The other day I came upon an article in Newsweek that truly caught my interest.  The article was titled “The Creativity Crisis” and the headline read “For the first time reasearcg shows that American creativity is declining.  What went wrong – and how can we fix it.”  As I read the article it occured to me the writer’s statement was just not correct.  There is plenty of creativity today in America and from Americans, it’s just that past generation fails to recognize the new gereration’s creative contributions. 

Years ago creativity was defined by invention of mechanical products.  The the cotton gin, the telephone and the assembly line were regarded as creative feats, which they were.  Today, video games are more complex than ever, televison shows and feature films are less formulaic than in the past, and art expands far beyond the canvas.  Americans are constantly looking to break new ground and explore what has not been yet discovered.

While it has been asked, what changed creativity in America, there are a few areas to visit in our educational system.  From an early age children are asked to color within the lines and are graded for such.  The better grades go to those who stay within the lines.  But it is those who see no boundries that are expressing their creativity in another way. 

The article in Newsweek continued to focus on the educational system in our country as well, noting that with the packed curriculum there is very little time for creative classes.  Art and music departments are being cut and replaced with higher level math and English courses.  Our children are being educated, but only to fit into corporate America.

As I read on it was mentioned that a prime leadership requirement is creativity.  With all that is focused every day within our schools you would think we would be preserving the creative courses somehow.  But then again, why would we – the education system in our country has been designed to help children grow into adults who fit into society’s little box.  But leaders are born, not taught.  To bring America’s creativity back we just have to begin to accept those that do differently than we do and appreciate their efforts.

On April 27, 2010 A+D Museum is hosting CELEBRATE 2010, a Grand Opening Exhibit and inaugural Fundraising Event to celebrate their newly established home.Established in response to the need for a space that would be devoted expressly to the exhibition of progressive architecture and design in Los Angeles, A+D Museum opened its doors in January 2001 in the Bradbury Building, one of downtown Los Angeles’ premiere landmark buildings. The mission of A+D museum is to celebrate and promote an awareness of progressive Architecture and Design in everyday life through exhibits, educational programs and public outreach.

Now relocated on Los Angeles’ Museum Row, A+D continues to be the only museum in Los Angeles where continuous exhibits of architecture and design are on view.  Through exhibits, symposia, multi-disciplinary projects, educational and community programming, A+D serves as a showcase for the work of important regional, national and international designers, providing a forum for contemporary issues in architecture, urbanism, and design that are helping to shape the city.

A+D Museum is located at:
6032 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA  90036

For Tickets and Event info:

http://aplusd.org/v5/celebrate2010/details-tickets/

The Brewery ArtWalk is a twice annual open studio weekend at the art complex. With over 100 participating resident artists, you will have the opportunity to see new works, discover new favorites, speak with the artists, and purchase artwork directly from the artists at studio prices.

Brewery ArtWalk
Spring 2010 – April 17 & 18
11:00 am – 6:00 pm

2100 North Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90031.
http://breweryartwalk.com/ 

Art & the City: Los Angeles An Ovation TV Original Thursday, April 15, 2010 @ 9:30pm Explore the Los Angeles art scene from home – Just Program your DVR. Host David Keeps uncovers discoveries of arts and design in highly regarded attractions as well as uncovered corners throughout the US and Europe. In this episode, David explores the scene in Los Angeles. Ovation is a television specialty channel that airs programming dedicated to the arts and contemporary culture. It features programming devoted to performance, people, art, music and film. In addition, Ovation features in-depth profiles on various artists and performers, Arts news from the U.S and around the world. 

City Councilmen Tom LeBonge has been kicking around an idea for some time now that would connect the Southern California Institute of Architecture to the Arts District located just south of the campus using an existing rail line that has been previously abandoned. This idea didn’t gain much support from the Mayors Office when it was first introduced four years ago. So when LaBonge was asked by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to sit in on the Feb. 25 Metro board meeting in the place of Councilman and Metro board member José Huizar, LaBonge made his pitch again.

Lebonge commissioned a feasibility report to be completed by Metro Staff. The report would include the environmental impacts of adding a service car to the Red and Purple Lines that would service a new station at Sixth Street near Santa Fe Avenue. Lebonge wanted to make it clear that no new track would need to be constructed and a platform could easily be erected either there or near Third Street.

LaBonge envisions the line extension as a way for people to get to and from SCI-Arc and the Arts and Industrial districts, and possibly as an opportunity to reduce congestion at Union Station’s Patsaouras Transit Plaza.

“If I can use a baseball analogy, a lot of times you try to get a hit and maybe you get a hit to the outfield but you don’t score,” LaBonge said. “I didn’t hit this one out of the park, but we’re at least in play to get around the bases.”

Ah, the resilience of the Los Angeles economy.  Although California was, perhaps, the state hit hardest by the current housing crisis, Los Angeles bounces back above the rest of the state and other big cities throughout the country, with an overall economic resurgence that places it in ninth place for all American cities. 

The factors considered for this ranking are 

·        unemployment rate
·       job growth
·       expectations for continued job growth
·      positive change in median sale price for single-family homes
·        metropolitan gross domestic product 

Los Angeles has strong banking and finance industries and a housing market that, while it suffered a major pricing bubble and burst, has seen an increase in demand.  After falling to a median $311,100 in the second quarter of 2009, home sale prices jumped 11% in the third quarter and another 2% between the third and fourth quarter of 2009 to a median of $342,700, according to the National Association of Realtors, making Los Angeles number four in sales price improvement for all U.S. metropolitan cities. 

Part of L.A.’s dramatic rise is due to the fact that our real estate woes began earlier and were more pronounced than most of the country, so our easing began a little sooner.  Some of the economic reasons for this recovery are the evergreen industries that comprise our city… industries like government, defense, education and technology – sectors that will always provide work, even in a national slump.  Our industry diversity, a business infrastructure not solely invested in one industry, gives us a healthy, resilient economy and very good prospects for the future.