The Australian Association of Writing Programs

Issue title: Conceiving the whole: the attributes of creative arts education today

Editors: Steven Pace, Donna Lee Brien, Ian Gaskell and Ashley Holmes

Daniel H. Pink’s bestselling book A Whole New Mind argues for the importance of so-called ‘right-brain’ aptitudes as key skills for the future. Pink argues that, just as Western society has shifted from the Agricultural to the Industrial and Information Ages, it is now moving to a new ‘Conceptual Age’ where right-brain thinking will be as important as the traditionally-dominant left-brain thinking. This shift, he argues, is part of a general movement that accepts that creativity and innovation are the prime sources of business value and competitive advantage in the new economy.

In this shift to the Conceptual Age, those of most value in the workforce and to society will not be the ‘knowledge workers’ of the Information Age, but instead, what Pink calls ‘creators and empathizers’. The primary reason for this change, according to Pink, is that in a world of consumer abundance, where nothing is scarce, and where an increasing number of jobs can be outsourced to cheaper locations or be taken over by automation, it is creativity that becomes the central competitive difference in commodities and work processes. Here we include, and seek to promote discussion about the creative services, cultural products and the process of creative arts education.

While this issue of SLEID does not set out to focus on Pink’s work, it does seek responses stimulated by his concepts. In particular, we are interested in exploring, in common with the discussion of graduate attributes that is currently animating Australian and other national education systems, how certain skill sets can be harnessed to advantage. For Pink, there are six attributes that are crucial to success in the new economy:

- design

- story

- symphony

- empathy

- play

- meaning

Might these form the foundations for creative arts education? Such a discussion may well also take in the ideas of others, for instance: Richard Florida on the contribution of the creative class; Stuart Cunningham on the diffusion of arts and culture; Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on concepts of creativity; Elizabeth Grosz on the importance of intensities and sensations for creating meaning in art…

This issue of SLEID sets out, therefore, to investigate the importance, relevance or otherwise, of Pink’s six attributes in various fields of the creative arts and creative arts education. We welcome papers on this and related topics.

Papers length: articles should be between 3000 and 6000 words in length, including the abstract, notes, appendices and references.

Schedule: expressions of interest – 6 March 2011
Full paper submission – 6 May 2011
Publication (approx) – November 2011

Submission details: online submission via the SLEID journal website http://sleid.cqu.edu.au/submissions.php

Format & style: see author guidelines http://sleid.cqu.edu.au/submissions.php#guidelines

Enquiries: Dr Steven Pace s.pace@cqu.edu.au