The Renaissance Center for Innovation, Learning and Leadership

Origins

The Renaissance Center for Innovation, Learning and Leadership is a concept ten years in the making developed by the senior faculty, advisors, board members and founders of Creative Leaps International. The concept springs directly from the company's work over three decades in business, education, the arts, sciences, leadership and creativity.

Seed Ideas

The seed ideas that launched Creative Leaps International and shaped its groundbreaking work have only risen in value with the passage of time. Creativity and connectivity are the foundational concepts. Arts-fired thinking across the disciplines, knowledge bridging linking insights and perceptions from the arts with those of the sciences and all other fields, and, thirdly, inspired personal development as the key to learning and professional development -- these are the core practices of Creative Leaps International and the envisioned cornerstones of The Renaissance Center for Innovation, Learning and Leadership.

The Call

Our 21st century is calling for creativity and innovation at unprecedented levels from all quarters. Likewise, the demands for creative, empathic and ethical leadership are unparalleled and certain to increase in the years ahead. Ideas which unite us, which bridge cultural, economic and opportunity gaps and set fire to our imaginations for possibilities that are not yet but can be if we set our minds to them, are right now the most precious stuff in the universe. We must educate ourselves and the rising generation to these ideas, capacities, skills and values. The Renaissance Center will be dedicated to this purpose.

The Place

As a place, the Renaissance Center will be designed to match the pulse, flux and complexity of today's world. The problems faced by each of our sectors can no longer be viewed as that sector's alone. They belong to all of us. Our difficulties simply do not know the meaning of staying put. They jump their fences and wreak havoc through all our sectors. An achievement gap or creativity gap in education quickly becomes a competency gap in our workforce and a gaping ingenuity gap in our industries, laboratories, think tanks, and ultimately, our economy. Everything is connected. We are all connected and so are our problems, challenges and hopes for a better future.

People and Ideas

Therefore, this model of a Renaissance Center is all about connectivity - among ideas from different disciplines, among thinkers from diverse backgrounds, perspectives and expertise. Connectivity and creativity together will be the cornerstones of this Renaissance Center and its foundational values.

A Birthright and a Responsibility

As such, the Renaissance Center will be charged with the responsibility of bringing creativity and connectivity into every sector of its home community and region of the country - into every institution, every organization, every task force or professional coalition, into every business large or small, every level of government and community service. Creativity and connectivity must be thought of as our new birthright, alongside freedom, liberty and equality. And, as such, they become a responsibility we have to one another.

Policy

It will, therefore, be the policy of this Renaissance Center that beneficiaries of its services pledge their participation in cross-disciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary forums aimed at the larger issues which challenge, threaten and constrain us all: issues which are no longer contained in separate little boxes - that one for the scientists, this one for the care givers, this one for those who teach our children. We must all invest ourselves in the needs, issues and aspirations of one another, contribute our special wisdom, offer our helping hands. The Renaissance Center will, therefore, be a place of ideas, but also of community, a place of innovation, but also of sharing and partnerships.

Renaissance

Renaissance means re-birth. This is an opportunity to begin something new, something that has never been before. And even as we bring to it every insight that our collective genius can muster, we do not know everything we'll need to know starting out. We will be learning as we go, learning along the way, learning more every day. The great Michelangelo Buonarroti at age 87 was heard to say, "Ancora imparo", which means, "I am still learning." From one Renaissance generation to the next, this is our pledge: to keep learning, to learn together and from one another.

John J. Cimino, Jr.

Creative Leaps International

To learn more, contact: JCimino@CreativeLeaps.org or call 845.469.7254