U.N. to Add Alumna's Brainstorm to 'Days of Observance'

Marci Segal, ’79, ’01, will see her brainchild go global on Thursday, April 20, Friday, April 28 (update), when the United Nations recognizes April 21 as World Creativity and Innovation Day—a celebration Segal started in 2001. According to World Creativity and Innovation Week’s website, Segal noticed a headline in a Canadian newspaper in May 2001. The National Post cited a study claiming that Canada was in a “creativity crisis.”

Segal, who completed her master’s degree in creativity studies that month, decided to establish World Creativity and Innovation Day to “encourage people to…use their creativity to make the world a better place and to make their place in the world better, too.”

In 2002, the first celebrations took place and a worldwide movement was born. In 2006, the day became a week beginning on April 15, Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday.

Segal, who took classes with creativity gurus Ruth B. Noller and Sid J. Parnes while earning a minor in creative studies as part of her undergraduate studies, has gone on to become an author and expert on creativity. World Creativity and Innovation Week invites everyone to submit an “act of creativity” like those that took place last year.

All submissions will be uploaded following the reading of the U.N. resolution to include World Creativity and Innovation Day among its Days of Observance. You can watch the resolution live on webtv.un.org at 10:00 a.m. on April 28.