John M. Eger

It seems every city is talking about becoming an innovation city, an innovation region, an innovation community.

But you can't have innovation without creativity. How you make someone creative and what our schools and communities must do to develop, nurture and sustain creativity is not well understood.

Richard Florida in...

Education is a hot political issue this year.

Well it should be, as everything that seems to be going south points to serious deficiencies with our whole educational system. There is agreement we have a problem with K-12 education, but there is not a widespread recognition that it starts...

The holy grail of success in the new economy is thinking differently, according to the latest book, Imagine: How Creativity Works, by Jonah Lehrer.

"The invention of the Swiffer" he says "is a tale of creativity...(because) Harry West and his team managed to think differently about something we...

The holy grail of success in the new economy is "thinking differently," according to the latest book, Imagine: How Creativity Works, by Jonah Lehrer.

"The invention of the Swiffer," he says, "is a tale of Creativity... [because] Harry West and his team managed to think differently about something...

April 21 marks the 42nd annual festival celebrating Chicano Park's "international recognition as a major public art site for its commanding mural paintings of the past and present struggle of Mexican and Chicano history."

It's hard to believe that what was once "street art" littering the off ramps and the...

Opening a Mayoral debate on education, Scott Himelstein, Director of the San Diego University (USD) Center for Education Policy and the Law said: "A recent poll showed that education ranks a close second to jobs and the economy," and the next mayor needs to play a leadership role,...

It started in a little town in Venezuela almost 35 years ago, made its way to cities in the U.S. and is now a global phenomenon. El Sistema, which doesn't translate well, means simply "the system," a system for giving young, usually poor kids, a chance on living.

At first...

Tom Torlakson, the California State Superintendent of Education, convenes the first of several meetings in Coronado later this month to talk about "how the arts and creative education can transform California classrooms." He also plans to produce a new publication called A Blueprint for Creative Schools.

Just as important, the...

Can art lead the way?

Kenichi Ohmae, author of The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economies argues that the nation-state is becoming obsolete because it is no longer the optimal unit for organizing economic activity. San Diego/Tijuana is often cited as representing one of the new...

In the new global economy, metropolitan regions are the new centers of commerce.

Now more than ever, cities and counties within regions must work together to do joint governmental planning and development, and provide not only police, fire and safety services but other land use, transportation and telecommunications systems...

In the age of the internet it seems odd that the techno savvy are sending their kids to The Waldorf School, where according to Matt Richtel of The New York Times the "school embraces a simple, retro look -- blackboards with colorful chalk, bookshelves with encyclopedias, wooden desks...

Picasso once complained: "Everyone wants to understand painting. Why don't they try to understand the song of the birds?" He once is alleged to say he would've been a writer but he's not; he's a painter, so don't ask him to explain anything about his work.

What an artist...

Some time ago, Scott McNealy, then head of Sun Microsystems, in response to a question said quite emphatically, "Privacy is dead. Get over it." Nobody seemed to care frankly. Even now that Google has released its new privacy rules, there is considerable indifference.

Some folks say, "This is nothing...

It's early in the new year but educators across the country are already making plans for the summer and they are thinking STEAM... with the arts playing a critical role.

As demand for a new workforce to meet the challenges of a global knowledge economy is rapidly increasing, few things...

The book by Walter Isaacson about Steve Jobs, former CEO and founder of Apple Computer, has now sold over one million copies.

After talking with many of Steve's colleagues, Issacson discovered that to Steve, "You were either [a shithead or a hero], one or the other, sometimes on...

Declaring October as Art and Humanities Month, President Obama made the observation that "Educators across our country are opening young minds, fostering innovation, and developing imaginations through arts education. Through their work, they are empowering our Nation's students with the ability to meet the challenges of a global marketplace. It...

John Hagel III, co-author along with John Seely Brown and Lang Davison of The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion, at an Aspen Conference on Talent Development, made a rather telling observation that business recruiters are always looking for creative people.

Then...

At the California State University at San Marcos, an arts integration project administered by Professors Merryl Goldberg and Patti Saraniero called DREAM, for Developing Reading Education through Arts Methods, is in its second year. It seems to be working.

DREAM is a partnership with the San Diego...

Kids have "grown up digital" as author Don Tapscott would say. They have computers, and cell phones and video games, Facebook, and Twitter and who knows the apps that will demand their focus next.

The question is how to use technology in a way that not only maximizes the...

The Foundation for Art and Health and the Medical Humanities Department of Sydney University in Sydney, Australia hosted a symposium last week aimed at developing a research agenda exploring "the commonalities that can strengthen" the practice of art therapy while "exploring the diversity of methodologies, the sector's research...