Ken Robinson: An Expert In The Field of Creativity and Innovation in Business and Education
Sir Ken Robinson (born 4 March 1950) is an author, speaker, and international advisor to governments, non-profits, education, and arts bodies, on education in the arts. He was Director of The Arts in Schools Project (1985–89), Professor of Arts Education at the University of Warwick (1989–2001), and was knighted in 2003 for services to education.
Ken Robinson is an internationally-renowned expert in the field of creativity and innovation in business and education; his visionary consultancy skills have been employed by governments, major corporations and cultural organizations worldwide.
Born in Liverpool in 1950, he gained a Ph.D. in 1981 from the University of London for research into drama and theatre in education. He was the principal author of “The Arts in Schools: Principles, Practice and Provision”, an important standard text in the UK and around the world.
From 1985-1989 he was director of The Arts in Schools Project, a major UK initiative to improve the teaching of the arts, and in 1998 was appointed by the British government to chair the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education, the largest ever inquiry into the importance of creativity in education and the economy.
His report, “All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education” (also known as the Robinson Report), had a huge impact on both government and corporate attitudes towards creativity, with the London Times declaring:
“This report should have every CEO and human resources director in the country thumping the table and demanding action.”
He was the central figure in a strategy for creative and economic development in Northern Ireland, where his blueprint for change, Unlocking Creativity, was adopted by Ministers from all parties.
Until 2001, he was Professor of Education at Warwick University in the U.K. and is now Professor Emeritus. He has served as advisor to a succession of high-profile public and private organizations – including the governments of Hong Kong and Singapore, the European Commission, and Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. Among other roles, he is currently senior advisor of the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles.
An inspirational business speaker and workshop leader, he was named SfB European Business Speaker of the Year in 2000. His latest book, “Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative”, was published by Wiley-Capstone. In June 2003 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his outstanding achievements as a writer, speaker and leader in creativity, the arts and education.
Among current projects, he is working with Principal Voice, Ron Pompei, on “Catalyzing Creativity” – a forum for the discussion and exchange of ideas on innovation and creativity in business.
In the following interview, Sir Ken Robinson remembers a particular philosophy book, and explains how some questions define and bring about new intellectual movements. These kinds of questions, he adds, are far more important than those about the creation of the world we live in.
You can check I’M Magazine to watch the rest of Ken Robinson’s interview.
Ana Teresa Silva is a journalist, writer and life coach.
After many years as a freelance journalist, working on TV documentaries and for several newspapers and magazines, she founded I’M Magazine, an international digital magazine that covers projects and extraordinary people that are changing the world.
Since 2008 she has been interviewing social entrepreneurs and innovators, futurists and change-makers, thinkers and facilitators from all over the world and sharing compelling life stories, ®evolutionary roads, projects for a sustainable future and ideas in motion…
Ana Teresa is also the Managing Director of a portuguese digital magazine on health and well-being. As a writer, she authored 6 books (one of her novels won a 1st prize fiction award), and she has also written 2 children’s theater plays and a daily TV series. Her last published novel, “Amanhã é outro dia” was published in November 2014 by Talent Hunter Editions.
She works also as a Life Coach and PsyCH-K facilitator.
