“The lightning spark of thought generated in the solitary mind awakens its likeness in another mind.” Thomas Carlyle My collaborations with other artists have been rewarding, creative experiences. Over the years, I’ve worked with musicians, a dancer, and other spoken word performers, co-creating works of art that I could not have otherwise done myself. What is Artistic Collaboration? "Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up." Oliver Wendell Holmes In the simplest sense, artistic collaboration occurs when artists combine and integrate their art forms and creative skills for an art project. Mark Dunhill & Tamiko O’Brien of Collabarts.org suggest: “Artistic collaboration still raises some interesting and crucial questions about the nature of authorship, authenticity and the artists’ relationships to their works & audiences that inevitably disrupts the persistent and popular image of the artist as a ‘heroic’ solitary figure…Common to most if not all collaborative practices…is an implicit critique of the idea of the artist as a figure that stands outside of society engaged in an internal singular dialogue.” In other words, collaborative art skews traditional notions of artistic authorship as unique, individualistic, and singular. Instead, it suggests that artistic vision can be a shared cultural and historical phenomenon and that the creative process can be a conversation among artists. Thus, the results of an artistic collaboration are not simply the art object, but also the shared conversation itself. For some artists, this questioning of traditional notions of artistic authorship is an overtly political statement. However, I’d venture to guess that, for most artists, collaboration is simply a way to artistically “play” and experiment with other creative minds. Check out the rest of the article at poetryNprogress.