Local Voices on Exploring Imagination

Maxwell L. Anderson, President and CEO, Indianapolis Museum of Art: “ ’He has an active imagination.’ Such is the stinging rebuke for a child’s free associations or fears. Later in life, this phrase is invoked to suggest that a purported threat is illusory. In both cases the reflex is to shut down the most natural of our impulses—the predisposition to find our way in life not through research, instruction, or rote, but through play, instinct, and imagination.” Read more…

Jon Adland, Senior Rabbi, Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation: “Beyond my life and work as a congregational rabbi I have two passions. During the fall and winter I turn my attention toward woodworking, and in the spring and summer I look to water with the hope of catching a nice largemouth bass. Both of these hobbies include intensely imagining beyond the moment to see how things could be.”Read more…

Jeanne Farah, Principal Consultant, Excelleration, Inc: “For me, imagining is a daily activity as important and natural as water on the nightstand, a fresh muffin at breakfast, and salutations to the sun. Like the sun, come rain or shine, imagination is there for us daily. It’s both miraculous and expected—and sometimes disturbing.”Read more…

Carolyn Hadlock, Creative Director, Young & Laramore Advertising: “I always want to laugh when someone asks how we come up with stuff, or what our creative process is. For me, there is no creative process. It’s more about getting someplace pure. That’s not always easy.”Read more…

Eric M. Meslin, Ph.D, Director, Indiana University Center for Bioethics: “The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee South African sprinter was eligible to compete with his carbon-fibre prostheses at the 2008 Beijing Olympics against able-bodied sprinters. Imagine how attitudes about competition, discrimination, stigma, and human rights might be turned on their heads if Mr. Pistorius were to meet the qualifying time standard for the Olympics. What if he medaled?”Read more…

George Srour, Director, Building Tomorrow Inc: “In a land where some would argue that many things don’t work, the imaginations of Uganda’s youth continue to inspire. What if the 41 million kids in sub-Saharan Africa who woke up this morning without a school to attend were given a chance to do just that? What if more than two percent of Uganda’s population had the chance to go to college?”Read more…

Kanwal Prakash “KP” Singh, Architectural Artist, Author, and Speaker: “With the constant dance of images, awaiting possibilities, and dazzling testimonies of others before us, our imaginations serve as powerful teasers, beckoning us to embark on brave new journeys to make our perceived and imagined, believed but not-yet-seen prayers, an incredible reality.”Read more…

Betty Perry, Founder and Director, Metropolitan Youth Orchestra: “I have images of a little girl who was creative, confident, and happy. She had a sense of mattering, not knowing at the time she was poor. She had great visions of things that she wanted to do, and she believed that she could do them. Her grandmother empowered her to believe so.”Read more…

Frank Basile, Professional Speaker, Author, and Philanthropist: “It’s not an overstatement to say that imagination changed my life. Over time, I became convinced that if I could imagine it, believe it, think it, want it, I could achieve it. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, ‘That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives and our character.’ ”Read more…

JoEllen Florio Rossebo, President and CEO, Young Audiences of Indiana: “I remember coming home from school with a three-dimensional creation from art class. I thought my creation was spectacular. It was a dog with an intense yellow body, green spots, and three legs. I also remember the laughter as I presented the dog to my mother.” Read more…