The week, from 21 – 25 November, features events and performances showcasing and celebrating the University’s role as a national and international hub of smart imagination and innovation.
It is being hosted as part of Victoria’s commitment to ‘Cultivating Creative Capital’—one of the University’s areas of academic distinctiveness.
Professor Jennifer Windsor, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences and Education and Chair of the University’s ‘Cultivating creative capital’ steering group, says Creativity Week is a chance for staff, students and other Wellingtonians to engage with an array of concepts and experiences across different disciplines.
“Creativity is central to so many aspects of our lives, as individuals and as a society, especially here in New Zealand’s cultural capital. We want to demonstrate the power of imagination and explore the idea of ‘doing something differently’ by presenting a range of experimental formats and thought-provoking ideas.”
David Gauntlett (pictured), Professor of Creativity and Design and Director of Research at Westminster School of Media, Arts and Design at the University of Westminster in London, is Victoria’s inaugural Ambassador of Creativity.
During Creativity Week, he will be presenting a free keynote public lecture on Being Creative (Lecture Theatre 1, Law School, Government Buildings, Lambton Quay, 22 November, 6pm) and interacting with staff and students, including running a LEGO workshop for postgraduates.
“It’s a great honour to be the first-eve Ambassador of Creativity at Victoria,” he says. “It will be a huge pleasure to meet and exchange ideas with staff and students. Both the University and Wellington enjoy a formidable international reputation as centres of creative excellence, so I am sure my visit will be stimulating, inspiring and fun.”
Professor Gauntlett’s books include Making is Connecting: The Social Meaning of Creativity, from DIY and Knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0.
He has worked for a decade with LEGO on innovation in creativity, play and learning, including development of the LEGO Serious Play process for businesses and other organisations.
In his essay The LEGO System as a tool for thinking, creativity, and changing the world, Professor Gauntlett says “LEGO connects with some valuable social movements—such as maker culture and open knowledge sharing—and can help to build a mindset which is creative, optimistic, and willing to try out new things”.
During Creativity Week, Professor Emerita Luci Tapahonso, who was named the first Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation in 2013, will be Victoria’s inaugural Wai-te-ata Press Creator-in-Residence, hosted by Associate Professor Sydney Shep, Reader in Book History and Printer at the Press.
Professor Tapahonso will be giving a free public reading (Te Marae, Te Papa, 24 November, 1pm), as well as visiting Arohata Women’s Prison with International Institute of Modern Letters creative writing teacher Dr Pip Adam and joining an interdisciplinary panel of speakers to discuss how verbal, visual and legal languages can safeguard and champion indigeneity (including Māori and Pasifika).
Professor Tapahonso’s visit is partnered by the Embassy of the United States of America.
Moura Quayle is based at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where she is Professor of Strategic Design in the Sauder School of Business, Director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues and Director of the Master of Public Policy and Global Affairs.
She co-founded the Sauder School’s innovative d.studio design facility and will be presenting a free public lecture on Creative Coalitions: Re-imagining Business, Academia and Government (Lecture Theatre 1, Law School, Government Buildings, Lambton Quay, 21 November, 6pm).
In her lecture, Professor Quayle will talk about how meeting today’s most critical challenges requires collaboration and using the creative tools and processes of design that have served industry and manufacturing for decades.
Other events during Creativity Week include a free series of Lunchtime Panel Conversations for the public in the Hub, level 2, Kelburn campus, featuring staff and other artists associated with the University:
Creativity as Theory in Practice, with Dr Anna Smaill (author of the Man Booker Prize-longlisted and World Fantasy Award for Best Novel winner The Chimes), jazz improviser Mark Donlon and filmmaker and film scholar Dr Miriam Ross (22 November, 12.30pm).
Creativity as Digital Communication, with composer Professor John Psathas, computer scientist Professor Neil Dodgson and media artist and activist Walter Langelaar (23 November, 12.30pm).
Creativity as Innovation, with Composer-in-Residence Alison Isadora, Writer-in-Residence novelist and poet Anne Kennedy and Stout Memorial Fellow writer, curator and visual artist Gregory O’Brien (24 November, 12.30pm).
Full details on these and other Creativity Week events are at www.victoria.ac.nz/creative-capital.