Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship applies the principles of business to accomplishing a social good.  Familiar examples of social entrepreneurs are the leaders at Michigan’s Interlochen Center for the Arts,  Heifer International, Habitat for Humanity, Teach for America, and Doctors without Borders (Médicins sans Frontières).

At Creative 360, we aspire to accomplish social good through inspiring people of all ages to experience, express, and expand their creativity.  The solutions to the problems of the day are found within human beings; and as our challenges mount, the potential for new answers expands exponentially as well.

What helps people find their creative potential?  Recent guests on my interviews about Creativity and the Brain, produced by Jennifer Vande Zande at Delta College Public Radio, FM 90.1, have shared their experiences. 

·         ·        Mark Bernius, a nuclear physicist who has led a team in studying studied renewable energy options at a large chemical company, said that his team always believes that they will find the next right answer, because they have always been able to find an answer to problems in the past.  This track record of success has a galvanizing effect on teams and individuals.  For this reason, at Creative 360 we focus on the creative process.  Everyone who engages in the process succeeds, leading to an incremental strengthening of self-confidence and optimism.

·         ·        Dick Dolinski, a chemist, educator and researcher, demonstrated that linking two previously unconnected ideas can produce a compelling new idea .  The entrepreneur who first looked at a roll of gift wrapping paper alongside a brown paper bag and envisioned a gift bag has earned profits by enabling consumers to streamline the process of preparing a gift for giving.  At Creative 360, we encourage people to try something new.  We have offered classes on painting on uncommon surfaces, adorning a life mask to represent the inner countenance rather than the outer appearance, and “laugh yoga,” in which people laugh, at first self-consciously, persisting until they shift their state of consciousness.M

        ·        Maureen Donker, an elected official and nonprofit executive who has been inspired by Daniel Pink’s book A Whole New Mind, said that she cultivates her own creativity by looking at problems from a new angle.  At Creative 360, we offer Xponential, a 6-session class based on Pink’s book which provides brain workouts in the six dimensions of right-brain capacity identified by Pink:  story, design, symphony, play, meaning, and empathy.

Are we social entrepreneurs at Creative 360?  We believe we are.  The social good that we seek to achieve is not feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, or healing the sick; but it is the cultivation of human potential that will lead to new solutions for accomplishing all those goals. 

Recently, I listened to a conversation among pundits representing the range from optimism to pessimism concerning America’s ability to solve the social and economic problems that confront us.  One of the speakers reminded us that a generation ago there was no such thing as the Internet.  Among most people, there was not the glimmer of an idea that something like the Internet would change our lives so completely.  What is the next big thing?  I don’t know, but I do know that those who today are cultivating their creative potential are the ones who are going to find it. 

We don’t have to solve the problems of the future with the ideas of the past.  If our creative potential is infinite, we can move into the future with optimism rather than fear.  We just need to get a jump on the claims of the future by cultivating our creativity today.

Felden-WHAT? -- The Funny-Sounding Method With Powerful Results

This week's blog is provided by guest blogger Stephanie Cirihal, Chair of the Creative 360 Program Committee.  Stephanie writes --

The most fascinating and helpful thing I’ve personally tried lately and loved is the Feldenkrais Method, a movement therapy that gently restores a natural, pain-free way of moving.  After my first lesson, I felt very relaxed in body and mind, and at least 2 inches taller!  My other classmates included a woman recovering from a stroke, a woman having issues post-childbirth with her joints, and several others, each with a variety of physical ailments. They each spoke about their healing using Anat Baniel’s version of Feldenkrais, and about Suellen’s healing power.

Feldenkrais works by re-teaching you to move with less effort through gentle exercises that often require more mental concentration than physical effort.  You learn to use more of your whole body to move instead of forcing muscles to isolate until they are exhausted.  Results are wide ranging, including greater range of motion, improved flexibility and function, improved coordination, and more awareness of the body.

