Ohio's Imagination Conversation Builds
Four Groups of Innovators from Diverse Disciplines Explore the Power of Imagination
The journey of every great innovator is unique—marked by different questions, obstacles, failures and breakthroughs. But one mysterious territory is a necessary stop on every innovation odyssey. It is a place of unlimited possibilities where anyone can go, where one might experience improbable circumstances or encounter strange beings, where maps and itineraries have only limited use. It is a place where things simultaneously make perfect sense and no sense at all.
If you just took a moment to picture such a place, then you have visited there. You have stepped into the place called "imagination."
Of course, imagination is not really a place. Nor is it a discipline or even a set of skills. Imagination is "the capacity to conceive of what is not," say authors Eric Liu and Scott Noppe-Brandon. And that capacity, according to their book Imagination First: Unlocking the Power of Possibility, will be the foundation of our nation's quest to remain the world's greatest innovative force. "Without a healthy and well-fed imagination," say the authors, "there is no creativity or innovation."
Liu, an educator and civic entrepreneur, and Noppe-Brandon, executive director of the Lincoln Center Institute, say our nation must continue to build its "stock of imaginational capital" in order to compete economically and function in a complex, constantly changing world.
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Find out which Ohio innovators participated in each of the four Imagination Conversation panels. See details
For more information about the Imagination Conversation project and the book Imagination First, visit the Lincoln Center Institute Web site.
Laying the Foundation through Conversation
Building and continually replenishing our supply of imagination is a challenge that must be shared by all disciplines and professions. To highlight that shared mission, the Lincoln Center Institute (LCI) has launched a national project called the Imagination Conversations.
Imagination Conversations bring together panels of reflective practitioners from the arts, education, the sciences, business, public policy and the humanities to share stories of how imagination plays a role in their fields and professional lives and to speculate on what it means to work and think imaginatively. The LCI is hoping that every state will hold and videotape at least one Imagination Conversation.
The Ohio Alliance for Arts Education (OAAE), the Ohio Arts Council (OAC), OhioDance, the Columbus Museum of Art and the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) are working together to lead a series of conversations in different Ohio venues. Three conversations have already taken place, and a fourth will be held at the Columbus Museum of Art on October 14, 2010. CMA Education Director Cindy Myers-Foley says the event fits perfectly with the museum's vision. "We're interested in fostering the ability to think," she says. "Before artistic output can happen, there has to be the idea. We want to provide spaces for ideas that have yet to be fully developed."
Reaching Across Boundaries
Donna Collins, OAAE Executive Director, says the Imagination Conversations celebrate both the imaginative uniqueness and the commonalities of all work. "No profession 'owns' imagination," she says. "Imagination crosses everyone's path—whether they work in science, business or arts and culture. We need to find a place in this world where we can begin to reach outside of our own territory."
The diverse panels in Ohio's conversations in Columbus and Oberlin created such crossroads for their audiences. While each brought a unique perspective, each also displayed vast vision and a passion for improving life in Ohio. Several spoke about the value of work and community spaces that promote imagination, the conflicts that sometimes occur when expertise and imagination collide, the excitement of discoveries that challenge conventional thinking and the importance of collaboration. The need to develop and reward imagination early in life also was a common theme.
Jeff Hooper, OAC Director of Arts Learning, believes that meeting at the common ground of imagination will cause people to question assumptions that constrain them and think about how things might be done differently.
Continuing the Conversation
Arts and education organization leaders hope those who participate in and attend Imagination Conversations will not only think more about how important imagination is but also keep the conversation going.
"The LCI launched this idea out into the world and we picked it up and brought it to Ohio," says Hooper. "Now I hope that each of the individuals who were there will have their own informal imagination conversations at home and in their communities."
Collins foresees more than just talk: "When Lincoln Center Institute pulls together all these rich conversations, they're really going to have much more than words," she says. "I think they will find actions and strategies that will help make education better for kids, teaching better for teachers and life better for all of us."
The Lincoln Center Institute plans to complete the two-year Imagination Conversation initiative in July 2011 with America's Imagination Summit, to be held at Lincoln Center. At the summit, representatives from each host site will help craft a "Declaration of Imagination," an action plan to help "put imagination at the forefront of school curricula."
This article was published in September 2010
Read more about the essential role of imagination and creativity in 21st century work and life.
