Reasons to be Creative is a two-day festival of artistic, creative and technical inspiration highlighting art, design, code, open-source, maker and DIY programs, and more.

The festival features more than two dozen speakers, including industry leaders such as John Maeda, president of Rhode Island School of Design, graphic designer, and computer scientist; Paula Scher, designer and artist, Pentagram Design; Ken Perlin, AcademyAward Winner for Technical Achievement and inventor of Perlin Noise; Jeffrey Zeldman, web standards expert and founder of A List Apart; Josh Nimoy, programmer and Tron Legacy special effects wizard; and Jer Thorp, New York Times data artist in residence.

“We’ve assembled a program that will appeal strongly to newcomers and seasoned veterans alike,” said Reasons to be Creative founder John Davey. “We’ve balanced art and tech topics, beginner and advanced content, and informative, educational and entertaining presentations—and we’re thrilled with the result. We’re incredibly fortunate to be able to present so many talented speakers from art, code and design to educate and inspire our attendees. This amazing lineup is unmatched anywhere, and we’re very proud to work with our speakers and sponsors to make this year our best yet.” SVA faculty member Rich Shupe is co-organizing the event.

Reasons to be Creative is brought to you by the same people who created the acclaimed Flash on the Beach conference and New York’s Geeky by Nature conference in 2011. Reasons to be Creative brings the best minds in art, design and development to share, educate and inspire.

Below is the confirmed schedule of speakers, times, and topics. Please note that there are two auditoriums at the SVA Theatre, so some programming is concurrent.

Thursday, June 14

9:00 a.m. – registration

9:15 a.m. – start of conference

9:30 a.m. – Zach Lieberman, artist/co-creator, openFrameworks: Drawing, Movement, Magic

9:30 a.m. – Archie Lee Coates, PlayLab artist/designer: A Lesson in Everything and Everyone, All the Time and Anytime

10:45 a.m. – Jeffrey Zeldman, King of Web Standards and A List Apart website founder: CONTENT FIRST!

10:45 a.m. – Lee Brimelow, Adobe games evangelist: Zombie Flash

12 p.m. – Paula Scher, visual artist and Pentagram designer: My Favorite Projects from My Favorite City

2 p.m. – John Maeda, Rhode Island School of Design president, graphic designer and computer scientist: STEM to STEAM

3:15 p.m. – Josh Nimoy, TRON Legacy effects guru: Art Meets Technology

3:15 p.m. – Nick Hasty, Rhizome: Archiving Digital Art

4:30 p.m. – Seb Lee-Delisle, creative coder extraordinaire: PixelPhones

8 p.m. – Jon Burgerman, artist and illustrator: How I’m trying to ruin my career/life and re-invigorate my career/life all at the same time, whilst not trying to worry (too much) about the consequences

Friday, June 15

8 a.m. – registration

9:30 a.m. – Adobe Keynote: Creating the Next Generation of Expressive Content on the Web

10:45 a.m. – Amit Pitaru, artist/programmer; co-creator Rhonda Forever: Button

10:45 a.m. – Doug Winnie, author/developer; Director of Content and Web, Lynda.com: WTFDIDN? What the #$@& Do I Do Now?

12 p.m. – Joshua Davis, web designer, early pioneer in Macromedia Flash: A Tribute to Hillman Curtis

12 p.m – Jesse Freeman, programmer/game developer for Roundarch: My Adventures in HTML5 Gaming

2 p.m. – Jer Thorp, artist/programmer; New York Times Data Artist in Residence: Near/Far

2 p.m. – Stephanie Pereira, Kickstarter Art Program Director: Kickstarter: Bring Your Creative Idea to Life

3:15 p.m. – James Victore, artist/designer: Work is a Gift

3:15 p.m. – David Isbitski, Microsoft designer evangelist: Building an HTML5/JS App for Windows 8

4:30 p.m. – Terry Ryan & Paul Trani, Adobe creative suite/developer evangelists: Create Beautiful, Interactive Content with HTML5

4:30 p.m. – Carla Diana, Smart Design artist/designer: Bringing objects to life at the intersection of the physical and the digital

6:30 p.m. – Conference close

Registration is $399 for both days, available until June 12. Thanks to the generosity of SVA’s CFA Computer Art Department and its chair Bruce Wands, there is a limited number of free tickets for currently enrolled students and additional discounted student tickets available at $99. To take advantage of the discounted student rate, available to students registered at any school in the 2012 sprint semester, go to reasontobecreative.com.

Artwork from festival speakers and honoured guests will be on display at the Hotel Indigo, 127 West 28 Street, New York City, until June 30, 2012. Artists include Jon Burgerman, Joshua Davis, Ken Perlin, Paula Scher, Josh Nimoy, Carla Diana, Seb Lee-Delisle, Amit Pitaru, Archie Lee Coates IV, Rebecca Shostak, Hsiang Chin Moe, Charley Lewis and Bruce Wands.

Reasons to be Creative ® NY 2012 is sponsored by Adobe, School of Visual Arts MFA Computer Art Department, Mailchimp, Microsoft, FMA, GreenSock, Lynda.com, Influxis, JetBrains, Long Island Giclee and .net Magazine.

Reasons to be Creative Festival 2012 is being held at the SVA Theatre, located at 333 W 23 Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Manhattan.

School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City is an established leader and innovator in the education of artists. From its inception in 1947, the faculty has been comprised of professionals working in the arts and art-related fields. SVA provides an environment that nurtures creativity, inventiveness and experimentation, enabling students to develop a strong sense of identity and a clear direction of purpose.

For more information, visit reasonstobecreative.com.

For media questions, contact Rich Shupe at rich@reasonstobecreative.com or Gayle Snible at gsnible@sva.edu.

Event

Reasons to be Creative Festival 2012

SVA Theatre