It’s no secret that businesses want more creativity. In one recent study, 77 percent of CEOs said they struggle to find the innovation and creativity skills they need. At the same time, creativity has never been in more demand. The basis of competition is shifting as technology continues to reshape industries. In a post-pandemic world, people are questioning long-held assumptions about the workplace. Attention is increasingly turning to the impacts of business on communities and the environment. Unfortunately, corporate cultures tend to limit the very creativity they need and organizations get stuck reproducing the “best practices” of the past. RISD is launching a new program that aims to help.
RISD has always embraced the power of art and design to shape the world and the value of creative thinkers to take on its big challenges. The college is committed to educating students and the public and contributing to society through critical thinking and innovation across disciplines. Of course, educating future artists and designers is central to that mission, but RISD doesn’t believe creativity should be restricted to a chosen few.
RISD ExED is a new initiative to create educational opportunities for business people regardless of their level of formal design training. Its goal is to enable people from any industry to transform their work with new insights and inspiration while exploring the intersections of art, design, and business.
RISD’s riverside campus in Providence, Rhode Island
ExED’s first pilot program, the Art of Creativity, is designed for people from any field who want to reinvigorate their own work as an opportunity for creative practice. RISD’s tradition of studio education means participants won’t just be sitting in lectures. A mix of on-campus, online, and on-the-job activities will help participants reconnect with their own creative aspirations, build habits that foster creative practice, tap into the creative power of groups, and lead creative work in their own organizations.
The Art of Creativity is an open-enrollment program that individual learners can sign up for themselves. The on-campus launch of the inaugural cohort will take place on December 5 and 6. ExED is offering early registration discounts for participants who sign up by September 30.
To register, visit risd.edu/exed/art-of-creativity.
Over the coming years, RISD ExED will be developing a portfolio of programs for executive and corporate audiences that draw on faculty from across the institution and the expertise of the extended RISD community. The next program in their pipeline, The Design Lab, will allow a single company to convene collaborators around a tough business challenge and approach it in a new way through the lens of design. Additional program titles have yet to be announced, but if RISD’s track record as a place for experimentation and exploration is any indicator, they promise to be interesting.
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