Leadership Development, Knowledge Integration and the Mind Processes of the Arts

Premiere programs in leadership development and knowledge integration are turning their attention to the "mind processes of the arts" as spark, catalyst and cohering agent for professional development across the disciplines.  This interactive, hands-on workshop will immerse participants in a lively interdisciplinary experience of the "mind processes of the arts".  Tied to a wealth of research on arts-based thinking and learning in academics, leadership development and scientific research, this program integrates insights drawn from the work of Elliot Eisner (Stamford University), Stuart Kauffman (Santa Fe Institute), Buckminster Fuller, and others. 

In July 2003, Creative Leaps International offered this workshop as a daylong event at the Mid-Hudson Leadership Academy. The Academy, a yearly renewal opportunity for higher officials in the field of education, brought approximately 200 attendees from the Hudson Valley area. Creative Leaps President John Cimino, Jr., also collaborated with consultant and educator Meg Wheatley on her keynote presentation, addressing the severity of the challenges facing public educational institutions today - and the responsibility of professionals, parents, and communities to address them.

See a graphic of this process

Unless the Mind Catch Fire...

A Keynote Concert of Ideas to Inspire and Spark Thinking

As we live, we are transmitters of life. - D. H. Lawrence

We are transmitters. Natural transmitters of mysterious transmissions.

Whatever it is we as parents and teachers give or transmit to our children and colleagues, it is far more important than the mastery of subject. It is very much palpable essences of ourselves and our impulses toward growth. We are transmitters of life…or the absence of life. Our choice is clear. - Creative Leaps International

Designed especially for educators, "Unless the Mind Catch Fire..." explores and celebrates themes of creativity, empowerment, and learning by bringing to life (through performance) the ideas of famous poets, writers, and thinkers.  Participants are challenged to seek within themselves their own spiritual and mythic connections to these giants of imagination and personal vision. Led by acclaimed baritone and learning consultant, John J. Cimino, Jr., a team of virtuoso performers sets the stage for a journey of self-transformation: inviting participants one and all to be touched and changed by the empowering experience of art.

"Unless the Mind Catch Fire..." was first created for New York State's Educators of the Gifted and Talented.  Since then, it has toured the country in special editions as the keynote component of numerous professional development conferences, including audiences of Fortune 500 executives, IBM mathematicians and physicists, "The Initiative for Better Learning" School Leadership Institute in Orlando, Florida, and the Center for Excellence in Municipal Management (CEMM) in Washington, D.C.

Read a firsthand account of "Unless the Mind Catch Fire" by renowned author and arts education consultant Eric Booth

Gaining the Arts Advantage: The Mind Processes of the Arts

The research is conclusive.  Case studies have been published.  Best practices and ramping-up stories are in the news and professional journals almost daily.  The arts are a potent, vital ingredient in the lives of children who succeed in academics and in life.  What's more, school districts with strong arts programs and arts-integrated learning across the curriculum are centers of vitality in their home communities and attractors of community support and positivity.  Add to this picture, the emerging discovery from the business and research sectors that the mind processes of the arts are key enablers of the management of complexity, good decision-making and personal leadership development and it becomes apparent that the case for the arts has never been stronger. So, what exactly are the "mind processes of the arts"?  What can educators do to "gain the arts advantage" for their schools?  How can we champion a right balance between arts and academics in a climate of high risk testing and teaching to standards? Facilitated by John Cimino and Richard Albagli, Creative Leaps International.

Leadership: Thinking, Perceiving & Judgment

Facilitated by John Cimino, President & CEO of Creative Leaps International, this session begins by reviewing what participants mean by leadership and leadership characteristics.  Focus then turns to some frequently over-looked leadership competencies identified by the Center for Creative Leadership and Creative Leaps International as "aesthetic" in nature -- including fluid perspective, meaningful noticing, subtle representation, skeptical inquiry, portraying paradox and facility with metaphor.  These competencies are then set in the context of our everyday habits of perception, styles of thinking and approaches to making judgments.  Via examples from visual perception -- its perfect logic and, nonetheless, many sources of error and illusion -- participants have the opportunity to experiment with the interpretive, subjective character of virtually all perceptions and their strong link to emotions.  The power of emotion and its link to learning will emphasize the difference between merely "understanding" versus "knowing deeply" -- only the latter being capable of coloring our perceptions and hence our judgments.  Finally, participants consider renowned statesman Harlan Cleveland's Eight Attitudes of Leadership for the 21^st Century and participate in an informal self-assessment exercise and discussion.