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Creativity: Worlds in the Making
Call for Submissions
Deadline: October 1, 2008

Creativity: Worlds in the Making
A National Symposium at Wake Forest University
March 18-20, 2009

Call for Submissions
Deadline: October 1, 2008

 

An Initiative from the Office of Entrepreneurship and Liberal Arts
Symposium Organizer: Lynn Book, Program Director for Creativity and Innovation
Contact: creativity@wfu.edu

Objective: This national symposium in the “City of the Arts” on the campus of Wake Forest University advances the national discourse on creativity as a core literacy in today’s global environment. It does so by highlighting emerging creative research and practice across disciplines within university settings as well as elaborating dynamic models for collaborations between the academy and society. Diverse and challenging perspectives on creative practice, innovative process and entrepreneurial invention will be delivered by some of the most visionary voices and practitioners of the day in the arts, humanities, business and sciences. The dynamic and interactive format of “Creativity: Worlds in the Making” combines traditional presentation, innovative performance and exhibitions with participatory working sessions and are designed as a call for the revaluation of creativity and its transformative potentials in shaping an imaginative, humane and interdependent future.

Symposium Themes:

* Creativity Considered as Literacy
* Interdisciplinary Creative Process and Practice
* Creative Engagement as Catalyst for Social Change
* Creative Leadership and Collaboration

Symposium Goals:

* Provide an Intensive Environment for Inquiry into and Experience of Creativity
* Contribute to the National Discourse on Creativity and Entrepreneurship through Knowledge and Work Sharing
* Stimulate University-wide and Regional Community Building through Partnerships and Networks
* Inspire and Facilitate the Launch of Innovative Proposals and Initiatives

Synopsis: Creativity: Worlds in the Making is designed to establish a robust, interdisciplinary context for stimulating active creativity research and public scholarship through the dynamic interaction between individuals, ideas and practice emerging from diverse disciplines and cultural spheres. In the spirit of ancient Greek symposia, social engagement will be embraced to provide a convivial framework that encompasses presentations, panels, interactive sessions, a performance and an exhibition. Today, creative scholarship is called upon to generate meaningful new pathways by operating between disciplines, moving out of the halls of institutions and carving out new places within the public domain. This creativity on the move is reflected in partnerships with other Wake Forest departments and schools including: Secrest Performance Series, the Charlotte and Phillip Hanes Gallery, Scales University Theater, the medical campus and larger communities. A cross-section of internationally respected scholars, artists, scientists and cultural citizens will be invited to engage in a critical discourse on creativity imperatives, lead panels and unfold creative processes in action, with the implicit objective of fostering the imagination of ‘new worlds’. In addition to national guests, noted regional and local voices will contribute to the fabric of discussion, debate and exploration along with Wake Forest’s own distinguished faculty who are involved in developing creative models for teaching, research and collaboration. Together, this ad hoc gathering of ‘cultural creatives’ – including all participants – will formulate diverse and heterogeneous pathways for creative citizenship.

The proposition that a new ethos of creativity is essential for the 21st century citizen underlies this symposium – an ethics rich with imagination, bold in action and driven by a conscious commitment to a just and sustainable future. The deeply rooted humanity that can naturally spring from conscious connections with creative potential is our clarion call to actively imagine new worlds. In this sense, creativity is especially critical for the student of today who aspires to be a leader of tomorrow. S/he must develop a more refined knowledge and experience base of creative principles and practices that reach across disciplinary, cultural and economic divides. The impact that creative engagement has on the development of self in relation to others must be revalued in light of our constantly changing and increasingly complex world. The translational capacity of creativity catalyzes the imperative for a serious investment in imaginative, practical and communicational competencies to generate not only new ideas responsibly, but new models for implementing them that have the long view of sustainable practice and humane outcomes always in mind.

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