Blogs edited by Steve Dahlberg:
Applied Imagination   |   ageing as exile?   |   Creative Community Building

"Threads of Creativity in Art and Science" with Daniel Bernard Roumain
Join us from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 7, 2009, for a special Creativity Networking in Willimantic, Connecticut. Daniel Bernard Roumain will be joined by Imna Arroyo, Hedley Freake, additional scientists and artists, and the public to explore the intersection of creativity, art and science. ($5/RSVP by Email) ... Plus, mark your calendar for Daniel Bernard Roumain's return to Storrs, Connecticut, for a Special Bicentennial presentation of "Darwin's Meditation for The People of Lincoln" on February 12, 2009, celebrating that auspicious day of February 12, 1809, when Darwin and Lincoln were born within hours of one another (tickets and info).

University of Connecticut Launches Creative Community Building Program
An interdisciplinary team of university and community partners has developed a new Creative Community Building Program. Through its Center for Continuing Studies, the University of Connecticut will offer an undergraduate emphasis in this topic in its Bachelor of General Studies degree, as well as non-credit, professional development workshops and seminars. Sign up now for the three-credit Creativity +  Social Change course, to be offered Spring 2009 in Hartford, Connecticut, and taught by Steven Dahlberg.

Engaging Creative Community: Sculpting Society by Choice, Not by Chance
Steven Dahlberg contributed this piece to a cooperatively-produced issue of New Village Online, which has has just been released on the theme of "Unboxing Democracy's Magic." The four articles explore creativity, communities and democracy and include:

• Democracy Without Boxes or Borders - By Len Krimerman
• Democracy and Education: One Community Example - By Phoebe Godfrey
• Communiversity: Weaving a Community Web of Love and Hope - By Gus Jaccaci

Steven Dahlberg Participates in "COMV08: 2008 National Communiversity Conference"
Dahlberg joined nearly 40 people from 14 communities -- including Willimantic, Connecticut -- to share examples of community learning and creative engagement. The conference was held in Maine from July 25 to 27. Dahlberg and three other Windham-area residents represented the Imagine Willimantic Communiversity.

Think and Be Heard: Creativity, Aging, and Community Engagement (PDF)
Americans for the Arts releases white paper about creativity, arts and aging, written by Steven Dahlberg as a follow up to the 2007 MetLife Foundation National Arts Forum Series

Art with heart ... Community banner project to brighten downtown Rock Hill
The Herald of Rock Hill, South Carolina (7 February 2008) reports that "A splash of color will liven up the winter blahs in downtown Rock Hill, part of a community arts program sponsored by the Arts Council of York County and the Rock Hill school district. ... The community art project, titled Creativity: The Heart of the Community, is led by artists in residence Steven Dahlberg and JoAnn Moran, both from Connecticut. The project is a way for people to express themselves and participate in creating their own community through art, Dahlberg said. 'It is a way to engage people in creating their community and bring people together that wouldn't normally work together, like youth and adults.' Dahlberg said. ... Dahlberg said the project is collaborative, so everyone can add something."

Steven Dahlberg to Collaborate with Windham High School Young Poets
Steven Dahlberg and the International Centre for Creativity and Imagination will collaborate with Windham High School, The Young Poets group, and teacher Lynn Frazier for a semester-long, interdisciplinary "Think and Be Heard" creativity project.

Steven Dahlberg Selected in Case Foundation's Top 100 Breakthrough Ideas
Steven Dahlberg's proposal -- on behalf of his Willimantic, Connecticut, community -- has been selected from nearly 5,000 proposals as a Top 100 Idea Finalist in the Case Foundation's "Make It Your Own" Awards program. The project is for "Weaving a New Willimantic": A former thread-mill town weaves a new creative fabric --  where people's ideas matter, where we engage our creativity together and where we co-create our community's common good. We will use inclusive dialogue processes to coordinate current citizen-centered projects and to include more voices. - NEW! The Chronicle profiles Dahlberg and this project: "Dahlberg Brings People Together Through Creativity."

Continental Creative President: European Leader Calls for Culture, Diversity and Openness to Solve Global Problems
By Steven Dahlberg - European Commission President José Manuel Barroso's closing keynote at the Global Creative Leadership Summit made a strong case for the role of creativity, innovation and diversity for addressing global problems such as climate change and fighting poverty. "Those are the two main tasks of leadership in the 21st century," he said. The other global issue linked with solving climate change and poverty is culture. "Culture is a solution."

