IFCO celebrates special achievements of creativity in practice. If you know of a recent project you would like to share, please contact us and let us know about it. (We ask that announcements be kept to roughly 200 words in length.)
2009 European Year of Creativity and Innovation
“Tapping into our individual creativity brings great personal satisfaction and growth. Tapping into our communal creativity can generate huge returns of innovation and productivity. Parliament and cultural stakeholders have pointed this out to us on various occasions. And you've set our creative juices flowing. A European Year of Creativity and Innovation in 2009 would turn the spotlight on creativity: focus on the cultural dimension of education, and highlight how education can promote creativity in the broadest sense.”
This announcement by Mr. Figel during his speech to the EP CULT
Committees, May 8th 2007, Brussels, Belgium will most certainly boost the European Association for Creativity and Innovation in its endeavors to finance projects involving creative education and creativity in education as well as projects around social and cultural innovation. Also, it promises a magnificent context and stage for the conference that EACI will put on in Brussels in November 2009 called ECCI XI!
World Creativity and Innovation Week
World Creativity and Innovation Week began as a response to a banner headline in the National Post that read "Canada in Creativity Crisis: Study." The article argued who was more creative -- artists or scientists. Marci Segal (Canada's creativity specialist) was outraged that the article totally missed the point. The question isn't who is more creative, it's in what ways each each one of is creative. Segal contacted other Canadian creativity colleagues -- John Sedgwick, Paul Rousseau and Jacynthe Bedard -- and together they mobilized a worldwide celebration of creativity and innovation called World Creativity and Innovation Day, April 21.
Now a week long event, World Creativity and Innovation Week is celebrated in over 106 communities, schools, and business across 43 countries, and it continues to grow. Each person, group, team, organization, and community celebrate in their own way. There is only one guideline: do no harm. What do people do? They host activities and programs that welcome, engage and contribute pride in creating and innovating for a personal, professional, community, or organizational benefit. In other words -- their thoughts and actions during the week contribute to fulfill the motto for World Creativity and Innovation Week, they encourage people use their creativity to make the world a better place and to make their place in the world better too.
