Imagination
is more important than knowledge / Knowledge is limited / Imagination
encircles the world /
ALBERTEINSTEIN
CREATIVITY
NETWORKING 2010 - Archives
New Milford, Connecticut
This
monthly Creativity Networking Series provides a forum for exploring the many
facets of creativity and for discovering other people interested in
creativity. Creativity Networking is presented by The Silo at Hunt Hill Farm
and the International Centre for Creativity and
Imagination. Steven Dahlberg, head of the International Centre for Creativity and
Imagination, curates and hosts each month's program with guest
facilitators leading each topic.
The
2010 Creativity Networking sessions are held at The
Silo at Hunt Hill Farm (44 Upland Road, New Milford, Connecticut
06776) on one Sunday each month from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.
JANUARY
10, 2010:
Creativity: What Is It? ... with creativity educator Steven Dahlberg January
marks the relaunch of the monthly Creativity Networking series -- this
time in northwest Connecticut! In the first session, come and explore the
general topic of "what is creativity?" -- plus, who has it, and
how one can tap into more creativity both personally and professionally.
Steven Dahlberg, who will host the series, also will lead the kick-off
session in January.
Steven
Dahlberg is the head of the International Centre for
Creativity and Imagination and teaches "Creativity + Social
Change" at the University of Connecticut. Find out more online at www.appliedimagination.org.
FEBRUARY
14, 2010:
Food & Creativity: A Love Story ... with
chef and food scholar James Simpkins ... and Series Curator Steven
Dahlberg Chef
and food scholar James Simpkins will facilitate a dialogue about today's
occurrences of the age-old interaction of community, food and love. In
nearly every culture, dietary customs and traditions -- as well as taboos
-- have a special, foundational role in society's infrastructure. Since we
must eat to live, acquiring food is always our primary concern; yet, we
want more than calories. We are also highly selective about who we share
meals with. But what practical sense can we make of the contemporary forms
of these connections? Come and explore how a responsible, sustainable and
selective food culture -- a topic which engages creativity and love -- can
always assist in creating successful communities in both historical and
current contexts.
James
Simpkins is currently a Ph.D. student in the Comparative Literary
and Cultural Studies program at the University of Connecticut. A
former chef, Simpkins brings formal culinary education and a love of
epicurean ritual to the semiotics of food and hospitality in
nineteenth-century French, American and Victorian literature. Closer
to home, James spends time fishing for trout in the Farmington River
and can be found in spring and summer around farmers' markets
mingling with fellow food junkies in rural Connecticut food culture.
MARCH
14, 2010: Thinking Out Loud: Drawing
as Thinking ... with The Aldrich Museum's Carolina Pedraza, Artist Laura Kaufman, and additional guests ... and Series Curator Steven
Dahlberg We'll use
The Aldrich Museum's DrawOn! project as a jumping off point to explore the creative process,
and how creativity and community can be nurtured through something as basic as drawing.
Hear engaging DrawOn! examples from around the region and experience yourself a bit of thinking out loud through
drawing!
Laura Kaufman
holds a B.A. from Vassar College where she was the recipient of the
Weitzel-Barber Art Travel Prize. After living in northern Japan to satisfy her appetite for Japanese art and architecture, Laura earned an
M.F.A. in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design. Teaching is central to her career, and in 2008 the Connecticut Art Education Association named her Museum Educator of the Year. She lives on a small lake in New York.
Find out more about the artist and her
work.
APRIL
11, 2010:
CREATIVITY NETWORKING ... CO-LOCATED WITH THE ARTISTS IN
TRANSITION CONFERENCE (AT SPECIAL OFF-SITE LOCATION) For and about
artists facing health issues, as well as for non-disabled artists,
arts administrators and anyone interested in creativity, diversity and
accomplishment ... with workshop by Steven Dahlberg on 'Creative
Thinking, Aging and Living: Engaging our Strengths, Living our
Purpose' NOTE: The April Creativity Networking will meet in collaboration
with this conference on Sunday, April 11, 2010, from 12:00 to 5:00
p.m. at the Westside Campus Center Building, Western Connecticut State
University, Danbury, Connecticut.