Local view: Now could be creative turning point for Duluth
Steven Dahlberg writes in the Duluth News Tribune (June 2007): As the Duluth-Superior area proceeds into the Knight Creative Communities Initiative, it’s important to consider how to engage everyone’s creativity — not just that of artists or the creative class — in community and economic development. ... For more than 15 years, I’ve been working internationally in the field of creativity, advocating for the importance of creative thinking and helping people unleash and harness more of their inherent creative abilities. Yet my creative endeavors began in Duluth as a teenage entrepreneur, a freelance writer and photographer and a political junkie. I am delighted to know that the Duluth-Superior area was among just three cities chosen by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to work with economist Richard Florida.

Seat-of-the-Pants Innovation
Steven Dahlberg talks about workplace creativity and innovation in Industrial Fabric Products Review article - May 2007

Applied Imagination
"It's not hard to engage your core creativity, says Steve Dahlberg, but it can feel awkward at first. ... 'Part of it is simply paying attention and noticing whether you're judging what you're thinking or are remaining open to putting the pieces together in different ways,' he says." - Quoted in Northwestern Mutual's Creative Living Magazine

After Katrina: Creativity's Role in Trauma and Growth (PDF)
Commentary: The residents in the Hurricane Katrina-hit areas are facing the challenge of asking "what next?" and of looking for ways to meaningfully engage in redefining their identities. The hurricane survivors aren't challenged about how to simply adapt one particular aspect of their lives. Rather, individuals, organizations and the community at-large are all asking: How might I completely recreate my own life, while simultaneously recreating my entire community from the ground up? This entire process and search is a creative act. And thriving in one's post-hurricane life is a challenge of the imagination.

Creativity by Choice, Not by Chance: Developing Imagination In the Intelligence Community (PDF)
A response to the 9/11 Commission Report that declared that it is "crucial to find a way of routinizing, even bureaucratizing, the exercise of imagination" and to the House of Representatives Committee on Intelligence hearings that followed in August to discuss the intelligence community’s "failure of imagination" and the "requirement for imagination and creativity" going forward.

COMING UP:
Steven Dahlberg hosts monthly Creativity Networking event - WindhamARTS, 886 Main Street, Willimantic, Connecticut - 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. - January 7, 2009: "Threads of Creativity in Art and Science" with Daniel Bernard Roumain and Imna Arroyo, Hedley Freake. additional scientists and artists, and the public

Steven Dahlberg invited to participate in creative education dialogue, preceding Sir Ken Robinson event - January 14, 2009 - The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum - Ridgefield, Connecticut

"Creativity + Social Change" undergraduate course in the Creative Community Building Program at the University of Connecticut - Taught by Steven Dahlberg - 6:30-9:00 p.m. - Tuesdays, Spring Semester 2009, starting January 20, 2009 - Hartford, Connecticut

Steven Dahlberg invited to lead "Engaging Creative Communities" panel to kick off "Building Creative Communities" symposium - January 21, 2009 - Quinebaug Valley Community College - Danielson, Connecticut

Steven Dahlberg to lead creativity workshop for Connecticut Arts Administrators Association - January 22, 2009 - Hartford, Connecticut

Steven Dahlberg invited to produce public events in conjunction with the "Darwin's Meditation for the People of Lincoln" performance with artist Daniel Bernard Roumain - February 11-13, 2009 - Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts - University of Connecticut - Storrs, Connecticut

RECENT NEWS AND EVENTS:
Steven Dahlberg participates in "Urban Culture, Urban Agriculture?" symposium - December 1, 2008 - MIT Visual Arts Program - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Steven Dahlberg participates in "Institute for Teaching Artists" - December 1, 2008 - Lesley University - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Steven Dahlberg to lead "Engaging Creative Communities" panel at World Cultural Economic Forum - October 30-31, 2008 - New Orleans, Louisiana

"Creativity and Social Change" undergraduate course in the Creative Community Building Program at the University of Connecticut - With Steven Dahlberg and Phoebe Godfrey - 6:00-9:00 p.m. - Tuesdays and Thursday, September 9 to October 23, 2008 - Storrs, Connecticut

Steven Dahlberg teaches "Principles of Problem Solving" course - Fall 2008 - Quinebaug Valley Community College - Danielson, Connecticut

Steven Dahlberg appointed to serve on Ad-Hoc Committee on Economic Development for the Town of Windham, Connecticut - July 2008

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"Every human being is an artist ... called to participate in transforming and reshaping the conditions, thinking and structures that shape and condition our lives."
:: Joseph Beuys