• Fundación Botín and Yale University are the drivers of this conference, which will take place from October 9 to 11 in Santander, a unique initiative that will address the importance of the arts in the development of creativity and thus in the generation of economic and social wealth.

• 42 experts from eleven countries will participate in this conference. The scientific committee is composed by Dr. James C. Kaufman, professor at the University of Connecticut and president of the American Creativity Association, and Dr. Zorana Ivcevic, a research scientist and Director of the Creativity and Emotions Laboratory at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.

• The conference is aimed at teachers, entrepreneurs, psychologists, health workers, creative directors, artists and everyone interested in the fostering of everyday creativity and emotional intelligence through the arts.

Fundación Botín and Yale University are organizing the International Conference on Creativity, Emotions, and the Arts. Over three days, in this first of its kind conference, the world’s foremost experts in the arts, emotions and creativity and in the relationship between them will present their research, their latest findings and results, and will share and debate with the attendees the significance of creativity in a wide range of fields – personal, educational, professional and societal, among others. They will also discuss how the arts can help us develop our creativity to overcome day-to-day challenges, improve our well-being and generate economic and social wealth, both now and in the future.

The organization of this Conference marks the achievement of yet another objective of the Centro Botín: to serve as a place of reference for experts from all over the world in the arts, the emotions and creativity, with a ground-breaking innovative programme in relation to other art centres. More than 15 years of research by the Fundación Botín, the last six working in collaboration with Yale University, with numerous international publications and programmes implemented and evaluated have resulted in this unique conference, which will take place from October 9 to 11 at the Centro Botín in Santander.

In the words of Fátima Sánchez, executive director of the Centro Botín: ‘The social mission of the Centro Botín is to make the most of the educational potential of the arts, specifically for the development of emotional intelligence and creativity, through artistic proposals aimed at the public. Our programs aim to change the way we look at reality and constitute the starting point in the search for new ways to address the challenges we encounter in our daily lives (personal, occupational, social, etcetera).’ On that basis, this Conference is addressed to all those interested in the development of creativity and emotional intelligence through the arts: researchers, artists, educators, health-care professionals, businesspeople … The overall objective is to get to know in depth the latest research in this area and to reflect on and explore new ways of developing creativity in business, politics, education, health and philanthropy, among other fields, all driven by the conviction that creativity is more necessary today than ever and that, without a doubt, the arts can help us develop it.

A RICH AND VARIED SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME

The scientific programme of the International Conference on Creativity, Emotions, and the Arts is structured around nine key themes, each of which will be presented by two renowned experts, who will put forward a series of perspectives as a basis for discussion with the attendees. Dr. Zorana Ivcevic, a research scientist and Director of the Creativity and Emotions Laboratory at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and Dr. James C. Kaufman, professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut and president of the American Creativity Association, brought together a group of more than 40 experts from eleven different countries (USA, Spain, Germany, Canada, France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, the UK and Poland). Each presentation will engage in depth with themes such as the healing power of art, creativity at work, the importance of the emotions and their role in artistic experience and the influence of creativity on cultural, social and economic development, as well as the future of art centres.

Space will also be devoted to three poster sessions from an international group of emerging scholars, with topics as diverse as the inclusion of art in education, the development of creativity in health workers and the positive impact of this on their work, everyday creativity, how actors work on the emotional level to breathe life into their characters, and creativity and play in children, among others.

According to Fátima Sánchez, ‘also under consideration is a daily space in which the attendees can make contact with one another and exchange ideas, impressions and concerns. This should make it easier for people to take full advantage of the enormous volume of knowledge and experience that will be concentrated in the Centro Botín during these three days.’

Additional information about the experiental artistic events in the press release.

Learn more about the panel of experts here.