student orgs.
Creativity Christine Caruana & Diane Brincat
FTW! F
or most desaians, ‘creativity’ is something not dissimilar to what the pulmonary artery is to the body, i.e. vital and held very, very close at heart. In fact, since its inception in 2007, desa has been organising various events in aid of the arts and creativity. However, it seemed to the current desa executive that with the reawakening force of Spring in the air, the timing was perfect to organise a campaign on campus that would not simply promote art but create some. This premise was proven correct as between 11 and 14 April, various locations on campus were buzzing with creative energy while desa’s ‘Creativity FTW’ campaign was underway. For the uninitiated few, ‘FTW’ stands for ‘for the win’, and this roughly translates to ‘awesome’ in internet speak, an apt adjective to describe the three aspects that this campaign comprised. These involved the setting up of a book sale during all four days of the campaign at Students’ House, a series of four workshops conducted by professionals in different areas of creativity, and a talk and debate entitled ‘What Do You Do with a B.A. in English?’. When the book sale officially kicked off on the 11th, desa already received applications for hundreds of books and there were 500 of them neatly stacked in our boxes. By the end of the week, there were over a thousand books on sale, and over 500 of them (including a massive collection of comics) had found a happy and loving home. Apart from promoting creative works which can be a direct source of inspiration for the creation of art by the buyers, the aim of the sale was to raise funds for desa. However, this was not done at the expense of the sellers, each of whom was entitled to 90 % of the profit made from their books, while desa kept 10% of it. desa is proud to say that the effort was well worth it as the book sale was an enormous success, with the total profits tallying over €1,800! The creativity seeds sown with the dissemination of books at the book sale then had some of their fruits reaped at the Creativity Workshops. These were held free of charge and, like the talk and debate, were DegreePlus recognised. On Monday 11th, the first workshop in ‘Scriptwriting for Stage’ was conducted by Malcolm Galea. ‘Feature Writing for Magazines’ by Jo Caruana followed the next day. The last
two workshops - ‘Creative Writing in Prose’ and ‘Screenwriting’ - took place on Thursday and were conducted by Clive Piscopo and Jean Pierre Magro, respectively. As evidenced also from the comments of the attendees, this series served as a well-needed breath of fresh air for participants. One only needs to take a look around on campus to realise that it’s no easy feat to have enough energy to engage in studying, working on assignments, dealing with parents, getting drunk at the weekend, and getting some work done on whatever it is that makes you feel alive. The use of the creative powers can do wonders for the last one, and learning about these from good sources while getting some hands-on practice to test the ground is a huge step forward. desa certainly looks forward to seeing the insight given in our workshops put to good use in the budding local arts scene. The way in which such cultural and educational industries, as well as others, can be enriched with the contributions of people with a University degree in English was the focus of the ‘What Do You Do with a B.A. in English?’ talk and debate. Thanks to our panel of speakers, which included Dr Clare Thake Vassallo, Ms Giuliana Peresso, Malcolm Galea, Jo Caruana, Theodor Reljic, Davinia Hamilton, and Neville Bezzina, some of the myths surrounding the B.A. English degree were dispelled. Unfortunately, many people think that such a degree is only synonymous with a teaching career. Such an outdated mentality is exposed in its flaws by the success stories of people such as those in our panel, who made it in different fields: from writing, to journalism, to marketing, to publishing, and, yes, to teaching. desa is delighted with the outcome of this campaign and the reception it had on campus. Heartfelt thanks go to all those who took part and who helped make it such a success. The campaign may have ended but remember, creativity is evergreen - you just have to use it! Christine Caruana is a B.A. English and Archaeology student, and pro for desa. Diane Brincat is a B.A. (Hons) English student, and Secretary General for desa.
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