Innovation Institute is a program of McColl Center for Visual Art in Charlotte, N.C., that helps executives unleash their creative abilities and those within their organizations.

Innovation Institute participants work with professional artists and expert facilitators to explore topics such as “Unlocking the Creative Voice,” “Pushing the Edge” and “The Value of Failure.”  Presentations, along with hands-on group and individual exercises, give participants insights into the artistic creative process and how that process can be applied to business.

Innovation Institute was founded in 2005 by McColl Center for Visual Art President Suzanne Fetscher. Her vision was to forge a connection around the topic of creativity between the corporate community of Charlotte and McColl Center for Visual Art, a leading artist-in-residency program. She recognized that artists, who live and breathe the creative process as part of daily life, could provide a uniquely meaningful contribution to corporations and other organizations seeking to instill creativity and innovative ideas among their leaders.

Innovation Institute was the result, where the innovative minds of corporate leaders and successful career artists can come together to transform how businesspeople apply the creative process to corporate problem solving.

Today, from Innovation Institute’s open-enrollment program and custom sessions, hundreds of businesspeople from a wide range of organizations have instituted a transformation in how they think and work within their organizations.