Social Artistry

I was sent this quote from Jean Houston, which I found relevant to both my inner and outer life.

"We find ourselves at the end of one era, and not yet at the beginning of a new one. We are caught in a parenthesis between the reluctance to leave what was, and the terror before what is yet to be. Some of us have subsided into lives of serial monotony, while others risk all for sensation at any cost. And still a vision beckons. We are the citizens of closing times, and this makes us pioneers of opening time, bridge builders and architects, the ones who will make it happen. In this, our vision and guidance is essential for these are the times, and we are the people."

So I did a quick google on Jean Houston http://www.jeanhouston.org/index.html and found that she is a US scholar, and philosopher, considered to be one of the foremost visionary thinkers and doers of our time, and one of the principal founders of the Human Potential Movement and of The Institute of Social Artistry.

Which then lead me to this information about Social Artistry. http://www.socialartistryinstitute.org

Social Artistry is an emerging discipline in leadership development. It taps inherent human capacities for greater imagination, compassion, and resolve. The discipline integrates science and intellectual development, using multiple styles of thinking, expanding skills for contemporary leadership challenges, and applying these skills to complex social issues.
Social Artistry training is intellectually and personally challenging, merging the development of personal capacities and potential with strong leadership skills for social change by:

• Expanding intellectual capacity leading to new skills for systems thinking, strategic planning, problem-solving, effective action and continuous learning.

• Strengthening participatory approaches, partnership building, gender mainstreaming and human-rights-based approaches

• Enhancing personal will, courage, imagination, initiative, and energy.

• Appreciation for a culture’s story, norms, wisdom and insights into achieving the MDGs

Social Artists are leaders in many fields who bring the same order of passion and skill that an artist brings to his or her art form, to the canvas of our social reality. Ultimately, it is about all of us together co-creating the human and social changes needed to make a better world.