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The Spark: Igniting the Creative Fire That Lives Within Us All
Lyn Heward
Saturday, June 2, 2007
11:45 a.m.- 1:15 p.m.
Cirque du Soleil is widely recognized as one of the most innovative and creative companies in the world today. As the President of Creative Content for Cirque du Soleil, Lyn was responsible for managing, guiding, and channeling the incredible creative force of the company's designers, performers, artisans, and technicians into a product that was both breathtakingly original as well as commercially successful.
In this talk Lyn goes behind the scenes of this global enterprise to explore the nature of creativity and innovation. She provides practical suggestions as well as the inspiration to find and develop the creative spark that lives within us all. Making brilliant use of images and video from Cirque du Soleil's groundbreaking shows, Heward concentrates on key issues—risk-taking, leadership, and teamwork—relevant to arts leaders and their partners in education, business, community, and government.
The Spark: Igniting the Creative Fire That Lives Within Us All is an inspiring tale that draws on behind-the-scenes stories from the most creative people in entertainment. It is an unparalleled guide on how to make creativity a part of everything you do. Lyn will sign copies of The Spark in the Americans for the Arts Bookstore immediately following her presentation. Order your copy now from the Americans for the Arts bookstore, www.AmericansForTheArts.org/bookstore.
Learn from pioneering individuals working in and around the arts. Innovator sessions are presented as a part of each convention track, or make your own Executive Track by attending them all.
Mark Brewer, Private Sector Innovator
Friday, June 1, 2007
10:15 a.m.–11:45 a.m.
Mark Brewer is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Community Foundation of Central Florida, Inc. which holds more than 350 charitable funds for individuals, families, businesses, and agencies across the region. Mark began his career in the media as a reporter, anchor, and journalist. His background includes more than a decade as a Management and Performance Consultant in the nonprofit sector. As a licensed investment professional, Mark has worked with hundreds of Central Florida individuals, families, and small companies to establish endowments and other planned gifts. More than 100 regional nonprofit boards have enlisted Mark’s assistance with strategic and scenario planning initiatives that include the use of endowed investments to sustain their organizations.
Dave Hickey, Public Art Innovator
Friday, June 1, 2007
1:30 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy. Hickey has served as owner-director of A Clean Well-Lighted Place gallery in Austin, Texas, as director of the Reese Palley Gallery in New York City, as executive editor of Art in America magazine, and as contributing editor to The Texas Observer, The Village Voice, Art Issues, Parkett and Context. He has written for most major American cultural publications including Rolling Stone, Art News, Art in America, Artforum, Interview, Harper's, Vanity Fair, Nest, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. His new book, Connoisseur of Waves: More Essays on Art and Democracy, is forthcoming from University of Chicago Press.
Christopher Gates, Civic Engagement Innovator
Friday, June 1, 2007
3:30 p.m.–5:00 p.m.
Christopher Gates is executive director of PACE, Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement, a new organization founded to bring attention to issues of civic engagement and to encourage the philanthropic community to make civic engagement a part of their funding priorities. Gates served for eleven years as President of the National Civic League, a national, non-profit advocacy organization that focuses on revitalizing democracy at the local level. During that period he served on the National Advisory Committee for the Museums and Community Initiative of the American Association of Museums. Gates was co-chair of the Saguaro Seminar, a research project based at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government working to find ways to build social capital in America. Prior to his work with the National Civic League, Gates was a consultant to communities and corporations dealing with issues of change, and as a speechwriter and policy aide to then Colorado Governor Richard Lamb.
Rha Goddess, Emerging Leadership Innovator
Saturday, June 2, 2007
10:00 a.m.–11:30 a.m.
