WCIW/D supports the Sustainable Development Goals
Observed six days after Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday and one day before International Mother Earth Day, World Creativity & Innovation Day (#WCID) is well positioned to encourage creative multidisciplinary thinking to help us achieve the sustainable future we want.
The Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The 17 Goals are all interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we achieve them all by 2030. Click on any specific Goal below to learn more about each issue.
Call To Action
WCIW/D 2020 REPORT
Our History
World Creativity & Innovation Day April 21 (WCID) was founded on May 25, 2001, in Toronto, Canada.
Marci Segal, its founder, began studying creativity in 1977 at the International Center for Studies in Creativity, SUNY Buffalo, 90 miles/144 kms from her home town in Toronto, Canada. When the headline, “Canada in Creativity Crisis” appeared in the National Post on May 25, 2001, she was well aware of the challenges the subject presented for mainstream thinking.
She thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if people knew how to use their natural ability to generate new ideas, make new decisions, take new actions and achieve new outcomes, to make the world a better place and to make their place in the world better too?” And so she set off on a journey to make a bigger place for creativity in the world. World Creativity & Innovation Day, April 21 was born.
She said she recalls witnessing global celebrations at the turn of the millennium, and imagined people doing the same each year, worldwide, to celebrate and advance their creative capacities – to generate new ideas, make new decisions, and take new actions to achieve new outcomes that make the world a better place and make their place in the world better too.
2001: A greater creative vision defined
The purpose of World Creativity & Innovation Day was, and still is, to remind and encourage people to use their creativity to make the world a better place and to make their place in the world better too.
April 21 was chosen as World Creativity & Innovation Day to emphasize the importance of using new thinking to create a decent life for all on a sustainable planet. It is the day before Earth Day, April 22.
This day is a time placeholder for people to use imagination productively, to release and be open to new thinking, and to celebrate that we can.
2002: Rapid worldwide growth of the creative community.
The first celebrations occurred in the Netherlands; Bangkok, Thailand; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Chicago, US; Hamilton and Toronto, Ontario. Each group/locale held activities, meetings, workshops, and conversations leveraging creativity and creative action that were relevant to their context.
A Yahoo- group formed; people joined from all over the world – the US, Brazil, Argentina, France, Italy, Thailand. Over the years celebrations emerged in other countries including Belarus, India, Australia, Egypt, Peru, Chile, India, Malaysia, UK, Italy, France, El Salvador, Morocco, United Arab Emirates, Greece, Ecuador, Columbia, and Slovenia.
2006: World Creativity & Innovation Day becomes a weeklong celebration (WCIW), beginning on Leonardo da Vinci's birthday, April 15.
People asked to extend their programs beyond one day. They wanted more time and permission to focus on deliberately using creativity (new ideas, perspectives, decisions, actions, outcomes) and make something from it. “In the Bible, there are 7 days of creation,” someone from Brazil remarked. “We need 7 days also – to teach skills, have lectures, make meetings, explore diverse points of view in a safe space. Seven days. Please.”
In 2006, World Creativity & Innovation Day April 21, became World Creativity & Innovation Week April 15-21. Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday, April 15, marks its beginning each year. Da Vinci demonstrates creativity as both arts and sciences – a synergy that earned him the spot as one of the most creative people to have ever lived.
2017: World Creativity & Innovation Day, April 21 Becomes a United Nations International Day of Observance.
On April 27, 2017, the United Nations resolved to make World Creativity & Innovation Day, April 21 a Day of Observance. Its purpose: raise the awareness of the role of creativity and innovation in all aspects of human development (A/RES/71/284) and to encourage people to use creativity in problem-solving for all issues related to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
UN Resolution No. 284 was prepared by and read to the United Nations General Assembly by Ambassador I. Rhonda King, Permanent Representative from St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
2018: Seventeen years of embracing and celebrating all forms of creativity.
People in over 100 communities in 50+ countries unite in using, advancing and supporting creativity individually and globally every year; they deliberately provide time, space, opportunity, and skill-building for people to generate new ideas and use the power of imagination to make a difference in many ways.
World Creativity & Innovation Week and Day presents you with the opportunity to celebrate your creativeness and advance innovation in whatever way you wish. You may be in a community where others are offering creativity and innovation-related programs. Participate with them. Go. Do.
You have an opening to meet new people, to consult with your customers and clients, to offer services to charities or to fundraise for a charity leveraging creativity and/or innovation.
You can choose to enliven the mood at work and/or enjoy new ways of having fun with family, friends, and your community. New ideas, new decisions, new actions for new outcomes. Creativity is in you… use it. See what you can do.
