Calling All Creatives: TEDxCLE

For the latest installment of Calling All Creatives, I had to overcome some obstacles before I could write this post: a possible closed event and a snowstorm. TEDxCLE is an independently sponsored TED event which promised to bring together some of the most creative thinkers in the Cleveland-area on a late February day during a notoriously snowy winter here in Ohio.

When I first heard about the event, from where exactly I can’t remember, I knew wanted to write about it for Calling All Creatives. Well, that was the easy part. I then had the difficult task of getting a ticket to an event that was taking applications for attendees. Yes, you read that right. There was an online application form that needed to be filled out to see if you qualified for a ticket first. This puzzled me for months, because it did not include the time and/or price. Would I want to be accepted to something I could not attend nor afford?

Luckily, about a month before the event, I started following TEDxCLE on Twitter, where it was revealed that tickets would be going on sale to the general public. And guess what? The price was extremely reasonable and the time fit into my schedule.

Immediately after the announced ticket sale date and time, I bought my ticket. Lucky for me that I did, because the next day or so the event sold out. So with ticket in hand, I was ready for my TED experience.

Calling All Creatives: Social Entrepreneurs and Social Innovation

In my last post, I explored the concept of using creativity as an agent of social change and highlighted a program in Cleveland that was doing just that. I also asked readers to share their own examples of creativity and community building.


One reader, Isobel, left a comment praising the organization Ashoka and the partnership between IDEO and the Gates Foundation. I decided to check out her suggestions and was thoroughly impressed.

Ashoka is a leader in the social entrepreneur movement supporting some 2,000 fellows in 60 different countries with projects ranging from sanitation to establishing schools. Ashoka has created a global network of innovation and creativity empowering regular citizens to become change makers.

Similarly, IDEO, not only has an alliance with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support projects on health but with several other well-known global foundations. At IDEO, it is not just about innovation but social innovation as defined by using design-thinking principles to better serve underprivileged areas and communities. Recent examples of projects have included the Human Centered Design Project providing a tool kit for innovation and the universal ear, an affordable hearing aid both created for developing nations.

Calling All Creatives: From Vacant Lots to Vineyards

(Image Re-Imagining Cleveland)

What is the role of creativity? We all know the function that creativity plays in art and innovation, but what is the purpose of using creativity to build and enhance our communities? I’d like to look at using creativity as an agent of change and encourage you to think more creatively about your community.

I first encountered the idea of creativity for change while an undergraduate studying art history. This is where I first learned about art movements, primarily in the late 20th Century, using creativity for social change. Years later while working in museums in Washington, DC, I encountered another way that the arts affect change through my personal interactions with inner city school children. For them art was a way to escape, but not change their social situation.

Now, I’d like to explore how the ideas behind the art (aka creativity) can generate community. But I am not talking about Richard Florida’s concept of the Creative Class, which while a wonderful theory only takes into account the people that use creativity for their profession. What I’d like to see more of is everyone, not just professional creatives, using their ideas to improve the quality of their cities and neighborhoods.