World Creativity and Innovation Day 2022: From history to significance; All you need to know

World Creativity and Innovation Day is observed every year on April 21 to emphasize the role of creativity and innovation in different aspects of human development. The main goal behind the celebration of this day is to encourage people to promote multidisciplinary thinking both at individual and group levels. The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to celebrate the day on April 27, 2017 and since then it is being celebrated on April 21 every year. Here’s all you need to know about World Creativity and Innovation Day.

World Creativity and Innovation Day: History

World Creativity and Innovation Day was founded on May 25, 2001 in Toronto, Canada. However, it came into existence after the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to celebrate the day on April 27, 2017. The first World Creativity and Innovation Day was celebrated in 2018.

World Creativity and Innovation Day was founded by a Canadian woman named Marci Segal after she came across a headline in the National Post newspaper which read “Canada in Creativity Crisis.” Segal was studying creativity at the International Center for Studies in Creativity in 1977. She decided to come up with Creativity and Innovation Day as she believed that generating new ideas with the help of creativity and making new decisions can help in tackling crises as well as in the development of society.

World Creativity and Innovation Day: Significance

The UN designated April 21 to be celebrated as the World Creativity and Innovation Day with an aim to educate people about the role of creativity and innovation in different aspects of human development.

Since there is no universal understanding of creativity, the concept is open to different interpretations in various fields like problem-solving in the context of social, economic, and sustainable development, artistic expression and much more. According to the UN general assembly, creativity and culture do not only create an economic value, but also add a non-monetary value to lives. This eventually contributes to social development.

The United Nations even urges its member nations to make cultural and creative industries a part of economic growth strategies. United Nations’s statement reads, “innovation, creativity and mass entrepreneurship can give new impetus to economic growth and job creation”.