In the Creative Inspiration
Spotlight:
Annual International
Creativity Conference
The Alden B. Dow Creativity Center
Northwood University, Midland,
Michigan
We wish to pay particular tribute to the Alden
B. Dow Creativity Center and its Annual International Creativity Conference.
In one way, this Creativity Crossroads website is a direct
outgrowth of the inspiration we derived from our participation in the 2006
Creativity Conference at the Midland Campus of Northwood University!
We had never heard of Alden B. Dow, nor the
center named for him, until coming in contact with Creativity Center Executive
Director Grover Proctor in early 2006. Grover's bubbly enthusiasm for the
programs of the Center piqued our interest, and we soon sent in a proposal to
present a seminar at the 2006 Conference. We appreciated the opportunity that we
were given to share our own enthusiasm about creativity with the conference
participants in our seminar. But even more importantly we were exhilarated by
the environment and participants at the Conference. So much creative energy
concentrated in one small space for one short time!
The Conference particularly draws people from the
field of education, many of them college and university educators from
throughout the country. In the seminar programs we were exposed to presenters
using everything from dance and photography to art, cooking, and psychology to
highlight methods of inspiring students--whether pursuing a career in the arts
or in psychology or in business--to tackle every aspect of their careers,
education, and daily lives in creative ways.
We were also fascinated to read the history of
architect Alden B. Dow (1904-1983) in materials we picked up during the
Conference, and to tour some of the significant homes and public buildings he
designed in his home town of Midland, Michigan.
The official mission of the Center is "to
encourage creativity in individuals and to preserve the architectural philosophy
of Alden B. Dow." Dow was son of Dow Chemical Company founder Herbert Henry Dow.
Sent to college to study engineering, with the expectation that he would
become part of his father's company, he eventually chose the field of
architecture instead.
At one point in 1933 he worked with Frank Lloyd
Wright at Wright's famous Taliesin studio in Wisconsin. Although Dow's buildings
have their own distinctive flavor, it is obvious that they derive from the same
"school" of architecture as Wright's.
However what impressed us the most about Dow was
his dedication to philanthropy, to enriching the environment of his hometown of
Midland with the design of numerous public buildings and private homes, and
particularly to encouraging creativity in individuals at every opportunity. As
his daughter Mary Lloyd Dow Mills put it,
A subject particularly dear to him and which
remains so to his family members, is his concept of "Honesty, Humility and
Enthusiasm," as a yardstick to assess the quality of anything. He probably
first developed this triad of qualities as the basis for judging his own
architectural ideas, and then he, and we too, expanded it as a concept to
think about any ideas, creations or relationships. We heard about the
groupings of these three concepts together so often that my sister started
saying, "H. H. and E." My brother and sister, all our children, and likely
their children, now recite "H. H. and E." as a family motto. ... by honesty,
dad meant integrity, truthfulness, starightforward adherence to facts,
no pretense and freedom from subterfuge. Humility meant give and take with
one's environment. A building with humility contributes to its site and the
site adds to the building. An object or person with humility adds to but
does not dominate its surroundings. By enthusiasm, my dad meant an inspired
liveliness, acting wholeheartedly and with vitality.
... "Remember H. H. and E" has been our
family shortcut to saying be honest in dealing with others, be yourself,
contribute your talents enthusiastically while taking care to see that
others may do so too; add something creative to whatever project or group
you participate in , while also encouraging others.
The underlying assumption is that each
person has the capability to be creative. ...
(From Quality of Life--The Influence
of Alden B. Dow; booklet published and distributed by the Alden B.
Dow Home and Studio for the 2004 100th anniversary of Dow's birth.)
Before attending the Conference in July 2006, we
had tentatively begun some very preliminary planning for this website. But that last phrase
above, the "underlying assumption ...
that each person has the capability to be creative," caught our imagination and
was, along with the rest of our experiences at the Conference, the
impetus for us to get serious about moving forward with the website and the whole notion of "Creativitism."
We would love to have met Alden B. Dow, and had dinner at his home where we
could listen to him hold forth on "H. H. and E."!
The next best thing was to sit down to dinner
with Grover Proctor and the many fascinating and creative people we met at the
17th Annual International Creativity Conference!
And we are eagerly looking forward to being there
for the 18th Annual Conference in July 2007.
LINKS
Alden B. Dow Creativity
Center
Creativity Weblinks page
Alden B. Dow
Home and Studio
Northwood University Michigan Campus
Grover Proctor's personal home page
