JOHN R. STOMBERG, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961s Director
Hood Quarterly, fall 2024
"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"
–Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Montgomery, Alabama, 1957
I believe that MLK's quote above goes a long way in defining the kind of impact that Dartmouth hopes its students will have in the world going forward. As we at the Hood Museum conceive of our programs, exhibitions, and teaching, we wonder if Dartmouth students will have what they need to effect positive change in the world—the kind that improves lives. For some, this train of thought might seem like hubris in a small art museum. For us, it's a rallying cry.
How, then, do we see the Hood Museum responding to MLK's exhortation above? In addition to teaching about art and all the historical, political, social, scientific, and other areas that it touches, we aim to share the power and value of creativity as a building block to a brighter future. Studying creativity and the individuals who practice it offers insight into skills ranging from teamwork to divergent thinking. If we accept that the world desperately needs innovation from its next generation of leaders to thrive amidst never-ending change, then we must look at what it takes to inspire innovation—and that is creativity. It is to innovation what pure science is to applied science. Innovation is applied creativity.
For this reason, the Hood Museum has faith that the work it does ushers Dartmouth students on a path toward answering MLK's call. And this takes all forms. It is not simply a call for more artists, writers, musicians, and poets. It is a call for better CEOs and company presidents. In 2010, the corporate giant International Business Machines (IBM) surveyed over 1,500 CEOs internationally, and the resounding—and somewhat surprising—discovery was that the respondents identified creativity as the most important leadership quality.
Every day at the Hood Museum, we teach, discuss, and exchange ideas about creativity. We focus on close observation, collaboration, effective communication, asking "what if," and other skills that sociologists have found to be the teachable aspects of creativity. Working together, our students, staff, and faculty add significantly to our collective ability to build up our emotional intelligence as we also attain quantifiable knowledge; we become empathetic and informed; in short, we become leaders for a future that needs us.