McColl Center for Visual Art is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Rita Smith as Executive Director of the Innovation Institute at McColl Center for Visual Art. In this role, Dr. Smith will provide strategic and operational leadership to shape and grow the Innovation Institute to achieve the Center’s 2020 Vision.

The Creative Leadership session at the Innovation Institute was a unique and rewarding experience. While the focus of our previous sessions was primarily fixed on the community, this session and its artistic exercises shifted that focus onto us as individual leaders and potential innovators. My creative highs were few and lows were many in the exercises, but three themes stayed the same and permeated the entire session: openness, persistence and innovation.

Innovation Institute at McColl Center for Visual Art has flourished in the Center's facility, surrounded by art, artists, and creativity, since it was founded in 2005 by Suzanne Fetscher, President and CEO of McColl Center for Visual Art. As the Center and the Institutes programs evolved and multiplied, space for programming became tight, and the Institute found itself outgrowing the building where it was created.

Hear from Kristin Sessions, the newly hired Operations Manager for the Innovation Institute at McColl Center for Visual Art, who offers a glimpse into her role supporting a unique professional development program that is lead by professional artists.

Using both the logical and the creative side of the brain, participants enrolled in the Innovation Institute will learn to solve problems and think in new, creative ways. And why is this important? Because the ability to think creatively has been identified as the most important characteristic of a successful leader. Keep reading to hear from our guest blogger, Barbara Spradling, Director of the Innovation Institute.