The biggest thing I’ve learned so far in my short Feldenkrais journey is that my aches and pains may be caused by HOW I move my body, and I am often unaware of how I move my body!  Apparently our movements tend to become habitual - I mean, are you conscious of what happens when you stand up? Not me! - to the point that over time we could be moving in inefficient or dangerous ways without knowing it.  So, massages, stretches, building muscle – they can alleviate the symptoms but maybe NOT the root cause!  The root cause may be the way we are moving and until we become aware of how our movement contributes to our pain, we can’t change it fundamentally.

And that’s where Feldenkrais comes in.  The gentle exercises work on the principle that to change how we move, the new movements must feel BETTER than the old.  So, it’s actually upgrading the movements that contribute to pain to movements that don’t.  It’s really about helping people gain control back in their lives by understanding why they feel how they feel and learning to move differently so that they don’t have to keep feeling that way.

I was so impressed by Suellen’s gentle and effective instruction that I decided to champion bringing her to Creative 360 for a workshop to introduce the method to people in Midland.  The workshop is September 27^th from 2-5pm and the cost is $20. Suellen currently teaches in Bay City to children, athletes, seniors, nurses, and me! 

If you move your body, you may want to try this workshop to see what Feldenkrais can do for you. More details and registration here.

Post-Traumatic Growth

The August 23 issue of The New York Times refers to “post-traumatic growth” in an article on the new or “accidental” entrepreneurship that has arisen after the job losses and economic stress of the past year.  Instead of job-hunting, some enterprising individuals with time on their hands are using the opportunity to pursue the dream, vision, or passion that can fuel entrepreneurial success.  While the NYT article does not report any big successes so far, the new businesses are still in the early stages, and may yet reach the revenue goals of their founders.  The article states that more than half of the companies listed in the Fortune 500 this year, and almost half of the smaller companies on the Inc. magazine 2008 list, were founded during a recession or bear market.  So there are precedents that make a hopeful projection realistic for these accidental entrepreneurs. 

While this news was interesting, the part of the article that grabbed me was the phrase “post-traumatic growth.”  We are so habituated to associating stress and negative impact with what happens after trauma that it is challenging to think about trauma as producing growth.  And yet most people have experienced the growth that often occurs after setbacks and even tragedies.  We human beings are resilient, and even if not fortunate enough to have received the loving and secure upbringing that best cultivates resilience, can call upon hitherto unknown reserves if we have to.

Some people actually become more resilient when faced with adversity.  The work of Harvard researcher Shawn Achor is cited in the NYT article.  He has found that creativity surges as these lucky individuals adapt to a new situation.  “Their brain is actually learning at a faster pace than when they are not challenged.  As a result of this, some individuals, the accidental entrepreneurs, they are the ones who in the midst of crisis actually respond with growth.”  You can see Mr. Achor’s approach to “positive psychology in action” on Facebook and YouTube.

Creative 360 wishes the best of success to the accidental entrepreneurs here in Midland and elsewhere.  We support your response to a challenge and hope that your creativity surges as you adapt to your new situation.

There is actually a “posttraumatic growth inventory” which has been developed and is available on the website of the American Psychological Association.  The recommendation of the APA is to allow some time to pass from the hardship or tragedy experienced before completing the inventory.  While this blog posting does not make suggestions concerning mental health care or consultation, and certainly is not a substitute for a sincere conversation with a caring friend, at Creative 360 we do know that growth through resilience is a real phenomenon.  At Creative 360 we offer opportunities in the arts, wellness, and the humanities designed to promote this growth.  This is a place to experience, express, and expand your creativity.  If you are interested in post-traumatic growth, check us out!

The Gathering Table

The Gathering Table

Our fall theme at Creative 360 is “The Gathering Table.”  After the summer’s end, there is a special pleasure in reuniting with friends and family and sharing stories about the adventures of the past season.  We have friends who have traveled throughout Michigan, the United States, Canada, and Europe.  Staying at home here in Midland, we have expanded creative opportunities for our community members by constructing an outdoor performance pavilion, and we can’t wait to see what ideas our neighbors, students, instructors, and local artists will have for its use! 

