CATALYZING the Conversation: Designing Policy for People
By Dr. Mary McBride
Issue 14 Spring | Summer 2015
This issue of Catalyst examines how policies impact people.
It demonstrates that the art of leadership and the design of experience require engagement and collaboration. The Pratt Institute graduate programs in Arts and Cultural Management and Design Management are unique in their focus on developing leaders able to design thriving cultures and cultivate creative economies. It is our mission in both programs to prepare strategic leaders who can effectively, strategically and generatively run creative enterprise in every sector and across our shared world.
This issue provides compelling examples of how our world is changing. Policymaking is now informed by a deepening understanding that guidelines for living must be co-developed with those whose lives will be guided by them. Policy needs to be strategic, creative and generative. It needs to shape guidelines for today that will help create futures, generate new possibilities and meet emerging needs.
Globally, citizens deserve and increasingly demand policies designed to minimize the red tape and enable access. Ribbon cutting projects that do not provide tangible benefits for the people who pay for them require re-thinking and re-design.
Design is not about “making it pretty.” Design is about intentional service through the artful shaping of cultural forms, objects, structures and experiences. Thriving cultures require leaders who can help design and sustain them.
Design is about intention. We are entering a moment in history when the intentions evidenced in our policy guidelines will shape our shared future. In this issue we searched the world for those who demonstrate that the news from around the world is good. We looked for boundary spanners–people who could move across borders to shape a shared future. Maren Maier is one such boundary spanner.
Maren initiated, curated and evolved this issue with the active involvement of our current program participants and alumni. She is one of our many graduates evidencing creative leadership and making her difference. Read more about her work here.
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