whitaker (entrepreneur in residence, New Museum Incubator, NY; Museum Legs) holds an MBA from Yale University and an MFA in painting from University College, London. With a blend of warmth and rigor, the author draws on her background teaching business to artists, designers, and administrators, outlining seven principles to guide readers who want to explore both the risks and invaluable rewards of creative work. Central to these tenets is the importance of habits such as setting aside "studio time," with the understanding that innovation succeeds when one incorporates discipline as well as flexibility. The author further asserts that valuing process rather than a fixed product allows for the possibility of failure. Claiming the significance of artistic endeavors that lead to an eventual profit or reinvestment and therefore to further opportunity is an important intention. Business case studies and insights from an array of inspirational figures illustrate the principles Whitaker sets out in the introduction. VERDICT This book is for anyone who wants to make art that is commercially viable as well as those who wish to strengthen business with the vision and energy of innovative integrity.—Bernadette McGrath, Vancouver P.L.

Kirkus Reviews

2016-04-07
How to foster creativity in any workplace.Leonardo da Vinci is one among many artists, scientists, business entrepreneurs, athletes, and writers whom Whitaker (Museum Legs: Fatigue and Hope in the Face of Art, 2009, etc.) investigates in her cheerful, encouraging, and practical guide to creativity. "This book," she writes, "is a meditation and a manual, a manifesto and a love story, for how art—creativity writ large—and business go together. It is about how to construct a life of originality and meaning within the real constraints of the market economy." Having earned both a master's of business and a master's of fine art, Whitaker aims to merge "the mindsets of art" with "the tools of business." She advises setting aside space "for open-ended, failure-is-possible exploration" without being afraid of uncertainty; finding a guide, a colleague, and other allies to become part of one's creative team; and broadening one's definition of creative activity to include the "practice of friendship and the invention of play," civic involvement, spiritual enhancement, "exploration of the body, in sports or dance or movement," music, storytelling, and visual design. Taking a "portfolio approach," writes Whitaker, balances "steady and low-risk" parts of one's life with more risky forays into art. For the author, the process matters more than the end product, and she warns against "excessive monitoring and reporting." As she notes, many successfully creative people began as failures: Elvis Presley failed music class; Michael Jordan was cut from his high school's basketball team; Dr. Seuss' first book was rejected 27 times. Just as failure is no excuse for giving up, easy success can stunt "the muscle memory of resilience." Creativity, the author claims, is primarily an expression of one's unique selfhood: "You are an amalgamation at any point in time that is snowflake-like in its irreproducibility." Whitaker proves herself a genial, informed companion for a journey toward "creative flexibility."

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177148250
Publisher:	Ascent Audio
Publication date:	04/21/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

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