International Center For Studies In Creativity

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As the first and oldest degree granting program in creativity in the world, the foundation of the International Center For Studies In Creativity (ICSC) dates back to Alex Osborn's seminal work in creativity education in the 1940s and 1950s.

Osborn, the developer of brainstorming and the originator of the Creative Problem Solving process (CPS), saw the need for a more creative trend in American education and business. It was this vision and dream that eventually led to the establishment of the Center for Studies in Creativity in 1967. An experimental study carried out on the courses offered in the late 1960s and early 1970s, showed that those courses significantly enhanced undergraduate students' creative abilities, as well as improved their academic and nonacademic performance. Osborn's dream was fully realized when Dr. Sidney Parnes and Dr. Ruth Noller established a permanent academic home for the Creative Studies Program at Buffalo State College (State University of New York College at Buffalo).

In 2002 the name was changed to the International Center For Studies In Creativity, housed within the Creative Studies Department. This name change reflected the growth of the graduate program. This change started in 1997 when the first graduate programs were via distance education around the world. Two years later in 1999 the ICSC's faculty initiated graduate courses overseas. By 2001, a Graduate Certificate for professionals through distance learning was developed. Not long after it became to possible to pursue a Masters of Science degree in Creativity via a distance learning version of the program. Each summer distance students come to Buffalo for several weeks, meeting each other, the faculty, as well as students enrolled in the traditional home version of the program at Buffalo State College.