Creative Genius

Here at the Georgia Museum of Art we are surrounded by products that stemmed from the creative thoughts and innovations of Steve Jobs and his coworkers. On Wednesday, we lost a great man and technological hero of several generations, but his insight and drive will continue to inspire us in the years to come, not only through technology, but through creative innovation in general.

The Georgia Museum of Art is filled with Macintosh products, from desktop computers and laptops to the iPads our docents now use to facilitate museum tours and the pending iPhone application that will turn our art mobile.

Steve Jobs made it well known that he appreciated the art of design and technology. His streamlined styles and view of how technology should work and be used stemmed from a belief that the art of computers was a universal one.

In a 1996 interview with NPR’s Fresh Air’s Terry Gross, Jobs said, “I think our major contribution [to computing] was in bringing in a liberal arts point of view to the use of computers. If you really look at the ease of use of the Macintosh, the driving motivation behind that was to bring not only ease of use to people—so that many, many more people could use computers for nontraditional things at that time—but it was to bring beautiful fonts and typography to people, it was to bring graphics to people . . . so that they could see beautiful photographs, or pictures, or artwork, et cetera . . . to help them communicate. . . . Our goal was to bring a liberal arts perspective and a liberal arts audience to what had traditionally been a very geeky technology and a very geeky audience.”

That same geeky technology is helping the museum bring art to new audiences. The museum will always be a cultural institution, a home of art and creative cultivation, but with the inspiration that Steve Jobs has given the prospects for us to expand our audiences are endless.

Thank you to Steve Jobs, a man of possibility who gave us all the tools to create our own artistic future.

Video: Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech, 2005