Keith Sawyer's book Learning to See reveals how the top professional artists and designers create. To uncover their secrets he spent ten years interviewing and observing 100 artists and designers who teach in BFA and MFA programs. In this insightful talk based on the book, he'll present fresh new perspective on what art and design are, how creative works are made, and how people learn to make them. By revealing how professional artists and designers teach, Keith will present you and your team with a refreshing new understanding of the essence of human creativity, and lessons about how to create consistently and deliberately.

In this keynote you will learn:

• Not only what is taught in schools of art and design, but how it is taught, and — in turn — what is shared by art and design, revealing the underlying essence of visual creativity.

• How creative works are made, and how people learn to make them.

• How to see things you couldn’t see before; how to think in new ways; and how to act in the world in ways that drive the process of art and design.

• By revealing how these professional creatives teach, you will get a refreshing new understanding of how art and design are made.

Keith's book reveals how professional artists and designers successfully and consistently create. Learning to See is the first book that describes what happens in art and design schools—how professors teach and what students learn. Over a ten-year period, Sawyer interviewed professors and students and observed classrooms and studios, in over 20 different art and design disciplines and with professors who have taught at almost 50 institutions throughout the United States.  

Dr. Sawyer engages the audience by telling little-known stories about the world's most innovative companies. He combines these stories with his own scientific studies of group genius to reveal the hidden principles that allow these companies to consistently innovate. Sawyer draws on his research to explain why brainstorming so often fails, how to manage teams for maximum creativity, and how to create an organization where group genius thrives. Companies desiring strategic, cultural change throughout the organization will benefit from this message.For senior executives, managers, and employees. 

An energetic and engaging talk that involves the audience in completely new creativity exercises, based on the latest psychological research. Dr. Sawyer shows audiences how they can become more creative by having more ideas, asking better questions, and identifying good ideas faster. Dr. Sawyer tells fascinating stories about cutting-edge research that reveal exactly what happens in the mind when we're at our most creative, and how to make that "aha!" moment happen regularly.For employees at any level. 

In today's innovation economy, education often seems stuck in the past-with rigid instructional methods that are designed to impart no more than facts and rote procedures. Human resource departments, corporate universities, and public schools alike are all struggling with how to transform their methods to support creative work. Drawing upon his experiences with San Francisco's legendary Exploratorium, as well as his experiences studying how creativity is taught, Dr. Sawyer describes fascinating new learning environments that will lead audiences to rethink what is possible. 

In The Jazz Experience, Sawyer shares the stage with a jazz trio. Sawyer has been a jazz pianist since high school, and he has published several books analyzing how jazz ensembles generate surprising and original group creations. Sawyer introduces each of the trio's songs, describing the special balance of planning and improvisation that results in effective creativity and collaboration. Following each song, Sawyer poses provocative questions for the musicians, drawing out their unconscious inspiration and their conscious goals and thoughts. He ends by leading the audience in a Q&A session with the musicians. Sawyer has delivered The Jazz Experience with a wide range of jazz trios; a local trio is usually identified that works and performs near the client site. For the adventurous client, Sawyer has created several activities that bring together the audience and the musicians in a group improvisation.