Creative ways of being

This paper considers the idea that creative states of aliveness and openness to newness (in art, in academic knowledge, and in everyday life) involve a relational way of being in which self as subject, agent, author, identity is suspended. Drawing on Winnicott's account of transitional space, the paper develops an understanding of the between state of holding as a precondition for creativity, arguing that holding and openness presuppose each other, thus demonstrating the ways in which betweenness contributes to an understanding of the spiritual character of creative experiences.