Growing Future Innovators

A new approach to learning programs for young people

PICA has been working with Edith Cowan University's Centre for Research in Entertainment, the Arts, Technology, Education and Communications (CREATEC) with assistance from the Fogarty Foundation, on a research project called Growing Future Innovators.

It is a project that examines how contemporary arts organisations, like PICA, can deliver 'next practice' schools learning programs that encourage and promote innovation - and not just in the arts but a range of other disciplines.

The federal government and the Australian business sector are currently grappling with how we, as a nation, can build a creative workforce, adept at risk-taking and problem solving and with a desire for life-long learning. The types of contemporary arts practices that organisations like PICA deal with on a daily basis are inherently innovative, often cross-disciplinary and frequently challenge us to think outside the square. They provide a potent medium through which to education young people.

The Growing Future Innovators scoping study includes a detailed review of local, national and international policy relating to arts, education and innovation and case studies of innovative and best practice schools education programs delivered by eighteen contemporary arts organisations in Australia and the UK. It also contains a set of recommendations for how contemporary arts organisations can work with schools to educate for innovation.

download concise document here

Together with education sector consultation it has been informing the development of a three-year pilot program to be delivered by PICA from 2011 - 2013 in partnership with a number of metropolitan and regional primary and secondary schools in WA.

This pilot program will allow primary and secondary school students to directly engage with professional artists and the latest in contemporary arts practices (including those in dance, theatre, music, visual arts and new media). It will be carefully monitored and its impact and effectiveness evaluated over a number of years by Edith Cowan University.

The program will allow young people and their teachers to cultivate the values and culture of innovation and develop high levels of creativity, self-efficacy, energy, risk-propensity, leadership, resilience, tolerance of ambiguity, intuition and questioning.

PICA and ECU are pleased to announce that Rio Tinto will be the principal partner of the Growing Future Innovators pilot program and that the Fogarty Foundation
will continue to provide ongoing support.