Creative Wisdom Dialogue and Workshop

“Wisdom is the most positive and acceptable trait of people who live long lives. The challenge is to stimulate imaginations to combine that wisdom with activity and social engagement to make it meaningful in one’s life and in the world.” - Anthropologist and author Mary Catherine Bateson

Free Your Creative Brain - at Free Workshop! In the "Creative Wisdom Workshop: Composing a Creative Life," you will discover ways of stimulating and growing your creativity, learn helpful tools for defining opportunities and solving problems, and explore how creative thinking can be applied to life transitions. 

Plan to participate on Mondays, March 12, April 9, May 14, June 11 and July 9, from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Hartford Public Library, 500 Main Street (parking and entrance on Arch Street), Hartford, Connecticut. Registration requested. Free and open to all ages; light dinner will be served.

"Creativity doesn't protect us from life, it helps us engage more fully in it and helps us develop the opportunities inherent in life's challenges," says neuroscientist and author Gene Cohen. "Our creativity is enhanced by certain qualities, including self-motivation, curiosity, a sense of challenge, tolerance for ambiguity, courage, the ability to imagine things that aren't, and the willingness to take risks and to dream."

Aging and retirement will dominate American culture in the coming decades, yet people are burdened with obsolete concepts about aging. Everyone knows the statistics about the number of baby boomers. One is now turning 60 every seven seconds. People are healthier and better educated. They are living longer. After transitioning from full-time work to “retirement,” people may have up to 20 to 30 healthy years in which to engage in new activities. 

Creativity matters in how we individually and collectively look at the second half of life. This Creative Wisdom Workshop is designed to help you:

• Discover new ways of thinking about transitions and retirement.

• Imagine "what might be" in your future.

• Connect with others who are seeking meaningful involvement in community.

The Creative Wisdom Dialogue and Workshop is designed to help people discover new ways of thinking about the future and influencing “what might be” in the new American life of aging. It offers participants the opportunity to engage their creativity and understand the changes facing the aging society. People of all ages are encouraged to participate in these dialogues, which will explore:

• What your age means to you – and whether your concept of age fits with society’s expectations about certain ages.
• What opportunities and challenges you see ahead for yourself – and for an increasingly older society.
• What role creativity might play in helping you explore transitions and live the second half of your life on purpose.
• How active wisdom might be applied to improve community well-being and the common good.

Dialogues may explore many more related topics. Participants will help form the on-going dialogues schedule and topics related to aging-related themes that are important to them.

The first-in-the-nation Active Wisdom Dialogue pilot program was held at the Hartford Public Library on Mondays, April 24, May 22 and June 19, 2006. The dates of the new "Creative Wisdom Workshop: Composing a Creative Life" at the Hartford Public Library are:
2007: March 12, April 9, May 14, June 11 and July 9
2006: April 24, May 22, June 19, July 24, August 21, September 19, October 16, November 9 and December 5

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• Recommended books and resources about wisdom, creativity and aging 

• The Future of Wisdom - By Mary Catherine Bateson

• Productive Aging: Are Public Libraries Productive Partners? - By Mary Catherine Bateson (Word doc)

DEVELOPERS OF CREATIVE WISDOM WORKSHOP:
Steven Dahlberg ... is principal of the International Centre for Creativity and Imagination. Most recently, he was head of the Massachusetts-based Creative Education Foundation and director of its annual, international Creative Problem Solving Institute. He has 15 years of experience teaching creative thinking and problem solving, including helping two toy inventors launch a creativity consulting business. For more than nine years, he’s been exploring the intersection of creativity, aging, retirement, transitions, purpose and work. His articles have appeared in Training magazine, Knowledge Management News magazine, and Global Knowledge Review. He edits the ageing as exile? and Applied Imagination blogs. He is currently is completing a graduate certificate in gerontology at the University of Connecticut.

Hartford Public Library ... seeks to promote and support literacy and learning; to provide free and open access to information and ideas; and to help people participate in our democratic society. Founded in 1774, the Library is now nearing completion of a major renovation and expansion under the leadership of Chief Librarian Louise Blalock.

CREATOR OF ACTIVE WISDOM DIALOGUE:
Mary Catherine Bateson ...  is a writer and cultural anthropologist who divides her time between New Hampshire and Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she recently completed three years as a visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has written and co-authored many books and articles, lectures across the country and abroad, and is president of the Institute for Intercultural Studies in New York City. Until recently she has been the Clarence J. Robinson Professor in Anthropology and English at George Mason University, and is now professor emerita. During the past few years Mary Catherine Bateson has been particularly involved with three projects: finishing and bringing out her most recent book, Willing to Learn: Passages of Personal Discovery; wrapping up the 2004 Gregory Bateson Centennial (as well as a few loose ends from the 2001 Mead Centennial) which, even after its official period passed, continues to stimulate activity and interest; and building on the experience with Granny Voters as a means to encourage trustee voting in future electoral seasons and to empower older adults to claim a voice for the future. This project will continue to develop into a further exploration of intergenerational communication and changing ways of experiencing time and will probably lead to a book. Mary Catherine Bateson is currently writing a regular column, "Peripheral Vision" for Pink Magazine.