Back in Australia from an Asian Adventure

My apologies for not keeping you all updated on our SE Asia Tour during the past six weeks. It was just a really hectic time and especially traveling with a twenty-month old and doing 'Paper and Puppetry' workshops throughout Malaysia and Singapore, followed by a two-week break in Bali, which was great, despite the fact that I fell in the rain in the last week and fractured my spine. It was a really memorable tour and I believe it opened up the Asian market to our Creativity work.

The highlight of the workshops was our two-week stint at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (NTU). Our topic was ‘Demystifying Creativity and Moving beyond the expected, and into a space of novelty and uncharted territory in every aspect of life’.  Our brief was to carry out a pilot programme of study in the use of puppetry to break down barriers that currently exist: thus overcoming inhibition and establishing a 'safe' environment for unleashing innovative potential.

During the NTU season, we worked with Administration staff of NTU Ventures, a department which offers assistance to business start-ups in Singapore. We also had a two-day workshop with the Entrepreneurs of these start-up companies. (See the short video above!) We held a workshop for the Faculty of the university, where we worked with professors and lecturers from Engineering, Business School, Education, Humanities & Social Sciences and Arts. Even the Associate Provost of the university attended. The final workshop was the only arts-related one for stop-frame animation students. You can view a slide show of each workshop by clicking on the name links!

The evaluation outcomes of the workshops were extremely positive. One of the comments from the  faculty of education stated: "The workshop reminded me of the importance of communication and team work – critical in a big organization and in the area of education. It was also a humbling experience (there are so many creative colleagues around me!) It was a comfortable platform for me to meet people of other nationalities and from other schools within NTU. I also took comfort that creativity need not be in the form of a patent for a product which the engineers produce, but that we teacher educators are also being creative as we teach and prepare teachers for the next generation (abstract and not so measurable). My greatest take-away would be the reminder to celebrate life and humanity. I will make sure I pass this passion and compassion on to our student teachers."

We look forward to continuing our creativity work in Asia early next year. Watch this space!