MAY
16, 2010:
Creativity, Arts and Healing ... with Artist Marion Pierce, Educator
Joel Levitt and Series Curator Steven Dahlberg This
month's Creativity Networking is a follow-up to last month's Artists in
Transition (AiT) Conference. Join AiT founder Joel Levitt, artist Marion
Pierce, and Creativity Networking curator Steven Dahlberg to explore the role
that creativity and arts play in healing, health and well- being. Learn how
Intuitive Art can help you listen to your instincts and express what your
body feels, and how engaging your creativity helps engage your life purpose. Please print and post this flyer to spread the word about
this event.
Marion
Pierce is an artist and director of therapeutic recreation for Filosa
facilities in Danbury, Connecticut. She has taught her "Healing
Art" program for several organizations.
Joel
Levitt is founder of Artists in Transition and the former coordinator
of the K-12 arts for Danbury Public Schools.
Steven
Dahlberg heads the International Centre for Creativity and Imagination
and teaches "Creativity + Social Change" at the University of
Connecticut.
JUNE
20, 2010:
Discovering Creativity Through Everyday Movement ... with
Pilobolus Renee
Jaworski, Rehearsal Director and Artistic Associate, Pilobolus; and Series Curator Steven Dahlberg Some people need to move their bodies to think, while other people
think their bodies are incapable of moving. Yet, we are made to move.
It's a fundamental aspect of who we are and what we do everyday.
Sometimes, however, we lose touch with this capacity. Explore -- with
a master of movement from Pilobolus -- how movement and play can help
us tap into more of our creativity and reconnect with our physical
selves. Come and be inspired, provoked and encouraged to discover
creativity and communication through everyday movement. This session
will be part Pilobolus story, part creative process and part
experiential ... and is open to everyone. No special skills required.
Plus, check out Pilobolus'
free performance at Hartford's Riverfront Recapture stage at 7
p.m. the night before on June 19! (Pilobolus
Photo by John Kane)
Renee
Jaworski, originally from Long Island, NY, received her
BFA in Modern Dance from the University of the Arts in
Philadelphia. She performed and taught for MOMIX after graduating,
and later with Group Motion and Carolyn Dorfman. She has been
dancing and teaching for Pilobolus since 2000. Pilobolus
began in 1971 as an outsider dance company, and quickly became
renowned the world over for its imaginative and athletic
exploration of creative collaboration. Nearly 40 years later, it
has evolved into a pioneering American cultural institution of the
21st century. The PILOBOLUS DANCE THEATRE is the umbrella for a
series of radically innovative and globally acclaimed concert
dance companies.
Steven
Dahlberg heads the International Centre for Creativity and
Imagination and teaches "Creativity + Social Change" at
the University of Connecticut.
JULY
11, 2010:
CREATIVITY NETWORKING: The World Becomes What You Teach ... Creativity in the World Shawn Sweeney, Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots National Program
Coordinator; and Steven
Dahlberg, International Centre for Creativity and Imagination
When we talk about social issues, and solutions to them, the final conclusion always leads to education as the solution. If we want to create a world that is healthy, peaceful and sustainable for people, animals and the environment, then we must empower each other with the knowledge, tools and motivation to create that world. In this workshop, "The World Becomes What You Teach ... Creativity in the World," explore the ways in which we can use creativity to bring this practice to the classroom and to our everyday lives. Learn how we can promote this world by changing the way we teach and the way that we engage our students and everyone in our lives in becoming problem-solvers and change makers. Led by Shawn Sweeney, National Program Coordinator for Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots, with Steven Dahlberg, Director of the International Centre for Creativity and Imagination, and Series Curator for Creativity Networking. Creativity Networking is Sunday,
July 11, from 2
to 3:30 p.m.
Shawn
Sweeney is a National Program Coordinator with Jane
Goodall's Roots & Shoots, the environmental and humanitarian
youth program of the Jane Goodall
Institute. For over ten years, beginning in High School, Shawn has
explored his passions in youth leadership and wildlife conservation. This
work led him to leadership in Roots & Shoots as a group leader, as a
graduate fellow, and now as a staff member. In his role with Roots &
Shoots, Shawn manages press, print and electronic communications, event
planning and the continued development of the Roots
& Shoots Youth Leadership Initiative. Shawn has spoken on youth
leadership, humane education and community service around the United
States, and has contributed to publications on Roots & Shoots and
service-learning. He is currently a M.Ed. student with the Institute
for Humane Education and is on course to graduate in May of 2011. He
earned his B.A. in psychology at the College of Wooster in 2006. After
completing his Master's degree, Shawn plans to pursue a doctoral degree in
social psychology with an emphasis in conservation psychology.
