Creativity In Play

We'll explore the concept of "pop-up play" for children, what it means to be a play worker, the developmental needs of children, and the idea of play in general with Morgan Leichter-Saxby, playwork training developer for Pop-Up Adventrure Play. 

We'll explore how humane education can change the way we think about education, and why developing solutionaries can help us create more good and less harm in our communities. Our guest is Zoe Weil, co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education. For more about Zoe, watch her TEDx talk on "The World Becomes What You Teach" and read her book, Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life. We'll also get a preview from Zoe about the "Educating for a Just, Peaceful & Sustainable Future" Humane Education Conference, coming up in New York City on September 21, the UN International Day of Peace. Keynotes include Zoe, along with Dr. Jane Goodall and Arun Gandhi.

We'll explore what it takes to create innovators, starting in school, with Tony Wagner, the author of Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change The World. We'll look at why innovation is today’s most essential real-world skill and what young people need from parents, teachers, and employers to become the innovators of America’s future. Plus, what does all of this mean for innovation and creativity in the workplace? Tony is the first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, and has written several books, including  The Global Achievement Gap.

We'll explore why and how humane education is a 21st century skill and philosophy that helps educators and learners create positive choices and solve problems with sustainable, peaceful solutions. Discover how humane education fosters curiosity, creativity and critical thinking, and instills reverence, respect, and responsibility. Our guest is Shawn Sweeney, National Director of Youth Outreach and Engagement at The Jane Goodall Institute, and a graduate of the Institute for Humane Education. We'll also get a preview from Shawn of the "Educating for a Just, Peaceful & Sustainable Future" Humane Education Conference, coming up in New York City on September 21, the UN International Day of Peace. Keynotes include Dr. Jane Goodall, Arun Gandhi and Zoe Weil. Shawn will co-lead a creativity and humane education workshop with "Creativity in Play" co-host Steve Dahlberg.

We'll explore how the mindset that makes improvisation work can also help us unlock more of our creativity in general. Our guest is Randy Dixon, artistic director of Unexpected Productions and the author of  Improvisation, Being Present: Spontaneous Storytelling and the Art of Improvisation. Plus, we'll find out what good stories, play and dreams have to do with all of this.

We'll explore how to do great  work that makes a difference, and what role that plays in organizational innovation, with Michael Bungay Stanier, founder and senior partner of Box of Crayons.

We'll explore how meaningful play and physical activity can help improve the health and well-being of children with Jill Vialet, the CEO and founder of Playworks.

We'll explore the intersection of Active Dreaming and imagination with best-selling author Robert Moss, along with what it means to be "a storyteller who helps people to find and live their bigger and braver stories, and tell those stories really well." Robert describes himself as a dream teacher, on a path for which there has been no career track in our culture. He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He's a former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University and a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Here, Everything is Dreaming: Poems and Stories, Dreaming the Soul Back Home, Conscious Dreaming and The Secret History of Dreaming.

We'll explore the topic of creative collaboration through the lens of performance and dance with anthropologist, writer and professor Anya Royce. As a professor of anthropology at Indiana University, Royce explores the anthropology of dance and performing arts, which brings together her initial experience as a dancer with her scholarly interest in what and how dance and the performing arts mean in a variety of cultures both past and present. We'll also talk about the book she is working on about the Pilobolus Dance Theatre, examining a unique (for professional arts organizations) creative process based on collaborative improvisation where each individual contribution is important, and the assumption that no specific training in dance is necessary. 

We'll explore how to understand growing older through creativity and art with painter Alice Matzkin and her sculptor husband Richard Matzkin. They have written an award-winning art/inspiration book, The Art of Aging: Celebrating the Authentic Aging Self, and produced a documentary, called Women of Age: Portraits in Wisdom, Beauty and Strength. Learn more about the Matzkins and their work online.

We'll explore the role of arts and creativity in education, along with the Higher Order Thinking (HOT) Schools model in Connecticut with artist Mark Patnode. Find out more about Mark here.  

We'll explore the idea of "participlay" -- a body-based, social-spiritual approach to connecting people to each other -- with its creator Elizabeth Yochim. Find out more about Elizabeth's work at Participlay and watch her TEDxUSC presentation.

We'll explore how play is changing the context in the community-building work that Jorge Burciaga and Miguel Cortes are doing in Juarez, Mexico, as well as how play is used as a tool in therapy work at the Fred Newman Social Therapy Center in Juárez.  Jorge Burciaga-Montoya is a founding member of the Fred Newman Social Therapy Center in Juarez, Mexico, teaches in the education department at  the Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez, and is on the staff of CASA (Centro de Asesoría y Promoción de Juvenil, A.C.), a non-profit with a strong presence in the poor communities of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, where he is working with high schools to incorporate social-emotional learning. Miguel Eduardo Cortes-Vázquez is an educatior, therapist and percussionist living in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. We works at CASA (Centro de Asesoría y Promoción de Juvenil, A.C.), where he has led efforts to create play centers and promote play, and teaches community education at the University of Juarez.

We'll explore what will be happening at the 'Performing the World' Conference, coming up October 4 to 7 in New York City, with Rutgers professor of education Carrie Lobman -- and several guest presenters, including Hector Aristizabal, Miguel Cortés Vázquez and Alexandra Sutherland. Carrie will also be collaborating with "Creativity in Play" co-hosts Steve Dahlberg and Mary Alice Long for a "Creativity in Play: Performing a Creative World on Purpose" session at the conference.  PTW's theme is "Can Performance Save the World?" and will draw several hundred people from around the world who care about how performance, play and creativity. PTW is described as a "marathon 'performance of conversation' with people from all over the world — scholars and researchers; educators, therapists, social workers, youth workers; doctors and other health workers; theatre, applied theatre and other performance artists; social activists and community organizers; business leaders and philanthropists; film, video and media cre­ati

We'll explore how to integrate your creativity and purpose -- and make a living -- with artist, therapist, and business strategist Lisa Sonora Beam. Lisa is the author of The Creative Entrepreneur: The DIY Visual Guidebook for Making Business Ideas Real. 

We'll explore how the Future Problem Solving program is teaching kids creative thinking skills and preparing them to solve future problems today. Our guest is Cheryl Whitesitt, executive director of the Minnesota Future Problem Solving Program. Find out more about Future Problem Solving, created by E. Paul Torrance, here.   

  We'll explore the role of creativity and innovation in growing businesses and working with clients with "recovering lawyer" Matt Homann. Matt is the author of the award-winning legal blog “the [non]billable hour,” where he shares innovative ways for lawyers and other professionals be better at what they do. 

We'll explore the role of play in helping us express who we are at an authentic level in whatever we do and how to feel truly fulfilled in our careers, and lives as a whole ... with Vince Gowmon, founder of Remembering to Play Events. 

We'll explore the role of the unconscious mind on learning, memory, creativity and learning with neuroscientist Eric Kandel, the author of the new book, The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind and Brain. Kandel mixes science, medicine and art to help us better understand the the human mind and behavior. His work -- including the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2000 -- explores how the nerve cells in our brains give rise to perception, memory, emotion, empathy and creativity.

We'll explore the intersection of creativity, play and nature with Erin Kenny, director of the Cedarsong Nature School. Find out how the school's mission to provide opportunities for direct experience with nature helps increase awareness of and connection to the natural world in order to foster compassion and empathy for the earth and all of its inhabitants.