Where do we tell these stories, and share these ideas?  Around the gathering table, of course!  What is a gathering table?  It is a piece of furniture often found in British pubs and also (if Wikipedia can be relied upon) in Amish farmhouses, sitting higher than a standard dining table and giving those seated around it a somewhat higher perspective on their surroundings.  Of course, the symbolism of this perch is irresistible to us here at Creative 360, because of our interest in right-brain capabilities.  It is from the right side of our brain that we human beings take a broader view of possibilities, looking at the big picture rather than at isolated facts.  From the right side of the brain, artists see the potential for new linkages and invent “mash-ups,” bringing together previously unconnected elements to create a new form, product, or performance.

Whether imbibing a tall glass of ale at the pub, or digging into a warm slice of apple pie in the farmhouse kitchen, at the gathering table we experience the comfort, camaraderie, and edge of challenge that enable us to take the next step in exploring our own ideals, potential, and Innovative projects.

Join us at the Creative 360 gathering table this fall and let’s make something new together!

Faithful in Small Things

Clear Water

Arts, the Brain, and Quality of Life

At www.dana.org you can register for free subscriptions to various newsletters that will keep you up to date on discoveries in brain research. Currently there are enough new findings from cognitive neuroscientists to fill eight pages in every issue of a monthly newspaper. Among the publications that we subscribe to at Creative 360 is The Dana Foundation’s Arts Education in the News. When our new issue arrives each month, I broadcast the headlines and pull-quotes throughout the office: “Close Links between Arts, Learning”! “Studies show improvements in listening, attention and motor tasks, specifically produced by arts training”! “Music Education Improves Literacy”! “Can Right-Brain Thinking Change the World?”! And what about this quotation from an educational policy-maker: “Our view is that the arts honor and support the needs of the whole child and they support the natural ways that children learn”!

At Creative 360 we are modifying our curriculum for children and youth to reflect these new findings. Mindful not to go overboard (à la some of the responses to the putative “Mozart Effect”), we have designed our summer camps in the integrated arts to provide music training, arts experiences, movement, and decision-making with arts materials.

Mariale Hardiman, now of the Johns Hopkins University School of Education and former Baltimore public schools teacher and principal, reminds us that children joining the world of work in the 21st century must be equipped not through robotic training and multiple choice answers, but “prepared to be discerners, innovators, and problem solvers.” Harvard University professor of psychology Jerome Kagan is a respected scholar and researcher, still active in his 80th year. His assessment of the correlations between the arts and learning is positive. Evidence of the value of an arts education is, for one thing, persuasive because so many children who aren’t good at academics can gain self-confidence through the arts. “The argument for an arts education,” says Kagan, “is based not on sentimentality but on pragmatism. If an arts program only helped the 7 million children in the bottom quartile, the dropout rate would drop.”

One of our favorite thinkers and authors, Daniel Pink, is profiled in an article in the Voice of America News, reprinted in the Arts Education in the News June 2009 issue. It relates that about 500 residents of Alexandria, Virginia late last year held a community “read-in” of Pink’s book A Whole New Mind, and took its arguments to heart as they affect education of children. But Pink does not limit the application of his thinking to children. Through interviews of successful business people, he learned that many of those with high-level left-brain jobs had backgrounds in the fine arts. Business leaders with artistic training had a leg up on their competitors who had only a very good left brain. Those with left-brain right-brain parity were “better leaders, better problem solvers, more impactful team members.”

Residents of Michigan agree with these findings. The Young Professionals group of the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce recently published an agenda that includes as the 2nd of 11 priorities the following: “Make arts funding a priority – cities with vibrant arts and culture scenes and sense of ‘place’ attract young people.” Cutting arts funding in the Michigan budget “is a surefire way to drive young people from the state.”

