Creativity in Play

We'll explore with Krylyn Peters how to overcome fear and use creativity for wellness and good mental health. Plus, we'll find out more about the online "Creativity & Wellness Summit 2014" that Krylyn has curated. Krylyn is a licensed professional counselor (psychotherapist), certified life coach, and singer/songwriter. Find out more about Krylyn and the summit.

We'll explore with Shelley Sacks how socially engaged artistic processes can help individuals and communities find new ways new ways of engaging with the world to create a more sustainable future. Plus, we'll find out more about two of her key projects -- University of the Trees, and Exchange Values.

Shelley will lead a three-day "University of the Trees: U.S. Summer Institute 2014" from August 1 to 3, 2014, at the Jane Goodall Center at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, Connecticut, USA. This is the first intensive training on University of the Trees to be held in the U.S., building on similar trainings Shelley has done in England, Germany and South Africa. Space is limited to a small cohort of co-learners.

Shelley Sacks works internationally in connective practices and social sculpture, exploring the relationship between imagination and transformation, the individual and community, and rethinking responsibility as an ability-to-respond. She leads a master’s and doctoral program in social sculpture at Oxford Brookes University, where she is Professor of Social Sculpture and Interdisciplinary Arts, and Director of the Social Sculpture Research Unit. She is the co-author of the recently released Atlas of the Poetic Continent: Pathways to Ecological Citizenship.

We'll explore how quality play space design can emerge through collaboration with one's community, as well as the importance of public space for children's health and well-being with award-winning landscape architect Adam White. Plus, we'll find out more about Adam's latest project, Dinton Pasture Nature Play Park in Wokingham, England. Adam is director of Davies White Landscape Architects in London, and co-author of Nature Play: Managing & Maintaining Playful Landscapes.

We'll explore the early learning link between the body and the brain and how to guide this connection in young children. Our guests are Gill Connell and Cheryl McCarthy, authors of the new book, A Moving Child is a Learning Child: How the Body Teaches the Brain to Think. Gill is an expert on child development, learning, movement and play; and the founder of Moving Smart. Cheryl is a former vice president for Hasbro, and creative director of Moving Smart.

We'll explore with Michael Conforti and Loralee Scott-Conforti how to understand and tap into the creative unconscious, how creativity can be better understood from an interdisciplinary perspective, and the role that archetypes play in creativity. Michael Conforti is a Jungian analyst and the founder and director of The Assisi Institute, and Loralee Scott-Conforti is the executive director of The Assisi Institute, as well as a producer, writer, lecturer and choreographer. The Assisi Institute is an educational center dedicated to the study and application of Archetypal Pattern Analysis.

We'll explore with Karyn Lu how she is making Turner Broadcasting more playful and creative -- with inspiration from her parents' childhood in China and her own experience as an immigrant. Karyn will share specific play activities implemented at CNN Center and other Turner offices, as well as how she helps her HR colleagues integrate play into the organization's culture. Plus, get tips from what Turner Broadcasting has learned to help you make your organization more creative and playful, and find out how Karyn is applying these ideas to make her city of Atlanta a more playful city, as well!

Karyn Lu heads the Insights & Inspiration team at Turner Broadcasting, which is charged with looking to the future and around the globe to identify emerging trends and opportunities, helping to drive innovation across Turner brands. Previously, Karyn was a user experience designer at CNN.com, where she co-founded CNN iReport. Check out Karyn's recent TEDx talk on "Create Play Where You Are."

We'll explore creativity, learning, art, democracy and more with artist and gallery owner Kimberly Camp. As an artist, Kimberly's paintings and dolls have been shown throughout the US in over 100 solo and group exhibitions. As an arts administrator, she held leadership roles at the Smithsonian Institution and the Charles Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, as well as headed the Barnes Foundation (where John Dewey served as the first president and director of education). She is the author of the forth-coming book, Defending the Dead: The Totally True Story about the Barnes Foundation Transformation, about her time at the Barnes Foundation and its many recent changes. Kimberly currently runs Galerie Marie in n Collingswood, New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia.

We'll explore Lois Holzman's new book, The Overweight Brain: How Our Obsession with Knowing Keeps Us from Getting Smart Enough to Make a Better World, and how she is writing it publicly through social media. Plus, we'll talk about Discover Development NYC, a 3-day exploration of New York’s development community that Lois is leading later this month, and her social therapy work, an approach to human development and learning that she has pioneered with Fred Newman. Lois is the director and co-founder of the East Side Institute, convener of the Performing the World conference, and author of several books, including Performing Psychology: A Postmodern Culture of the Mind and Vygotsky at Work and Play.

We'll explore the "Playtime in Africa" project and Mmofra Foundation's work in Ghana with Rachel Phillips and Amowi Phillips.

We'll explore the concept of "pop-up play" for children, what it means to be a play worker, the developmental needs of children, and the idea of play in general with Morgan Leichter-Saxby, playwork training developer for Pop-Up Adventrure Play.