World Creativity and Innovation Day

This conference, held just before the UN Summit of the Future 2024, focuses on engaging youth, promoting digital innovation, and localizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It brings together various stakeholders to explore creative solutions and governance innovations, essential for a sustainable future.

Watch (Part 2) Celebrating the Future with Localization of SDGs, Culture, Youth and Digital Innovation!

Expected Outcomes:

Strengthened collaboration between youth, local communities, and global partners.

Enhanced digital innovation and data integration for SDG localization.

Increased awareness of cultural initiatives and their role in climate action and sustainable development.

Networking opportunities for stakeholders to explore future partnerships and initiatives.

This event serves as a significant precursor to the UN Summit of the Future 2024, setting the stage for impactful discussions and actions toward achieving global goals.

This conference, held just before the UN Summit of the Future 2024, focuses on engaging youth, promoting digital innovation, and localizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It brings together various stakeholders to explore creative solutions and governance innovations, essential for a sustainable future.

Watch (Part 1) Celebrating the Future with Localization of SDGs, Culture, Youth and Digital Innovation.

The Creative Exchange Podcast delves into topics affecting artists and the creative community such as AI, career sustainability, funding and more. Episode one out now.

Opening Discussion.

AI and Creativity: Exploring the Myth vs. Reality.

Creativity and Machine Learning: A survey.

The intersection of AI and Human Creativity.

How Generative AI Can Augment Human Creativity?

We are excited to bring you the next in our webinar series Racial Inequality and the Representation of Marginalised Communities in Creative Education. You can watch the webinar below: 

Racial Inequality and Representation of Marginalised Communities in Creative Education from UCA on Vimeo.

Please get in touch if you would like to contribute to any of our forthcoming webinars.

Webinar Series Schedule

24th April 2024: The Art of Blended Learning in Creative Education.

5th June 2024: Harnessing Generative AI for Innovative and Inclusive Creative Education.

25th September 2024: Fostering Widening Participation in Creative Education

20th November 2024: Strategies for Retention in Creative Education.

Here is the first in our webinar series hosted by UCA PgCert Creative Education students. We explore Digital Pedagogies in Creative Arts HE. This instalment in our webinar series features a line up of creative education practitioners from across the globe as they explore the integration of digital tools and inclusive practices in creative arts higher education. 

Building for the Arts (BFA) is a program that awards state grants to to buy, build, or renovate arts and cultural facilities. It is managed by the Washington State Department of Commerce. These capital project grants can cover up to 33% of the total costs for construction.

2024 is an application year for Building for the Arts. Join ArtsWA for a series of free Webinars!

Building for the Arts session 1: Building for the Arts 101 | Recorded on March 11, 1:00 p.m.

Building for the Arts session 2: Building a Good Plan | Recorded on March 18, 1:00 p.m.

Building for the Arts session 3: Building a Strong Application | Recorded on March 25, 1:00 p.m.

At the side event, partners of the multistakeholder partnership for Global Challenges Action Empowerment (GloCha) will present – in the context of preparations for the UN Summit of the Future 2024 – youth, culture and digital innovation focused solutions for multi-stakeholder climate and SDG action mobilization.

Co-Creating the Future with new thinking, culture, digital innovation and local pacts for the future (UN Partnership Forum Side Event)

Virtual event held by Mr. Richard Fletcher on "Dyslexia, AI and the risks of technological solutionism."

Giving individuals with dyslexia access to AI could potentially have wider benefits such as improved mental wellbeing, reduced anxiety and improved engagement with academia.

Most readers will now most probably have heard of ChatGPT. For some this word may fill us with hope and anticipation. Others may tremble. Before we describe the potential applications of ChatGPT in relation to dyslexia, let’s start by first defining and explaining the term ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI) itself. AI has been defined as ‘the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings’ (Britannica, 2023). However, for individuals with dyslexia some tasks such as searching and extrapolating information from literature sources can be more challenging compared with neurotypical individuals.

AI has now entered what has been deemed as the ‘stage of intelligent cognition’ (Wang et al., 2023). This means that it has potential to mimic brain processes similar to those of humans. This sounds potentially petrifying, but we could think of it from a fresh stance. By way of one example, if we have a class of 30, each with a few different questions related to a topic, does that single teacher have time to answer all of those questions? This is where AI systems such as ChatGPT could come into play. Students can ask questions to the AI portal to deepen their understanding and responses are generated.

It could also be a potentially valuable assistive tool for those with dyslexia. Assistive technology which now encompasses AI has the potential to enhance the learning environment and make it a more pleasant experience for those with dyslexia (Pontikas et al., 2022). There is scope for such approaches to provide another layer of ‘reinforcement’ when used correctly, potentially having a positive impact on learning (Barua et al., 2022).

