Abstract
The purpose of this article is to consideration how artists perceive their creativity in art projects. Creativity or creating new values has been attracting attention through such concepts as “the creative city”, although the sociology of the arts has not taken account of creativity. Art projects in which artists and citizens try to stimulate their communities through art and cultural activities have developed throughout Japan, but artists feel a duality in their art activities. They have an “art-orientation” directed to making their works valuable in aesthetic or artistic terms. At the same time, they have a “relation-orientation” that regards making relationships as important. This duality makes the activities of artists more difficult. Nonetheless, they are trying to achieve a creative balance between these two orientations.