AUGUST
8, 2010:
CREATIVITY NETWORKING: The "Don’t Know" of Creativity Fran Patnaude, Artist and Educator; and Steven
Dahlberg, International Centre for Creativity and Imagination
We
have become a culture obsessed with measuring everything under the sun. Why
then wouldn't we need to find some standard or measurement to gauge the
creative process? We'll investigate and focus on the aspects that are beyond
measure and beyond formula that are critical to clarifying and cultivating
the natural accord of creativity. The workshop includes hands-on activities,
silence and meditation as tools to experience the important space of
stillness within a person's creative process.
Francis
T. Patnaude, Jr., is an artist, based in Bethlehem, Connecticut. He
also teaches art and is the art department chair at Rumsey Hall School in
Washington, Connecticut, and an adjunct professor of art at Western
Connecticut State University in Danbury, Connecticut. His art work has
appeared in numerous shows and his previous work includes welding and art
metal fabrication. He holds an M.F.A in sculpture and has also studied
photography and Zen arts with John Daido Loori, Roshi.
SEPTEMBER
19, 2010: CREATIVITY NETWORKING:
Creativity and Sustainability in Communities Steven
Dahlberg, International Centre for Creativity and Imagination; and
Community Farmer/Educator David Cherniske
If you are interested in food,
"local" and sustainable agriculture, come and explore the
symbiotic relationship between creativity and sustainability. Challenge
yourself to think in new ways and imagine new possibilities about food,
agriculture and the environment. Explore how creative thinking helps us
understand systems, connections and alternatives better as we consider
what we eat, how we eat, where food comes from and the impact of all of
this on the environment. Creativity Networking is Sunday, September 29, from 2
to 3:30 p.m. Find more about Creativity Networking
here.
Steven
Dahlberg is director of the International Centre for
Creativity and Imagination, which is dedicated to applying
creativity to improve the well-being of individuals, organizations
and communities. He teaches "Creativity + Social Change"
at the University of Connecticut, and leads professional
development workshops for educators, nonprofits and businesses. He
facilitates creative thinking and problem solving sessions, writes
about creativity, and contributes to various media about
creativity, imagination and innovation. He currently curates a
monthly Creativity Networking series in Connecticut and organizes
Imagination Conversations in Connecticut as part of a national
initiative of the Lincoln Center Institute. He has worked with
Yale University, Guggenheim Museum, Yahoo!, Americans for the
Arts, Danbury Public Schools, World Knowledge Forum, City of
Providence, 3M, Aldrich Museum, State of Connecticut, and Rhode
Island College, among other organizations. He helped toy inventors
launch a creativity consulting business and taught an
undergraduate creativity course for incarcerated men. He is
particularly interested in creative education, creative community
building, local food and sustainable agriculture, and creative
aging. Find more at http://www.appliedimagination.org.
David
Cherniske is a community farmer and educator. He is currently
collaborating with middle school students on a garden project at
the Pratt Nature Center in New Milford, Connecticut. He has a deep
interest in integrating age-old farming practices with
cutting-edge thinking about farming, agriculture, land and
animals. Find more at http://www.prattcenter.org.
OCTOBER
24, 2010:
CREATIVITY
NETWORKING:
Creativity,
Intuition and Spirituality
Doris Shallcross, Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts at
Amherst
One of the
major means by which human beings liberate themselves from conditioned
responses and usual choices is through creativity. For many, creativity and
spirituality are intertwined. The spiritual is not morality, not ethics, not
organized religion (although it can be for some), not psychic. Spirit is an
essential need of human nature. There is something in all of us that seeks
the spiritual. It is a yearning that varies in strength from person to
person. Come and explore the connections between creativity and spirituality. Creativity Networking is Sunday,
October 24, from 2
to 3:30 p.m.
Doris J. Shallcross, Ed.D.,
is professor emeritus of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where she directed the graduate program in creativity. Her major work there was with doctoral candidates specializing in creative behavior. She is a consulting editor for the Journal of Creative Behavior. She is president of the board of trustees of a performing arts charter high school and past president of an arts-in-education nonprofit that trained teachers to integrate the arts into their curricula. She is the author and co-author of several books.
