Now that you have the basics of your Community Collaboration project, it’s time to learn more about what it can become. This is the Ideation stage of the Design Thinking process. The goal is to learn more about the people you’re hoping to serve or impact. Determine if there are others doing a similar

This is the most challenging exercise of the workshop. Your team will achieve consensus — you will brainstorm and then refine your ideas into an actual Community Collaboration Project that you all agree to work on together. This is not easy work. And the design process is not easy. The design process allows us to

All of us want be more creative—on command. Sometimes we forget that creativity comes in many forms and disguises. The inspirational burst is very different from the iterative refinement process. Scientists and researchers are learning that being creative is not relegated to one side of our brain—right-brained versus left-brained is no longer a safe

The heart of the Shift Workshop is learning how to work well with a team that includes people who have different personalities, skills, motivations, and mental models. The goal is to find some common ground—wanting a deep connection between art, business, and community— that allows the group to use everyone’s different skills to make

With your Collaboration Team and AIR Facilitator, create a project or program that embodies the Paradigm Shift. Your solution should engage art, business, government, and education sectors and should reach a non-local audience. You will work as a team to complete a project plan that includes goals, audience, partners, budget, staffing plan, timeline, and marketing

Designers and innovators use a process called design thinking to work on problems that require creative solutions. Design thinking is built on the principle that what people need and how we respond are the most important part of a design problem and its solution. Design thinking requires patience and an open mind. People who use

Our mental models influence how we view art, creativity, business, and community. We all have misconceptions about art and business, as well as about left- and right-brain thinking models. In order for the Shift to truly take place, everyone has to challenge their mental models. Art and business are better together. Key Competencies

Whether we like it or not, people judge us by what we say, the clothes we wear, and our actions and omissions. First impressions can be misleading if we don’t think about how we want to be perceived by others. And if you’re shy, exposing yourself can be a terrifying experience unless you practice and

A key to increasing the value of creativity in our communities is finding common ground between normally unconnected groups so new collaborations can flourish. We can all help promote collaboration by becoming good listeners and better communicators. Remembering that we are not all alike, that we have different ways of processing information, thinking and

Creativity and the arts are poised to take a new role and value in our communities. There is a Paradigm Shift taking place that is encouraging collaboration between the world of creativity and the world of business. This Shift places a higher value on the act of creation and innovation, giving artists new ideas