With skills such as flexibility and originality increasingly required by an economy struggling to adapt to sudden and seismic change, there is renewed interest in what engagement in culture and creativity can offer. This author discovered that the difference such engagement can make to people's lives has long been recognised at Morley College. Morley College has a long, and rather distinguished, association with the creative and artistic world. It goes back all the way to its origins in the cramped cloakrooms of the Old Vic theatre, which, in the 1880s, was taken over by social reformer Emma Cons. According to Morley's current principal, Ela Piotrowska, one of the guiding principles throughout the college's history has been to bring together "leading creative spirits who want to impart some of their excitement, their expertise" to working men and women. The vision of the college is to provide something to captivate people's imaginations outside their working lives. Morley, Piotrowska says, is a place where people learn "for the sheer pleasure of new learning", where, alongside the chance to learn more technical skills, there is opportunity "for reflection, development of intellectual skills and creativity". But while striving to be true to its core mission the college has also had to adapt to changing political and economic circumstance and ensure that the economic need for creativity is firmly registered. Human creativity is the ultimate economic resource--new ideas, opportunity to experiment and find better ways of doing things, the pleasure and growth in confidence and self-esteem that creative activity brings, all contribute to raising productivity and living standards as well as community cohesion and individual wellbeing. And human creativity is a virtually limitless resource.