Continuing Creative Conversations

by Catie Talarski

Photo by Chion Wolf

This past November, Where We Live paired with Real Art Ways to explore Hartford’s Creative Class: Can Hartford, the former insurance capital of the world, support a creative class? What (and who) is already here – and how can we connect them? How does the greater Hartford region contribute to Hartford’s creative landscape? What are the elements of a dynamic city – and where should Hartford focus its energy? What are the city’s barriers to a bustling creative economy?

We had a great conversation with artists, community leaders and residents of Hartford.   Coming up on Monday April 19, we’re continuing the conversation on Creativity with Scott Noppe-Brandon, the Executive Director of the Lincoln Center Institute.  He’s on a mission to have  “Imagination Conversations” in 50 states over two years.  All of the Conversations will be documented and final proposals for nationwide educational reform will be made at a national Imagination Summit in New York in the summer or fall of 2011. At the Summit, Imagination Conversation findings and an action agenda will be presented to public policy makers, educators, legislators and the media in an effort to make cultivation of imagination a key element in our schools.

Steve Dahlberg, head of the International Centre for Creativity and Imagination has been instrumental in bringing this Imagination Conversation to Connecticut.    This Conversation will focus on the role of imagination in education, creative community and economic development, and creative leadership in organizations. It seeks to build a relevant imagination-fueled agenda for the state to pursue. ICCI will coordinate follow-up action that emerges from this conversation, as well as additional future conversations.

The Conversation, moderated by John Dankosky, will feature Scott Noppe-Brandon along with leaders from an array of fields — government, business, science, education, and the arts — to explore the ways they experience and promote imagination in their work and communities. The goal of the Conversation is to present imagination as a key cognitive capacity, one that leads to creativity and innovation; and to help build awareness of imagination as a key skill in work and in life.

The Imagination Conversation will be in the auditorium of the Library Building at the University of Connecticut Greater Hartford Campus, 1800 Asylum Ave., West Hartford, Conn., 06117. The event begins with networking at 6 p.m. and the Imagination Conversation at 7 p.m. More details, along with parking and registration information, are available at: http://www.appliedimagination.org

The taped broadcast will air on Where We Live Friday April 23, 9-10AM.

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