Gavin Reid (2009) defines dyslexia as: ‘a processing difference, often characterized by difficulties in literacy acquisition affecting reading, writing and spelling. It can also have an impact on cognitive processes such as memory, speed of processing, time management, co-ordination and automaticity. There may be visual and/or phonological difficulties and there is usually some discrepancies in educational performances. There will [be] individual differences and individual variation and it is therefore important to consider learning styles and the learning and work context when planning intervention and accommodations’.

Rather interestingly this definition encompasses learning styles, interventions and accommodations. This is where AI could come into play in this rapidly advancing technological age … as an accommodation and form of intervention to reinforce lea

Creative Learning in Digital and Virtual Environments looks at the connection between creativity, learning, and school achievement, and analyses the impact of virtual environments on creative expression. It will appeal to postgraduate students in the fields of creativity and learning, as well as to students and academics involved with broader research in areas such as the role of technology in education, e-Learning and distance education.

 Conceptual reflections and empirically informed insights into the impact of technology on individual and collective creativity and learning

Originally published as a special issue of the Creativity Research Journal, this volume gives a balanced and reflective account of the challenges and opportunities of technology-enabled creative learning in contemporary societies.

This special event at the eighth annual Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the SDGs (STI Forum) comprises a high-level opening ceremony for the Metaverse for SDGs lab and exhibit, followed by a showcase of innovations for addressing sustainability issues in local communities and beyond. A particular focus will be highlighting innovations that address multiple SDGs (the in-focus SDGs 6, 7, 9 and 11) and/or that address the needs of vulnerable communities. 

This year's exhibit showcases some of the winners from various competitions and challenges throughout the United Nations System. Innovators will describe their cutting-edge initiatives and share insights from their experience implementing development solutions in areas including water, energy, innovation, and sustainable cities. They will discuss opportunities for these new technologies to accelerate sustainable and inclusive recovery from the pandemic towards a brighter future. 

The city of Braga will host the 2024 Conference of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network dedicated to the theme “20 years of UCCN: bringing youth to the table for the next decade”. The decision was announced last October 31, in the city of Santos, in Brazil, with Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, being the other city in the voting.

The theme demonstrates UNESCO’s concern for the involvement and participation of young people in the discussion about the cultural, creative and sustainable development of our cities.

Braga is part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) since 2017, in the area of Media Arts. The UCCN aims to promote cooperation between cities that adopt creativity as the main tool for sustainable urban development in its different dimensions: economic, social, cultural and environmental. The network is currently composed of 295 cities and this number is expected to exceed 350 by 2024.

Feeling creative and want to make a short video on one of the Sustainable Development Goals and its impact on your community?

UNITAR's Through the Lens of the Youth project is for you! Show your talent and join a meaningful conversation.

Today more than ever, this pandemic crisis shows us the importance of creativity and innovation on everybody’s part, men and women, in order to find different solutions to the socioeconomic problems we are facing. We must find new formulas that will enable us to emerge from this crisis, faster and stronger, building more resilient societies and without leaving anyone behind!

Creativity and innovation have become the true wealth of nations, as stated in the joint Creative Economy Report: Widening Local Development Pathways, fruit of the collaborative effort of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Development Programme  (UNDP) and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC).

The creative industries are considered central to a country’s innovation system. There are three ways that the creative industries contribute to the whole economy.

One, the creative industries is a major source of innovative ideas and contributes to an economy’s innovative potential and the generation of new products and services.

Two, creative industries offer services which are inputs to innovative activities of other enterprises and organizations.

Three, creative industries are intensive users of technology and demand altera-tions and new developments of technology, spurring innovation impulses to tech-nology producers.

The promotion of the creative industries is also a political project. Governments stand behind the vision, leading to society being socially and economically engi-neered to bring about the creative society. Regulations must be shaped to encour-age the spurts and flows of creativity in the populace. Members of society must be convinced that the future lies in editing videos on a computer screen rather than putting together products along an assembly line, for instance.

The rhetoric of economic development from creativity is seductive to the pub-lic. It assumes a “democracy of involvement” (Neelands & Choe 2010: 288). Considering that most people consider themselves capable of finding solutions in their everyday life and they have ideas and opinions on issues, the discourse of creativity and the creative industries encourages everyone to aspire and become more self-directed in their economic participation.

Creativity is seen to be univer-sal and everyone – privileged or not – can take a shot at becoming economically successful by being creative.

The creative industries harness creativity and this means that creativity is as-sumed as manageable and productive.

The idea that outcomes of creativity can be unpredictable and destructive has been replaced by the view that creativity can be harnessed and controlled. But creativity need not be an asset and can be rather destructive. Some art works, for instance, are known to be annoying or even destabilizing (e.g. graffiti as street art..).