Michigan State University researchers Michele and Robert Root-Bernstein, in a Psychology Today blog published in February 2009, cite Nobel Prize laureates who practiced some form of art. (Did you know that Samuel Morse and Robert Fulton were prominent 19th century American artists before they invented the telegraph and the steam ship, respectively?) Nobel prizewinners are 25 times as likely as other scientists to sing, dance or act; 17 times as likely to be a visual artist; 12 times as likely to write poetry and literature; 8 times more likely to do woodworking or some other craft, 4 times as likely to be a musician, and twice as likely to be a photographer. The MSU authors quote Nobel laureate and physicist Max Planck: “The creative scientist needs an artistic imagination.” They conclude, “if we as a society wish to cultivate creativity, the arts MUST be part of the equation!”

At Creative 360 we want to be part of the equation, too – the equation that adds creative experiences to our superb quality of life here in mid-Michigan, resulting in an outcome sublimely greater than the sum of its parts.

''The Role of the Arts in Transforming Consciousness''

The title of this blog is the first chapter title from Elliot W. Eisner’s 2002 book The Arts and the Creation of Mind.  Even without reading the chapter, you might find yourself thrilling to the idea expressed in the title alone.  Transformation of consciousness is devoutly to be wished for whenever we are stymied by a problem, on the outs with a loved one, overwhelmed by the demands of the world, or puzzled by a challenge that seems unresponsive to our best efforts to meet it.

Transforming our consciousness is another way of describing the process of changing our point of view.  Still another term for this activity is the creative process.  Creatively responding to an obstacle, we might consider the challenge from a higher vantage point – seeing the big picture, taking the long view; or we might zoom in closer, looking for a clue in the details.  Usually, we want to remove our ego, our personal axe to grind, and our hidden agendas from the calculations, as these can blur perception.

Transforming consciousness usually provides a sense of expansion, because when we are caught in our tempests in teacups, we tend to contract our consciousness, multiplying the difficulty of escaping from the dilemma.  We all have limitations, but the creative process/process of changing our point of view/transformation of consciousness provides at least a brief respite from the limitations imposed by our own concepts.   

 The home page of Creative 360’s website (www.becreative360.org) currently displays a quotation from philosopher Erich Fromm.  He said, “Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.”  For many of us, “certainties” is another word for “concepts.”  Our certainties are often the product of sclerotic thinking, patterns arising from older patterns and perpetuating themselves in the name of experience.  The innocence of certain people of advanced age is not a return to childishness.  Rather, it is the courageous stance of openness to that which exists, an attitude they have been able to preserve despite the temptation to rely on old certainties.  Some aged people, refreshingly, are not adamant about anything, and their innocence reminds us that the transformation of consciousness can continue right up to the time that consciousness flickers and dies. 

 Elliot Eisner’s focus is on arts education.  His interpretation of his own first chapter title is illuminating.  He says that as a child carries out the creative process, “sensibilities are refined, distinctions are made more subtle, the imagination is stimulated, and skills are developed . . .”  The outcome of this process, he believes, is “learning how to become the architect of your own experience and therefore learning how to create yourself.”   

Can participation in the creative process (either creating or perceiving an expressive form) help with financial woes, concerns about access to health care, amelioration of social injustices, or the waging of war in a manner that leads to peace?  If it brings us to the creation of ourselves, it can.

It's on the Tip of my Tongue

Today I met with a friend who is excited about the possibility of teaching creativity in the public schools.  He was inspired by the TED video of Sir Ken Robinson, who addressed the group in June of last year.  Robinson champions a radical rethink of our school systems that would cultivate the creative potential of each student as preparation for their lives beyond the school years.

My friend is not alone.  Oprah Winfrey is still excited about a book she read a year ago, Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind (previously referenced in this blog).   In a recent interview posted at CNN.com, “What advice,” asks Oprah, “do you give kids who are in school?”  And Pink answers, “Ultimately, it’s about following your intrinsic motivation.  What are you here to do?  What are you uniquely good at?”

