X University: Creativity & Urban Innovation for the City of Toronto

Jillian Ohnjec

Biography

Hi my name is Jill and I’m a fourth year student of X University’s Creative School. I’ve attended several other Universities prior to coming to XU. This year has been a lot of both reflecting on my time in academia and looking towards my future beyond it. I’m thinking about the creative that I was coming into X University, how my creative drive has changed during my time here, and where it’ll go as I transition into a career in the city that’s become my new home. I hope to find a career that will continue to push me creatively, though I fear being pulled away from a creative community that I’ve grown apart of within XU. Nonetheless, I look forward to continuing to form new relationships and communities of artists as I continue to grow beyond academia.

Research Summary

Over the course of my time here, I’ve come to notice a trend amongst many of my peers in the Creative School, which for the purposes of my research, I have come to refer to as “the creative dilemma”: the seemingly inevitable loss of creative community that comes with graduation, and the gaps that exist in nurturing creativity so that it can continue to flourish outside of academia. I aim to address the gap that I’ve found between the creative minds that are coming to and being developed at X University and the need for that creativity in urban innovation. Creative minds with big aspirations come to X University from all over, but where do they go afterwards? Where is the space for these minds to continue to flourish post-graduation and contribute to the development of the economic landscape in new ways? How can the creative communities that are build within the walls of XU, continue to grow beyond them?

 

Tags

creativity; career; education; academia; urban innovation; X University; Toronto

Executive Summary

Download the Executive Summary PDF

Lightning Talk

Project Website

Browse Project Site

Scroll to Top