1)
100g of the following:
soothing
Chinese herb (aka Henry)
spicy
Indian chilli (aka Suzanna)
tangy
Spanish sangria (aka Hector)
healthy
Indian yoghurt (aka Nasim)
wild
American mushroom (aka Garth)
2)
a dash of synergy
3)
2 tbsp courage mixed with determination
4)
loads of creativity and fun!
On
a cool December evening in 2002 at a Singapore hotspot
called Holland Village, also known as a local Bohemia,
was an unusual gathering of people of various cultures.
Motivated by a shot of Russian vodka (aka Andy Aleinikov
[who hates that stuff in real life!]) there was a passionate
discussion on how to stir creative juices in this island
state. This included topics like what is creativity, how
it can be measured through various assessment models and
the role of creativity in our lives. The dinner ended
with a teasing challenge from Andy to start a creativity
chapter in Singapore.
The
application forms were sent to the American Creativity
Association in January 2003, proudly making us the first
international affiliate of the ACA. We called ourselves
SIACCA or the Singapore International Affiliate of the
American Creativity Association.
Since
then, we have held inspiring monthly meetings in a variety
of Singapore's eating spots, savouring international cuisines
such as Vietnamese, Chinese, Spanish and Turkish. In every
meeting, there were activities using pictures, toys, manipulatives
and of course humour to establish strategies to launch
the affiliate publicly.
Our
first public meeting was held on August 28 2003 at a Community
Library. We were fortunate to have our original 'teaser'
Andy Aleinikov as a guest speaker who talked about "Out
of the Box, Think - In - Geeenius!". It was
attended by 50 people, which included creativity experts,
trainers, educators, engineers, and people from other
walks of life. We thank Tara Coste and Bud Wurtz for their
encouraging congratulatory messages that were read during
the meeting. At the end of the evening, there was a sharing
of new creativity principles and tools, good interaction
and networking among participants and a renewed sense
of personal curiosity of the power of creativity in all
our lives.
We
hope to retain our freshness, wonder, energy and synergy
by continuing to meet and spur each other to hold bimonthly
public meetings that will offer the public a platform
to explore and learn about creativity as well as exchange
views on how creativity can be applied in the Singaporean
context.
The
SIACCA Team:
Henry
Tio (Chairman)
Suzanna
Ramos (Secretary)
Hector
Ramos (Committee Member)
Mohamed
Nasim (Committee Member)
Garth
Aldrich (Committee Member)
For more information, contact:
Henry Tio
Ngee Ann Polytechnic
School of Interdisciplinary Studies
Block 53 #05-01535 Clementi Road
Singapore 599489
65.6.4606033 (Office)
65.6.7639190 (Home)
tkb1@np.edu.sg
or
Suzanna Ramos
65.6.8381729 (Office)
65.6.3829843
(Home)
65.9.6507854
(Handphone)
suzanna_jeyanthi_ramos@moe.gov.sg
