World Creativity and Innovation Week April 15 – 21

Purpose

To prepare everyone on the planet for the innovations to come.

During World Creativity and Innovation Week April 15 – 21 (WCIW) the goal is to build capacity for everyone to be open to new ideas and to make new decisions that make the world a better place and make their place in the world better too, in ways that do not cause harm.

Fundamental Thinking – well said by Michael Taylor

How WCIW Started

World Creativity and Innovation Week April 15 – 21 began in May 2001 when Canada’s National Post newspaper ran this banner headline. 

Canadian creativity professionals launched week-long global celebration of creativity and innovation. The purpose: to celebrate the unlimited potential of creativity; to raise awareness that all people by nature are creative; and to encourage people to use their creativity to improve their lives, their work, their community, and in so doing, prepare people to contribute to and be ready for the innovations to come.

Now, 9 years after its start, over 105 communities, businesses and schools across 46 countries celebrate World Creativity and Innovation Week (WCIW) April 15 – 21, annually. WCIW begins on April 15th,  Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday.

WCIW is totally inclusive. Everyone is welcome to take part through events, activities and conversations (E/A/C). Whether in business or school, at home or on the factory floor, every one is welcome to help release the global creative spirit during the week.

How to Celebrate?

How to Celebrate WCIW lists simple goals for WCIW events, activities and conversations (E/A/C). Click on these links for examples for celebrating WCIW@home, WCIW@work and WCIW@school.

Tell the world what you are up to during World Creativity and Innovation Week April 15 – 21. Complete this form to describe your WCIW E/A/C so it can be posted (for free) to inspire others.

Hundreds of people, groups, organizations, schools and communities take part, each in their own way.  Below are some samplings reported from Thailand, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, the Netherlands, Canada, the US, the UK, Mexico, Slovenia, since its beginning in 2001.  We’d love to add yours.  See what NASA, the American University, the Ontario Public Service, the International Center for Studies in Creativity and others are doing this year by clicking here.

• Businesses and organizations promote innovation and act on it; they use creativity and innovation activities to boost morale and engagement. Examples include: office decorating, taking a ‘recess’ or break to write stories and poems, doing something meaningful and different to help a charity. One government office in Ontario handed out WCIW crayons and recycled paper notepads with inspirational messages on each page to everyone entering their building at the beginning of the week (800 people!) to launch their WCIW programs which included a talent show, a cookie decorating buffet, and a Tai Chi workshop. Examples include Pfizer Consumer Health, Disney, PHD Canada and Touché PHD, Johnson & Johnson Medical Products. Weekly Reader posted pages for students and teachers in support of WCIW involvement.
  
• Community Businesses and Associations engage children in unique ways: Girl Scouts of America in Cincinnati involved troops using creative problem solving on community issues; Boston, MA a free workshop  on improv and creative problem-solving; Windows of the World, Kansas, MO providing art materials and a challenge for school children to complete for an art fair.
  
• Families revitalize and have quality time together: they eat dinner backwards, children roleplay parents, crafts and other new family activities are undertaken. Examples – families in the US (Kansas, Wisconsin, Rhode Island), Slovenia, Canada (Thornhill, Saskatoon, Vancouver)
  
• Schools engage students in activities that spark their creativity: invent-a-thons and brainstorming are often mentioned. Examples Rosebank Road Public School, Pickering, ON; Baythorn Middle School, Markham, ON; Lorraine Academy, Buffalo, NY.
• Friends get together to do a new activity: potluck dinners with all new dishes, going to a new restaurant, doing something no one in the group has done before and always wanted to. Examples – San Diego, CA; Neenah, Wisconsin; Toronto, ON.
• Individuals do something a little different each day, such as brushing their teeth with their other hand or finding a new way to go to work.  La Paz, Bolivia – One person appeared on TV proclaiming World Creativity and Innovation Day; Bilbao, Spain – a man organized a list of inspiring authors to read to advance his creativity; a woman in Norway decided to go ahead with a project she’d been going back and forth on and visited an arboretum for an artist’s walk with a friend to celebrate her decision and brainstorm new ideas; another attended a workshop.
  
• Street festivals take place. Examples – Bangkok, Thailand; Zona Norte, Argentina
  
• Conferences present creative thinking and innovation leadership and engagement talks and workshops . Examples – Crea, Italy; Atlanta Creativity Exchange, Atlanta, GA; Ontario Public Service, Toronto, Canada; American University, Washington, DC. Markham Board of Trade, Markham, ON.
  
• Cultural institutions hold special programs. Examples – The Ontario Science Centre,  Royal Ontario Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario all in Toronto, Canada.  Varley Art Gallery, Unionville, ON. The Buffalo Museum of Science, the Burchfield Center in Buffalo, NY.
  

We’d love to add yours.  Complete the listing here so we can post it here.

• Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/worldcreativity
• Join our Facebook group: World Creativity and Innovation Week April 15 – 21

April 15 - 21 every year, everywhere, everyone

From the Grad Students at the International Center for Studies in Creativity for World Creativity and Innovation Week – How you can be creative everyday. This video presents views of different people on the ways they express their creativity on their everyday life. It is a project for the class CRS 625: Current Issues of Creativity Research at the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College. Imagine they interviewed you – how might you respond? In what ways do you use your creativity everyday?