The stereotypical image of a creative person is a tortured soul, working alone, pursuing a fever dream.

It’s time to kill that image. Collaboration is one of the keys to creative success.

So says author and art advisor, Maria Brito, in her new book How Creativity Rules the World: The Art and Business of Turning Your Ideas into Gold.

Collaborations can come in many varieties: from multi-genre art pieces and installations, festivals and events; to limited edition product collaborations between product developers and visual artists. All have the potential to introduce creatives to new audiences and new revenue streams.

Brito dates the first collaboration between an artist and a fashion house to 1937, when Salvador Dali and Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli collaborated on an elaborate evening gown, which today hangs in the permanent collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

That early start has spawned decades of similar collabs including the recent collaboration between figurative Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo and the fashion house, Dior Men and the Blue Origin space programme.

Closer to home, there’s the Pure Chocolate collaboration with local artists

See here: https://www.purechocolatecompany.com/our-artists

Michael Todd Thomas, Jr, author of Creative Against All Odds: Some Good Advice for Black Creatives calls it carpooling your dreams – identifying, seeking out and building relationships with people with shared goals and complementary skill sets.  For creatives from underprivileged backgrounds, this can be even more important; collaborations can bring access, support, community and opportunities to create whole new revenue streams.

Brito points out that collaboration requires high degrees of trust and generosity, but it can maximize reach and influence and facilitate both commercial and pro-social goals.

Or to quote Brito, “2+2=5.”