NOVEMBER
21, 2010:
CREATIVITY
NETWORKING: Epic Creativity ... Storytelling from the Classics to Video Games Roger Travis, University of Connecticut Professor of Classics;
Director, Video Games and Human Values Initiative
Are video
games and virtual worlds modern-day literature? Are they places where
traditional tales are reimagined in modern form? Are virtual worlds living
epics where the bard wears new clothes? Discover where creativity lives in
the retelling of stories in multiple ways, whether through the classics or
through modern technology. Roger Travis, associate professor of classics at
the University of Connecticut, explores how games and gamer culture are much
older and better things than most people think. Come and explore the
creativity of this topic -- whether or not you are interested in gaming and
technology! Creativity Networking is Sunday,
November 21, from 2
to 3:30 p.m.
Roger
Travis is associate professor of classics in the Department of Modern
and Classical Languages of the University of Connecticut. He is also the
director of the Video Games and Human
Values Initiative, based at UConn, an interdisciplinary online nexus
for online courses and scholarly activities like fellowships, symposia,
and the initiative’s Proceedings, of which Travis is the editor. He
received his bachelor’s degree in classics from Harvard College, and his
Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of California,
Berkeley before arriving at UConn in 1997. He has published on Homeric
epic, Greek tragedy, Greek historiography, the 19th century British novel,
HALO, and the massively-multiplayer online role-playing game. He has been
president of the Classical Association of New England and of the Classical
Association of Connecticut. He writes the blog, Living
Epic, about his discovery of the fundamental connection between
ancient epic and the narrative video game. In the 2009-2010 academic year,
Travis offered the first
courses ever designed entirely as practomimes, a form of serious game.
January
marks the relaunch of the monthly Creativity Networking series -- this
time in northwest Connecticut! In the first session, come and explore the
general topic of "what is creativity?" -- plus, who has it, and
how one can tap into more creativity both personally and professionally.
Steven Dahlberg, who will host the series, also will lead the kick-off
session in January.
Chef
and food scholar James Simpkins will facilitate a dialogue about today's
occurrences of the age-old interaction of community, food and love. In
nearly every culture, dietary customs and traditions -- as well as taboos
-- have a special, foundational role in society's infrastructure. Since we
must eat to live, acquiring food is always our primary concern; yet, we
want more than calories. We are also highly selective about who we share
meals with. But what practical sense can we make of the contemporary forms
of these connections? Come and explore how a responsible, sustainable and
selective food culture -- a topic which engages creativity and love -- can
always assist in creating successful communities in both historical and
current contexts.
Thinking Out Loud: Drawing
as Thinking ... with The Aldrich Museum's Carolina Pedraza, Artist Laura Kaufman, and additional guests ... and Series Curator Steven
Dahlberg
Some people need to move their bodies to think, while other people
think their bodies are incapable of moving. Yet, we are made to move.
It's a fundamental aspect of who we are and what we do everyday.
Sometimes, however, we lose touch with this capacity. Explore -- with
a master of movement from Pilobolus -- how movement and play can help
us tap into more of our creativity and reconnect with our physical
selves. Come and be inspired, provoked and encouraged to discover
creativity and communication through everyday movement. This session
will be part Pilobolus story, part creative process and part
experiential ... and is open to everyone. No special skills required.
Plus, check out 
When we talk about social issues, and solutions to them, the final conclusion always leads to education as the solution. If we want to create a world that is healthy, peaceful and sustainable for people, animals and the environment, then we must empower each other with the knowledge, tools and motivation to create that world. In this workshop, "The World Becomes What You Teach ... Creativity in the World," explore the ways in which we can use creativity to bring this practice to the classroom and to our everyday lives. Learn how we can promote this world by changing the way we teach and the way that we engage our students and everyone in our lives in becoming problem-solvers and change makers. Led by Shawn Sweeney, National Program Coordinator for Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots, with Steven Dahlberg, Director of the International Centre for Creativity and Imagination, and Series Curator for Creativity Networking. Creativity Networking is Sunday,
July 11, from 2
to 3:30 p.m. 
Francis
T. Patnaude, Jr., is an artist, based in Bethlehem, Connecticut. He
also teaches art and is the art department chair at Rumsey Hall School in
Washington, Connecticut, and an adjunct professor of art at Western
Connecticut State University in Danbury, Connecticut. His art work has
appeared in numerous shows and his previous work includes welding and art
metal fabrication. He holds an M.F.A in sculpture and has also studied
photography and Zen arts with John Daido Loori, Roshi.