Eight Avenue Road Arts School teachers recently opened new creative doors for 55 Executive MBA students from the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto. The instructors, led by Liana Del Mastro Vicente, used drama and visual art exercises to show the students the value of approaching problems as an artist does. By understanding an artist's strategies for creative thinking, the students began to acquire the tools to see people and situations with new eyes.

Students were asked to set aside their inner critic, allow themselves to be spontaneous and to listen carefully to each and to their own inner voice. The results were explosive – the artwork produced and the dramatic scenes that were developed, surprised everyone with their originality and humour.

Bottom-line oriented students were open to finding new ways of looking at themselves and their cohorts. One student commented: "Before today I was feeling anxious and mistrustful – now I'm energized and feel a lot of affection for my fellow students." The day sparkled with raucous laughter, as well as, moments of calm introspection, leaving the participants feeling relaxed and easy with one another. "Today I found out that I really am creative," said one student who can't remember doing any art since he was in kindergarten. "I'm going to take that feeling back to work with me."

Introducing the workshop in the Business School program was the brainchild of Danny Cushing, Associate Director of the EMBA Program. He believes that there is an important role for the arts in training people to be better managers and more creative problem solvers. "One of the main objectives of the Rotman Executive MBA Program is to help students become integrative thinkers, people who can transcend compartmentalized thinking to see the big picture. This is a highly creative process. The Beyond the Box™ program helps our students to rediscover their creative side and to begin to use it in their day to day work of making choices and solving problems."

For more information about the Beyond the Box™ program, contact Lola Rasminsky (416) 961-1502.

There Are Many Ways of Helping

The Ontario Arts Council has awarded a $75,000 endowment grant to our non-profit Arts for Children of Toronto division. We must match the grant by September 2000 in order to access the funds and we are almost a third of the way to our goal. But we still need your help.

Here are some ideas you might consider:

Did you know that if you donate stock of a publicly held company to a charitable organization, you get a charitable receipt for 100% of the current value of that stock and the capital gain is taxed at 37 ½% rather than 75%? In this situation, everybody wins.

Did you know that some people have 'adopted' a scholarship student and been kept abreast of their progress? They have the satisfaction of helping a particular child and of course receive a charitable receipt.

Did you know that you can donate artworks to a charitable organization and receive a tax receipt for their appraised value? The works can then be sold with the proceeds being used by the organization to further its goals.

A Toronto foundation has given the school five works of art by well-known Native Canadian artist, Carl Beam. Please inquire at the office if you would like to see the lithographs which are valued at $1000 each.

Many thanks to the following individuals and foundations for their recent, generous donations: