Jim Jacoby of the American Design and Master-Craft Initiative and Jim Cohen of BeSparked interviewed me in July for this series of master designer podcasts. What, you may ask, do I have to do with design? Ah ha! You’ll just have to listen to this wide-ranging 47 minute interview where I talk about my background in the arts and the connections between design, space and civic engagement. If you do listen – please comment at the bottom of the podcast web page.
The CivicLab is thrilled to host the Chicago version of the Global Card Board Challenge on October 5, from1pm to 4pm.
Watch this video and YOU will want to play with us!
This is a kid’s event and is perfect way for a family to foster imagination and engaged play AND expose kids to design, science, engineering and a whole lot more. There is no charge but you must read the directions and register via EventBrite.
There is a new publication covering the intersection of the arts, creativity and business, Artworks Journal. They asked me for an manifesto for their first issue. Download the brief essay as a pdf -> Tresser-Poetics.
Another reflection on the power of the arts, creativity and the humanities. This time it’s from Steve Jobs, from his presentation on the iPad 2 in early 2011. Reflecting on the success of Apple (and his own career), he said “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough — it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing and nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices.”
From the Center for American Progress comes a new study, “The Competition That Really Matters: Comparing U.S., Chinese and Indian Investments in the Next Generation Workforce.” Download summary (12 pages) = The Competition That_Really_Matters-summary.
“To position the United States for the future, substantial investments are needed in research, infrastructure, and education. The most important of these areas to address is education. Why? Because as this report shows, the overwhelming economic evidence points to education—and human capital investments, generally—as the key drivers of economic competitiveness in the long term.”
Are you hearing anything like this in the current flurry of ads around the Presidential race?
There are truly no limits to creativity and ingenuity! Read the story here.
The 2012 Creative Chicago Expo is this Friday and Saturday at The Chicago Cultural Center. I will be conducting a round table discussion on how the creative community might organize for power. The discussions will be held in Preston Bradley Hall (on the second floor of the Cultural Center) near the Chicago Artists Resource table. Anyone is welcome to attend and join the conversation. My session will be on Saturday, March 24 at 11am.
Stand Up For Creativity 2012: Time To Advocate for Power & Resources – how to get serious resources for the arts and artists in Chicago and the U.S.
I’ve been added to the faculty of The Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship’s 2012 Boost Camp. The Boost Camp is a series of 12 online experiences will help you work through a variety of relevant and specific topics to help you build your creative career. You will be guided and given the tools and information needed to execute your strategy you develop during the course. You will be introduced to creative, entrepreneurial and innovative experts from around the world, along with a community of artists with whom you will be able to share knowledge and opportunities. I’ll be doing a session on “Introduction to the Creative Economy – Why Creativity Fuels Progress” on June 9. Learn more here…
We know there is no one simple path that’s right for everyone. Boost Camp provides lectures by industry experts, group interaction and one-on-one sessions.
Good Magazine made this two minute video illustrating the 2010 IBM Global CEO Report where over 1,500 CEOs from 63 countries said that creativity was the Number One trait they are looking for from their managers. That’s why I’m teaching a class on creativity and business at the IIT Stuart School of Business.
GOOD Magazine Illustrates IBM’s 2010 CEO Study from Kaldor on Vimeo.
Vaclav Havel waves to crowds in Prague, shortly before becoming Czech president in December 1989.
Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright, human rights activist and yes – politician – died on December 18. Beloved in his country for speaking passionately and eloquently to power, he was was elected to the post of interim president of Czechoslovakia on December 29, 1989, and he was reelected to the presidency in July 1990. He served again as President of the Czech Republic until 2003. He was jailed and his plays banned yet he continued to create and speak out and serve as a moral “North Star” for his nation.
Prime Minister David Cameron said. “Havel devoted his life to the cause of human freedom. For years, communism tried to crush him, and to extinguish his voice. But Havel, the playwright and the dissident, could not be silenced. No-one of my generation will ever forget those powerful scenes from Wenceslas Square two decades ago. Havel led the Czech people out of tyranny. And he helped bring freedom and democracy to our entire continent. Europe owes Vaclav Havel a profound debt. Today his voice has fallen silent. But his example and the cause to which he devoted his life will live on.”
I’ve spent the past twenty years trying to make the case that artists can make great public leaders. I’ve tried to convince the people that control our arts schools and academies where creative professionals are trained to offer classes on public policy that connect the dots between the creative act and the health of the nation. I’ve tried to get the leaders of our professional societies to offer leadership training to their members. No sale.
And yet, Vaclav Havel, then the President of the Czechoslovak Republic, the playwright and former dissident who spent a number of years in his country’s jails for his words and work, said the following at a Joint Session of The United States Congress on February 21, 1990:
“The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and In human responsibility… If I subordinate my political behavior to this imperative mediated to me by my conscience, I can’t go far wrong….
This is why I ultimately decided ‑‑ after resisting for a long time ‑‑ to accept the burden of political responsibility. I am not the first, nor will I be the last, intellectual to do this…If the Hope of the world lies in human consciousness, then it is obvious that intellectuals cannot go on forever avoiding their share of responsibility for the world and hiding their distaste for politics under an alleged need to be independent….
When Thomas Jefferson wrote that ‘Governments are instituted among Men deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed,’ it was a simple and important act of the human spirit. What gave meaning to that act, however, was the fact that author backed it up with his life. It was not just the words, it was his deeds as well.”
How ironic that the artist who held the highest post of his country spoke to OUR Congress about the civic duties of the public intellectual and cited Thomas Jefferson as an inspiration!
Where are America’s public intellectuals? When will they stop avoiding their “share of responsibility” and add strong public deeds to the wise professional words they love to proclaim and publish? Here’s a first step – Join and help organize for CForward.