UCSB Arts & Lectures will present acclaimed creativity expert and author Sir Ken Robinson in a compelling talk titled “Out of Our Minds — Learning to Be Creative” at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21 at UCSB Campbell Hall.
Robinson’s appearance is part of the UCSB Arts & Lectures series of public lectures titled Innovation Matters, a lineup of leading-edge thinkers and doers who are shaking up their respective fields. Upcoming speakers include “wrongologist” and Being Wrong author Kathryn Schulz on Monday, Jan. 23, technology pioneer Raymond Kurzweil on Tuesday, March 6, and cultural anthropologist of new media Michael Wesch on Tuesday, April 24.
Tickets are $20 for the general public and $10 for UCSB students with a current student ID and youths age 18 or younger. For tickets or more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures at 805.893.3535 or click here to purchase online. Books will be available for purchase and signing.
Robinson, Ph.D., is renowned for his radical ideas on education reform and innovation in the classroom. His gently humorous and insightful talks from the prestigious TED Conferences have been seen by some 200 million people in more than 150 countries. Drawing from his groundbreaking book Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative, he urges schools and colleges everywhere to focus on cultivating creativity and acknowledging multiple types of intelligences.
He explores questions such as, Why is it essential to promote creativity? Is everyone creative or just a selective few? Robinson argues for drastic shifts in how we educate all students to meet the extraordinary challenges of the 21st century.
“My contention is all kids have tremendous talents and we squander them pretty ruthlessly,” he said. “Creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat them with the same status.”
Robinson’s 2009 book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, was a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into 21 languages. His latest book is an updated 10th anniversary edition of Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative with a new preface.
A visionary cultural leader, he led the British government’s 1998 advisory committee on creative and cultural education — a massive inquiry into the significance of creativity in the educational system and the economy — and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 for his service to the arts. He was instrumental in developing a strategy for creative and economic development as part of the peace process in Northern Ireland. Robinson consults with governments around the globe, international agencies, Fortune 500 companies and some of the world’s leading cultural institutions.
A professor emeritus at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, where he was a professor of education for 12 years, Robinson has received countless honorary degrees from universities in the United States and abroad, the Peabody Medal for contributions to the arts and culture in the United States, the LEGO Prize for international achievement in education, and the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the Royal Society for the Arts for outstanding contributions to British-U.S. cultural relations. He was named one of TIME/FORTUNE/CNN’s Principal Voices in 2005.
— Karna Hughes is a senior writer and publicist for UCSB Arts & Lectures.
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