Like Chuck Close (“Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work.”), Isabel Allende (“Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too.”), E. B.

What’s more, regardless of whether they work in the arts or in other businesses, more then three-quarters of arts graduates say that critical thinking, creativity, and the ability to work with others are skills they both learned in school and use on a regular basis in their current work. Arts graduates are plucky and understand how to use their creative skills in a variety of settings.

The Talk Shop charges nothing and will be open through April 13 at the West 37th Street space, which was brokered through Chashama, an organization that connects arts groups with underutilized real estate in the city. Passersby can see into the salon, and can watch Mr. Redleaf and his team of “shop talkers”—people including comedians, drag queens, authors and a life coach who help keep the conversations going—as they talk to whomever comes in. To make the Talk Shop inviting, Mr. Redleaf set up a beach umbrella and chairs, hung a string of lights and painted the walls lemon yellow.

From one perspective, creativity is the ability or act of making something new. It's the quality that lets us go beyond our current designs, concepts, and perceptions and emerge with something completely new. It's the quality that lets artists start with a blank canvas and create masterful images. It lets writers start with a blank page or computer screen and create new stories. It lets sculptors start with a block of stone and create meaningful shapes. And it lets engineers start with a need and define products or processes that meet that need.