Weighing the importance of imagination in Sarasota

How would one go about “branding” Sarasota? How about, “Florida’s Gulf Coast: not just coasting, creating.”

Or perhaps, “Sarasota: fostering the audacity to see differently.”

Maybe even, “Florida’s creative capital: think or swim.”

Those were just three of the suggested “brandings” that evolved from Florida’s first “Imagination Conversation” at the Ringling College of Art & Design on Monday.

One of a series of gatherings around the country initiated by the Lincoln Center Institute for Arts in Education, the moderated discussions are designed to get community leaders considering the vital role imaginative thinking plays in the future of the global marketplace and to promote the idea that creativity is a critical skill that can and must be taught in our schools.

Local officials from the fields of business, education, the arts, media and government gathered to listen to potential approaches to fostering imagination, creativity and innovation in the Sarasota area.

Larry Thompson, RCAD’s president, said those factors will be essential in bolstering the local economy, retaining young community members and putting Sarasota on the map for something other than just its award-winning beaches.

“The future portends that you need to use the whole mind, not just the left side of the brain,” Thompson said.

David Houle, the “futurist in residence” at RCAD, said in his keynote address that the current decade is one of transformation, calling for more than just the technology-oriented skills that advanced the country over the past century.

“Florida and Sarasota were built on agriculture, retirement, real estate and tourism,” said Houle, who teaches at RCAD and is in demand nationally as a speaker on futurist thinking. “Those will no longer be the economic drivers for the 21st century.”

Instead, Houle said, tomorrow’s innovators need to combine technological acumen with “outside the box” right-brain thinking.

“How do we make this the Silicon Valley of creativity?” Houle asked.

“How do we make this whole city an incubator for imagination and innovation?”

Panel members included Thompson; Sarasota Herald-Tribune Publisher Diane McFarlin; John Lack, chief of Firemedia Partners (and the creative force behind MTV), and Edward Mango, a former director of NASA’s shuttle program. The group discussed how elements of their varied experiences are necessary for creative solutions.

Such elements — passionate creators, generosity of spirit, a willingness to fail and the ability to embrace unorthodox and unfamiliar approaches — all play a role in being creative.

The roughly 200 participants then broke up into small groups — to sit around tables equipped with crayons, Play-Doh and Slinkys for inspiration — and discuss their own imaginative suggestions.

Each group discussion resulted in a branding “headline” — words intended to set the tone for Sarasota’s approach to the future.

Thompson said this was the first of several planned “Imagination Conversations” here.

The Lincoln Center Institute began the project in 2009; by next year, 50 conversations will have taken place in 40 states.