Scott Noppe-Brandon On the Creativity World Forum

December 01, 2010 - November 15-17: The Annual Creativity World Forum took place in Oklahoma City. LCI's Executive Director, Scott Noppe-Brandon, was on hand to ensure that creativity's inseparable companion, imagination, got its due. Lincoln Center Institute: As its name indicates, The Creativity Forum focuses heavily on creativity, whereas you are by now recognized internationally for your conviction that the imagination comes first in what you call the ICI continuum—imagination, creativity, innovation. Were you something of the odd man out? Scott Noppe-Brandon: No, I merely begged to differ (laughs). Seriously, I was the opposite of the odd man out. LCI's work preceded me, and I was not only able to bring ICI into the conversation, it was widely accepted. No doubt, creativity and innovation are common buzz words in industry these days, but the question "how do we get there" inevitably poses itself. Once you put forth the proposition that the imagination…

LCI: Report from the Field

December 01, 2010 - Members of LCI have just returned from their latest consultancy visit to the Lafayette Parish School System in Louisiana to report a resounding success. Over two years, nearly 170 teachers delved deep into LCI's approach to imaginative teaching, and now, in the third and final year of the consultancy, it is clear that the work is paying off. During this visit, the effort centered on two schools within the Parish. LCI's Director of Strategic Alliances, Cathryn Williams, and teaching artist Jean Taylor piloted LCI's newest object of study: two picture books. Frederick, Leo Lionni's philosophically-inclined mouse, was taught to K-5 students at the JW James School; The Arrival, Shaun Tan's classic story of the immigrant as a stranger in a strange land, was used with sixth-grade science, English, math, and social studies classes at the L. J. Alleman Arts Academy. The students at both schools loved their lessons, as did…

10 Twitters: Creative Doers

December 01, 2010 - We are entering a new age where creativity and creative problem solving are becoming increasingly important. In our third installment of the 10 Twitters series, we have identified ten individuals who actively apply their imagination to make or do something. These "creative doers" range from composers to scientists, but all are on Twitter, documenting and sharing their journey with creativity in 140 words or less. http://twitter.com/drawstuffNancy Carlson: A children's book author and illustrator of more than 60 titles. One of our favorites is Henry's Amazing Imagination, which is about a shy mouse who channels his imagination into creative writing. Carlson's tweets range from local Minnesota gallery openings to posts of her daily doodles. http://twitter.com/therealgirltalkGregg Gillis: Better known by his stage name Girl Talk. Gillis has revolutionized digital sampling (and fair use) by piecing together hundreds of already well-known songs to make a "mashup." He frequently…

Use MindMeister to Create Concept Maps

December 01, 2010 - Looking for an easy and attractive way to organize information graphically? Our Resource Center staff has been on the lookout for an online tool that would simplify creation of the "contextual webs" that map out concepts related to the historical-social-artistic contexts of each of Lincoln Center Institute's repertory works of art. MindMeister is a great contender! A 4-minute tutorial video shows you how to map out your concepts, draw connections, format font and color, and add notes, web links, attachments, and images to different elements in the map. And it's easy to "drag-and-drop" elements to rearrange the map. They even have tools to search the web for you and offer up suggestions. (Click here and scroll down for the tutorial). Check out this Ghostcatching contextual web created with MindMeister. It was downloaded as a PDF, which means that the web links are…

Ghostcatching Gets Re-envisioned and Heads to Sundance

December 01, 2010 - We have been offering Ghostcatching by Bill T. Jones and the OpenEnded Group as a work of art for two years running. So we are especially excited that a new 3-D enhanced version of it, called After Ghostcatching, has been selected for the New Frontier program at the Sundance Film Festival. This program highlights work that pushes traditional boundaries by focusing on the convergence of art, film, and new media in contemporary film. Take a look at the lineup in the 2011 New Frontier Sneak Peek and help us to congratulate Bill T. Jones and the OpenEnded Group!…

A Successful Year of Imagination Conversations

November 01, 2010 - It's been a year since the start of Lincoln Center Institute's national Imagination Conversations initiative, a series of moderated public panel discussions in which leaders from education, government, business, science, and the arts gather to talk about the role of imagination in their work and life. For LCI, the project's ultimate objective is to revitalize American education by the inclusion of imagination, creativity and innovation in to school curricula. So far, 45 Conversations in 36 States have occurred or been planned, building momentum for America's Imagination Summit at Lincoln Center in July 2011, which will feature a call for action and present a series of steps towards education policy change. Five Conversations happened in October alone—in Indiana on the 12th, Texas and Ohio on the 14th, Colorado on the 20th, and New Jersey on the 22nd. Host organizations around the country are tailoring their events to their own goals. The theme of the July 28 Wisconsin…

LCI's Repertory Likely to Dazzle Teachers and Students Alike

November 01, 2010 - The school year is under way, and the lucky students whose schools work with Lincoln Center Institute can look forward to stellar works of art from our annual repertory. No one speaks better about their artwork than the artists who have created it, and below within the short descriptions, you will find a few excerpts from the interviews we have conducted with them. These interviews are the centerpieces of contextual information LCI researches and gathers for each work of art. The full interviews can be found on LCI's Web site at lcinstitute.org. While we'll again offer the Bill T. Jones performance Ghostcatching, designed as a digital-video work, the noted choreographer and dancer also brings us a "live" work: his lauded Serenade/The Proposition. The work approaches the legacy of Abraham Lincoln as an investigation of history and our relationship to it. In the choreographer's own words: "Dance is, by its…

10 Twitters: Imaginative Thinkers

November 01, 2010 - What is the root of creativity and how can we unlock the power of imaginative thinking? Here at Lincoln Center Institute we are interested in questions like these relating to imagination, creativity and innovation. So we have compiled a list of authors who are exploring these very concepts—in their work and their lives—and posting about it on Twitter. Creating a community through shared interests, Twitter is a valuable tool that should not be overlooked. Twitter can help you connect with people and exchange ideas at an alarming rate. So take a glimpse at some of these imaginative thinkers and see what they are up to, what is inspiring them, and what they have to say at this very moment! We have also included a recommended book by each author, in case you wish to explore their theories. http://twitter.com/sirkenrobinsonSir Ken Robinson: Author, speaker, and…

The "Galaxy of Images" from the Smithsonian

November 01, 2010 - The Smithsonian Institution Libraries make a number of digital image collections available through the Internet. Among these are "Art and Design," "Portraits," and "Society and Culture." Users can browse by collection or sub-collection, or run keyword searches. A search for "Civil War," for example, returns 44 images, which educators may download for use in the classroom. This particular subject may be a terrific asset to those who will study Serenade/The Propositionthis year (see the article on Lincoln Center Institute's repertory). Click here for more information about the uses allowed for teachers and students.…

The Freesound Project

November 01, 2010 - Looking for sound effects recordings to sample, mash-up, and use in student art-making? The Freesound Project is a community-built database of "audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps,..." There are currently over 100,000 recordings available. These files are browsable, searchable, downloadable (or available for listening from your Web browser), and they are all released under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus license. This means that you are welcome to use these sounds in classroom activities. (There are just a few restrictions on other uses. Check that out here.)…