Rha Goddess is a performing artist and social-political activist. Her work, combining vibrant images, linguistic brilliance, hip-hop rhythms, and unflappable honesty, has been internationally featured in several compilations, forums, and festivals. Time magazine called her debut project, Soulah Vibe “…one of the year’s coolest records.” As founder and CEO of Divine Dime Entertainment, Ltd., she was one of the first women in Hip Hop to co-create, independently market, and commercially distribute her own music worldwide. Her activist work includes co-founding the Sista II Sista Freedom School for Young Women of Color. Goddess’s current projects include Meditations With The Goddess and The Next Wave of Women & Power/We Got Issues! We Got Issues! recognizes that young women have the power to preserve, repair, and protect families, communities and the globe, yet this power is often hidden behind unspoken personal and political issues. Goddess is giving voice to young women through visions, songs, and movement—with the goal to transform women’s ideas of leadership and power.
Sir Ken Robinson, Arts Education Innovator
Saturday, June 2, 2007
1:30 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
Sir Ken Robinson, author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources. Now based in Los Angeles, he has worked with national governments in Europe and Asia, with international agencies, Fortune 500 companies, not-for-profit corporations and some of the world’s leading cultural organizations. They include the Royal Shakespeare Company, Sir Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, the Royal Ballet, the Hong Academy for Performing Arts, the European Commission, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the J Paul Getty Trust and the Education Commission of the States. For ten years he was Professor of Education at the University of Warwick in England and is now Professor Emeritus.
Mathew Gross, Public Advocacy Innovator
Saturday, June 3, 2007
1:30 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
Mathew Gross "rewrote the rules of presidential politics" and "put blogging at the center of the Democrats' nominating campaign" when he left his home in Moab, Utah to launch the first presidential campaign weblog for Howard Dean in March of 2003. As Director of Internet Communications for the Dean campaign, Gross helped to develop and implement the online strategy that raised more than $25 million online and built Blog for America into one of the top weblogs in the world, attracting more than 100,000 readers per day at the height of the primary season.
The Public Art Network (PAN) is pleased to present commissioned public artworks sited as part of the Americans for the Arts convention. With generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, three original works will premiere created thematically on risk and reward and site-specifically for our host-city Las Vegas.
Jenny Holzer
Friday, June 1, 2007
Projection Times: 8:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.
For more than twenty-five years, Jenny Holzer has presented her astringent ideas, arguments, and sorrows in public places and international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale, the Reichstag, and the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao. Her medium, whether formulated as a t-shirt, as a plaque, or as an LED sign, is writing, and the public dimension is integral to the delivery of her work. Starting in the late 1970s with the New York City posters, and up to her recent xenon projections on landscape and architecture, her practice has rivaled ignorance and violence with humor, kindness, and moral courage. Holzer received the Leone d’Oro at the Venice Biennale in 1990 and the Public Art Network Award in 2004. She holds honorary degrees from Ohio University, Williams College, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the New School. Holzer lives and works in New York.
Friday, June 1, 2007
8:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m.
Additional guest artists will premier site-specific works at the Convention. One Nature, by artist team Marina Zurkow, Katie Salen, and Russian ice-sculptor Anfim Khanikov. Examines the abundance of sunlight and scarcity of water in Las Vegas. Experience the polarities of the desert heat with a gift of carved ice sculpture and explore the multiple meanings of ephemeral public art. Marina Zurcow works with character and narrative in animated cartoons, interactive installations, print, and pop objects. Katie Salen is an associate professor in the Design and Technology program, Parsons New School for Design, and has pioneered large-scale urban games that engage players in physical and online space. She co-authored Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Anfim Khanikov is a professional ice sculptor from Izhevsk, Russia. He uses traditional Russian ice sculpting methods to create contemporary, thought provoking works of public art that seem to perform in the environment.
Friday, June 1, 2007
11:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
PAN is also pleased to introduce emerging artist Wendy Kveck of Las Vegas, who will present impromptu temporary drama/installations exploring consumption and contemporary culture. Look for and participate in her performance installations sited throughout the convention. You can’t miss Kveck’s visually rich gastronomic rituals that blur the distinction between consuming and being consumed. Wendy Kveck recently received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her work examines the distortion between self conscious and sincere social interactions. Kveck’s work will be sited in the Flamingo Hotel convention facilities.
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