Catalyzing the Conversation:
DESIGNING INCLUSION
By Dr. Mary McBride, Chair and Professor Creative Enterprise Leadership Initiative, Graduate Programs Arts and Cultural Management and Design Management, Pratt School of Art
We live in interesting times. Those with the most attempt to imagine that those with the least will simply disappear. But, suffering is a part of our human experience and our shared world. We cannot exclude it from our understanding, our hearts or our lives. We need to weave it in and help design to relieve distress.
Design, of course, does that. A chair eases the ache of standing and a bus, well designed, enables us to journey with ease. But too often, creative energies are engaged in the art of distracting and distancing. We create entertainment that enables escape and design that excludes all but the most delicious of experiences.
The work of future shaping will require more. It will require designing a world that includes deeply layered cultural experiences and access to the arts that can inspire and engage. It will demand design that enables all to be included.
In this issue of Catalyst, we bring you the future shapers who are using their hands and hearts to design a more inclusive world.
You will learn about the “experienced economy” where age is designed to enable. And, how to design friendship, leverage the power of design leadership and design a better America. Germany and Bulgaria present case studies in the power of art and design to shape multicultural inclusion and a future that is, not only more sustainable, but also more beautiful and economically robust.
Yes, we live in interesting times indeed. We are the beneficiaries of a world that has well developed trade routes. We can message each other on our mobile devices and visit the cultural wonders of the world remotely. We are able to use technology to inform our understanding of the changing micro behaviors of people and our planet. And, our local, regional and global economies are more and more based on the creative energies and output of human beings, sharing and caring and connecting.
But, we are also at a pivot point. The futures we create will depend our ability to use our tools and our creativity to serve all of life. How do we do that? We hope Catalyst helps you consider that question and find your own answers.
In our graduate programs in Arts and Cultural Management and Design Management, we are focused on future shaping and serving life. Catalyst is our open classroom. It is our invitation to you to join with our program participants and alumni, faculty and authors to use the art of strategic design to shape shared futures, tackle tough questions and catalyze possibility.
View our entire Catalyst | Designing Inclusion Publication and share with your friends and network a favorite visionary’s article or an insight from this theme and our many other Catalyst: Leading Creative Enterprise themes.
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