There are chat rooms and blogs devoted to creativity, with active postings every week.  There is an Encyclopedia of Creativity.  Articles have been written on measuring creativity.  A few universities around the world offer a major in creativity studies.

And yet, the advocates and champions and experts are still looking for ways to deliver affordable and accessible experiences in cultivating creativity in the public schools, in adult education, anywhere that people want to activate their creative potential. 

Here at Creative 360 we have championed the creative process above the creative product since our inception.  But we acknowledge that although removing the fear of evaluation from the act of creating is a step in the right direction, we are still looking for that magic key that will open the chamber of creativity to everyone.  The complaint (or is it a boast?) “I am not creative,” haunts us, because it is a world-beater in the domain of the self-fulfilling prophecy.

This blog offers the opportunity for others to write their thoughts here.  If you are, like us, one of the people seeking to make creativity as much a part of our human experience as breathing, write something.  We need your help to realize our own potential as creativity teachers and advocates.  A new and better way to help people unfold their own creativity is just out of reach.  It’s almost in view, just behind that veil.  I want to tell you all about it.  It’s right on the tip of my tongue . . .

The Creative Class

Richard Florida’s 2002 book The Rise of the Creative Class is fascinating reading for anyone interested in the demographics of creativity.  Here in Michigan, state demographer Kenneth Darga has published several papers in recent years arguing that the net loss to the state of well-educated young people and other residents is not as severe as the conventional wisdom maintains; but even his measured, data-based presentations have had to acknowledge that since 2006 the news is not good.  There are more recent graduates of Michigan State University residing in Chicago than in any part of Michigan. 

Florida makes the case that creative people are drawn to areas where tolerance, diversity, business innovation, and high-tech industry thrive.  He developed a “creativity index” which ranks 49 metropolitan areas with populations greater than 1 million according to a composite of their levels of innovation, high-tech, creative workers, and gay residents (this last a marker for diversity within the population).

While the Great Lakes Bay Region (Midland, Bay and Saginaw counties) is not ranked, Michigan is represented.  Among regions with populations between 250,000 and 500,000, Lansing/East Lansing and Kalamazoo/Battle Creek each rank in the top 20 according to Florida’s creativity index.  Grand Rapids, seat of the mid-century modern design revolution, where the aesthetic of George Nelson, Charles and Ray Eames, and others created furniture, lighting and home design that is prized today in both vintage and reproduction form, sadly has plummeted on the creativity index scale to 44^th out of the 49 regions with populations of a million plus.

The 2010 census will reveal new data about how many people earn their living through creativity, and where they reside.  According to Florida, members of this “creative class” may be employed as artists, scientists or engineers; architects, designers, writers, or musicians; or even in business, education, health care, law or some other profession, if creativity is a key factor in the job. 

Florida’s book aims to supplant the “old economy” belief that the key to economic growth is attracting and retaining companies, because companies create jobs and people go where the jobs are.  This belief certainly seems to describe Michigan’s rise and fall over the past 100 years.  The author argues that, today, companies are following the pool of talented, skilled, and creative people, rather than the reverse.  He devotes his book to proving that the fundamental driver of economic growth is creativity.  In words describing the United States during the winter of 2002, he even more accurately limns our world in 2009:  “. . . enduring social change occurs not during economic boom times, . . . but in periods of crisis and questioning. . . . “  And he challenges the members of the “Creative Class” to recognize their group identity, based on talent rather than wealth (though often they have wealth too), and to use their gifts for the good of the whole population.

Is there a way for Michigan to become once again a seat of prosperity through fresh commitments to innovation, diversity, knowledge-based industry, and creativity?  Can we stem the out-migration of the best and the brightest, and provide opportunities for them to thrive where many of them desire to live -- amidst the natural beauty, natural resources, and rich inter-generational culture here in the midst of the Great Lakes?  By dedicating resources to discovery of creative ways to unleash the creativity of the region’s people, we can.