Creativity Networking Series

“The creative force is present in all humans to some degree. Pressures to conform within education and society often silence creative expression for many students and citizens. The potential for its development remains, however. ... The right of an individual to create new ideas and to expect a respectful, supportive climate for their expression is a human right too often ignored. The human right to think and be heard at higher, more complex and mutualistic levels is a necessary added freedom." - Author and Educator Berenice Bleedorn

This monthly Creativity Networking Series provides a forum for exploring the many facets of creativity and for discovering other people interested in creativity.

Creativity matters in all aspects of society. If you want to reconnect with your inherent creativity and explore new ways of expressing it, don't miss this series. It will cover topics about creativity in all forms (including, but not limited to, arts), creative thinking, creative communities, creativity and education, creativity in organizations, creative persons, the creative process, creative aging and more. The series includes opportunities to learn with others, to think in new ways, and to generate new ideas. The format of the monthly Creativity Networking sessions will be informal and will usually include about a presentation or experiential workshop (from a different facilitator each month), dialogue about the topic, and networking with other participants. Come and be inspired to apply your imagination and invent new possibilities for yourself and your community.

NEXT UP - MARCH 14, 2010
CREATIVITY NETWORKING:
Thinking Out Loud: Drawing as Thinking
With The Aldrich Museum's Carolina Pedraza, Artist Laura Kaufman, Artist Sandy Garnett 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! Please post this flyer to help spread the word about this event. Sunday, March 14, 2010, from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. at The Silo at Hunt Hill Farm, New Milford, Connecticut. RSVP to 860.355.0300 or culbertsonv [at] hunthillfarmtrust [dot] org.

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.

Sandy Garnett is a self-taught artist and has been a fulltime professional painter and sculptor since graduation from St. Lawrence University in 1992. The artist recently broke the 1.8 million dollar career art sales mark. He is working on a hardcover book entitled, "Sandy Garnett; 1000 Artworks," set to release at the end of 2010. As a closet song writer, his first recorded song Busted Wing (written, recorded and produced by the artist) made it into a Teton Gravity Research film in 2009. He is working on a 4 song ep itunes release in 2010. The artist also wrote, illustrated and published his first two Rainbow Riders children's books in 2009. He is best known for his twenty-year running Fingerprint Project, in which he explores contemporary identity through sculpted and painted fingerprints, human silhouettes and signatures. He is also collected for his portraiture, his Twister reliefs, his figure paintings, and for his Reconstruction series of narratives and cityscapes. He is a visiting artist at King Street Intermediate School in Danbury, Connecticut, where is collaborating with more than 300 students and staff members to create an installation for DrawOn! at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. Find out more about the artist.

DrawOn!: Discover more about the DrawOn! project.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• Books and resources about wisdom, creativity and aging 

• Resources about creativity, food and science

• Check out the 2008-2009 Creativity Networking topics that were explored

CREATIVITY NETWORKING IS PRESENTED BY:
Steven Dahlberg is head 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 is associate director/faculty of the Public and Community Engagement group at the University of Connecticut, where he teaches "Creativity + Social Change." He has nearly 20 years of experience teaching and facilitating creative thinking and problem solving, including helping two toy inventors launch a creativity consulting business. His articles have appeared in Training magazine, Knowledge Management News magazine, and Global Knowledge Review. He edits the Applied Imagination and ageing as exile? blogs, and wrote the foreword to Education is Everybody's Business; A Wake-Up Call to Advocates of Educational Change. 

Custom cooking classes, shopping, tasting, museum tours, slide shows, and gallery talks are among the offerings for groups and tours visiting Hunt Hill Farm. Located in the Litchfield Hills of western Connecticut, Hunt Hill Farm has been the location of the Silo since 1972 -- a combination cooking school, art gallery, and gourmet kitchenware/food store. Now operating under the auspices of the Hunt Hill Farm Trust as a nonprofit organization for preservation, the farm is also host to the Skitch Henderson Museum and Hunt Hill Farm Land Preserve.