97 percent of the 89 employers surveyed believe that arts training is crucial to developing creativity

Here's a message from Lou St. Ville (Director of Education and Development at Crate&Barrel, & an alum of the Center for Creative Leadership's Leading Creatively Program) ...

From: St. Ville, Lou [mailto:@crateandbarrel.com]
Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 1:20 PM
To: Palus, Chuck; Horth, David
Subject: Your book is needed...

Thought you would find this article from CLO magazine interesting. It made me think about how important your research (and book) is to the US workplace now. I'm speaking about this to a class at Columbia College here in Chicago next week. I will certainly speak to this need here at C&B. ... lsv

In The News

Published April 2008

Study Finds Curriculums Not Keeping Pace With Workforce Needs

Lindsay Edmonds Wickman

A recent survey found that school superintendents and employers agree that creativity is becoming increasingly important in U.S. workplaces, according to a report by The Conference Board and Americans for the Arts, in partnership with the American Association of School Administrators (AASA).

“Ready to Innovate: Are Educators and Executives Aligned on the Creative Readiness of the U.S. Workforce?” states that 99 percent of the 155 school superintendents surveyed and 97 percent of the 89 employers surveyed believe that arts training — and, to a lesser degree, communications studies — are crucial to developing creativity. But findings indicate that most high schools and employers provide such training and studies only on an elective or as-needed basis.

“As long as creativity is identified as a skill that can be developed and recognized as an integral input for innovation, and corporate leaders emphasize the need for innovation in order to meet their business objectives, the need for including creativity enhancing programs [in] the requisite training curriculum should be obvious,” said Jonathan Spector, chief executive officer of The Conference Board.