Creating Creativity: 101 Definitions (what webster never told you) - Softcover

Andrei G. Aleinikov; Sharon Kackmeister; Ron Koenig

9780970311009: Creating Creativity: 101 Definitions (what webster never told you)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0970311001 ISBN 13: 9780970311009

Publisher: Alden B Dow Creativity Center Pr, 2000

What do Dr. Sid Parnes, Dr. E. Paul Torrence, Alden B. Dow, Corky Siegel, Ray Kamalay, Alex Graham, Kurt Thoma, and many children from the Creative Spirit Center, Inc. in Midland, Michigan and the Mega-Innovative Mind International Institute, Inc., in Montgomery, Alabama have in common? Their definitions of creativity are all included in Creating Creativity: 101 Definitions (What Webster Never Told You). In this little book of big ideas four generations of individuals each offer a unique facet or wrinkle to the concept of creativity. Scattered throughout its 128 full-color pages, works of art add highlight and charm to the ideas that fill this book. Contributors include children as young as 2 through adults well into their 80's. Creating Creativity is a thought-provoking, powerful text useful and worthwhile to both the researcher and the casual reader. Enjoy this first publication of the Alden B. Dow Creativity Center Press!

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From the Publisher:

The date is July, 1999. It is the eve of the 11th International Conference on Creativity in Colleges and Universities, a conference the Alden B. Dow Creativity Center* holds annually at Northwood University in Midland, Michigan.

As host of the conference, I am busy greeting people and seeing to the myriad of details that go along with gathering 85 individuals in any one place to discuss creativity. It is a bit like herding cats—you just can’t seem to get your arms around all of them at any one time.

In the midst of the activity, Dr. Andrei G. Aleinikov, Andy, pulls me aside with an idea. “ What if,” he starts (it was not the last time I was to hear that phrase) “we were to have each of the participants at this conference write down their definition of creativity, collect them and then put them all together into one book? What a fascinating idea!”

And yes, I had to agree, it was a fascinating idea. How we would edit it, publish it, lay it out, or pay for it was yet to be discussed—but the idea was on the table, and Andy began to put it into action. As a working title we chose 101 Definitions of Creativity.

Over time the idea grew. “What if we included published authors on creativity?” “What if we included the Alden B. Dow Fellowship alumni?” “What if we were to include people we knew from our professional associations?” “What if we were to include children and adult participants of Mega-Innovative Mind International Institute* and Creative Spirit Center*?”

Soon we had collected more material than we needed to complete the manuscript. In fact, Andy had collected quite a few more than the 101 definitions we originally sought. Honoring the integrity of the individual, we decided to include all properly submitted definitions and works of art. However, we liked the concept of 101 definitions so much that despite the discrepancy in numbers, we kept it as a subtitle.

With the editing in place, we now sought funding. We approached the Alden and Vada Dow Family Foundations for support. After discussing the project with them in September and applying for funding in February, we learned in April that we had the requisite financial backing to make this text a reality. It was then that the Alden B. Dow Creativity Center Press was launched.

The rest should be simple: 1) layout and format the text and artwork in a desktop publishing program, 2) take it to a printer and 3) voila we have a book! Right, until fate and circumstances conspired against us. Now Creating Creativity—this culmination of 14 months of thought, discussion and work—is taking on a life of its own. It is in this context that I pen the Preface.

Given the genesis of Creating Creativity, we thought it only fitting to open the book with Alden B. Dow’s Way Of Life Cycle. It is thanks to Mr. Dow’s vision and courage that we have the opportunity to cherish and nourish creativity with events like the International Conference on Creativity in Colleges and Universities and the 10 week Summer Creativity Fellowship program.

Mr. Dow appreciated the uniqueness of the individual. I would like to believe that he would be intrigued with this little book and its big ideas. In these pages hundreds of people—children to octogenarians, amateurs to experts—each share their thoughts, feelings and ideas to create a book that helps us to better understand creativity, a process as basic to existence as water.

In closing I would like to reflect on Alden B. Dow’s definition of creativity. I believe it quite nicely sums up why this book exists.

Our unique abilities, when put together, naturally create something new . . . this is called creativity.

Enjoy this book. Read it, write in it, draw in it, refer to it, quote it, use it in all you do. Above all let it inspire you to create something new. You might just make the world a brighter place.

About the Author:

Andrei G. Aleinikov, President, Mega-Innovative Mind International Institute, Montgomery, Alabama.

Sharon Kackmeister, Executive Director, Creative Spirit Center, Inc., Midland, Michigan.

Ron Koenig, Executive Director, Alden B. Dow Creativity Center, Northwood University, Midland, Michigan.

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