On March 23rd, Kasie welcomed David Cutler into the studio. Here are the show notes:

Introductions

Dr. Kasie Whitener, Clemson Road Creative, fiction writer

David Cutler, Director of Creativibe @ USC and Director of Music Entrepreneurship

Theme for the day

What it takes to be creative

Agenda

• Getting to know David Cutler
• Creativibe purpose, features, and details
• Creativity as discipline, habit, or culture?

Segment 1

David, tell us about you. Where are you from? Where did you go to school? What led you to Columbia?

You’re working on a book right now. What’s it about? What do you hope to do with it? How long until it’s finished? What was the process like for you?

You’ve been leading the Year of Creativity at the University. Help our listeners understand the vision for that initiative and then what you’ve been doing as part of that post.

Segment 2

Creativibe is today, part of the Year of Creativity. Some details about the event and how our listeners can participate on this link. You had a student organizing team. What was it like working with them?

“Creativibe is an unprecedented event showcasing 100 expressions of CREATIVITYand INNOVATIONfrom every school across the University of South Carolina. Interdisciplinary collision, groundbreaking art, virtual reality, robots, artificial intelligence, and much more. Part festival, part competition, part think tank.”

What can attendees at Creativibe expect today?

This article from Forbes.com suggests teaching creativity is a “must” on college campuses today. From the article: “our educational system focuses on teaching students “convergent thinking” — how to solve problems that have one correct answer (already known), instead of teaching students “divergent thinking” — how to come up with multiple solutions to open-ended, unscripted problems.”

In an interview with the director of the Sontag Center at Claremont College, the Director says creativity is a set of skills: 1) seeing a problem from multiple angles, 2) generating ideas and possible solutions, 3) improvising, playing with, and iterating those ideas, 4) gaining new insight regarding the problem, its impact, stakeholders, and solutions.

How do events like Creativibe contribute to this college culture of teaching creativity?

Are there measurable outcomes for teaching creativity?

Segment 3

Twyla Tharp’s book The Creative Habit talks about creativity as a kind of ritual. Something that is practiced, repeated, and demonstrated again and again for best results.

How do we feel about that?

She also talks about continually asking, “What’s in it for me?” before undertaking any kind of responsibility or work.

How do we feel about that?

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