Visiting professorship in creativity research to be established with a donation from Amer Cultural Foundation

Creativity is seen as one of the most important skills in working life and is therefore one of the focus areas of Aalto's strategy. There is a strong need to strengthen research on creativity in Finland.

Amer Cultural Foundation donates 300 000 euros to the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. With this donation, we will establish a visiting professorship in creativity research with a focus on individual creativity.

The donation strengthens the university's position as an internationally significant hub for radical creativity research and education by combining individual creativity research with Aalto's current interdisciplinary research in creativity, innovation processes, design, and artistic creativity. This combination uniquely profiles Aalto and the School of Arts, Design and Architecture on the international stage.

‘The organisations behind the Amer Cultural Foundation have a long history and strong links to Aalto University's research and education in technology and business. What has received less attention is that the foundation also has a significant background in the arts', says Pekka Österlund, Chairman of the Board of the Amer Cultural Foundation.

‘The Foundation was delighted by the enthusiasm and courage of the School of Arts and Design to create a path for research and education in radical creativity. This is not an exact field of research and education, but a journey of discovery in its dimensions that the Amer Cultural Foundation wants to be part of. By serving not only the traditional fields of creativity, radical creativity should also benefit the education of other disciplines less known for their creativity. Aalto could be a good haven for this', says Österlund.

More research needed on creativity

Tuomas Auvinen, Dean of the School of Arts and Design, is delighted to have the opportunity to promote significant research with the support of the foundation.

‘Fostering creative thinking, creativity and a creative organisational culture is an area where more research is needed. The Amer Cultural Foundation's donation will enable a strategically important visiting professorship that will strengthen Aalto as an internationally significant research and teaching environment for radical creativity. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the foundation for making this possible’, says Auvinen.

Radical creativity is one of the three cross-cutting themes of Aalto University's strategy. In line with this theme, the university invests in developing new ways of thinking, skills and processes that foster creativity and promote a culture of experimentation by building spaces and practices that encourage the breaking of boundaries and the creation of new perspectives.