April 6 & 7, 2006

Media contact:
Tom Moore
tmoore@umbc.edu
410-455-3370

The UMBC Department of Theatre and UMBC’s Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship present Innovators in Art and the Creative Process, featuring lectures by Michael J. Gelb and Anne Bogart.

Mr. Gelb will speak on Thursday, April 6th at 7 pm in the UMBC Recital Hall; Ms. Bogart will speak on Friday, April 7th at 8 pm in the UMBC Theatre.

Michael J. Gelb
Michael J. Gelb is internationally recognized as a pioneer in the fields of creative thinking, accelerated learning, and innovative leadership. He leads seminars for organizations such as BP, Nike, Merck, IBM, Microsoft, DuPont, and KPMG, and brings more than 25 years of experience as a professional speaker, seminar leader and organizational consultant to his diverse, international clientele. He has led executive education programs at George Mason University and the Wharton School, and was recently awarded a Batten Fellowship at the University of Virginia's Darden Business School.

Michael J. Gelb's publications include Body Learning: an Introduction to the Alexander Technique and Present Yourself! Captivate Your Audience with Great Presentation Skills. His best selling audio programs include Mind Mapping: How to Liberate Your Natural Genius, Putting Your Creative Genius to Work, and Power Speaking. A retired professional juggler who once performed with the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, Gelb created the Juggling Metaphor Method. He authored More Balls Than Hands: Juggling Your Way to Success by Learning to Love Your Mistakes, which was featured in USA Today. He also originated the concept of synvergent thinking, expressed in his Random House release, Thinking for a Change: Discovering the Power to Create, Communicate, and Lead.

The New York Times, The Washington Post and Training Magazine have all featured Gelb's work. He has also appeared on Good Morning America, CNN's Business Unusual and on many radio programs including live interviews with NPR and the BBC World Service. A fourth degree black belt in the Japanese martial art of Aikido, Gelb is co-author with International Grandmaster Raymond Keene, of Samurai Chess: Mastering Strategic Thinking Through the Martial Art of the Mind.

A passionate student of the Renaissance and the nature of genius, Gelb ignited the current fascination with all things Da Vinci with his How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day, which has been translated into 24 languages and has appeared on The Washington Post, Amazon.com, and The New York Times best-seller lists. Gelb's book, Discover Your Genius: How to Think Like History's Ten Most Revolutionary Minds, was featured in USA Today.

Gelb's latest book, Da Vinci Decoded, taps into the seven Da Vincian principles outlined in How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci to show readers how to cultivate spiritual potential.

Anne Bogart
Anne Bogart has taught at the University of California San Diego, New York University, Williams College, Bennington College, University of Alaska, Playwrights Horizons, Trinity Rep Conservatory, the School for Movement Research, and American Repertory Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University. She is an associate professor at Columbia University where she runs the Graduate Directing Program.

She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2000-01), two Obie Awards, the New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Award (1984), the Villager Award (1980), and a National Endowment for the Arts Artistic Associate Grant (1986-87). Bogart was the president of Theatre Communications Group from 1991 to 1993 and has served on the National Endowment for the Arts Overview Committee, the Opera Musical Theatre panel, and the Fulbright Committee. She was the featured speaker at the Toga Theatre Festival in Japan, 1988, and participated in the Cultural Olympiad (Atlanta) in 1996. She was the designated Modern Master at the Modern Masters Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and is a recipient of the Kellogg Award from Bard College (2001) and the ATHE Achievement in Professional Theater Award (1999).

Bogart is artistic director the Saratoga International Theatre Institute (SITI), which she founded with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. Recent Works with SITI include La Dispute; Score; bobrauschenbergamerica; Room; War of the Worlds; Cabin Pressure; The Radio Play; Alice's Adventures; Culture of Desire; Bob; Going, Going, Gone; Small Lives/Big Dreams; The Medium; Noel Coward's Hay Fever and Private Lives; August Strindberg's Miss Julie; and Charles Mee's Orestes. Other recent productions include Nicholas and Alexandra (Los Angeles Opera), Marina A Captive Spirit (American Opera Projects), and Lilith and Seven Deadly Sins (New York City Opera).

Admission
Admission is free.

Telephone
Public information: (24 hour recorded message): 410-455-ARTS
Tickets: 410-455-2917
Media inquiries only: 410-455-3370

Web
UMBC Arts website: http://www.umbc.edu/arts

Directions
• From Baltimore and points north, proceed south on I-95 to exit 47B. Take Route 166 toward Catonsville and then follow signs to the Recital Hall or Theatre.
• From I-695, take Exit 12C (Wilkens Avenue) and continue one-half mile to the entrance of UMBC at the roundabout intersection of Wilkens Avenue and Hilltop Road. Turn left and follow signs to the Recital Hall or Theatre.
• From Washington and points south, proceed north on I-95 to Exit 47B. Take Route 166 toward Catonsville and then follow signs to the Recital Hall or Theatre.
• Visitor parking is available in the Commons Garage. Visitor parking regulations are enforced on all University calendar days. Hilltop Circle and all campus roadways require a parking permit unless otherwise marked.
Online campus map: http://www.umbc.edu/aboutumbc/campusmap/

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