Reflections on Business and the Arts

There comes a time in the history of human civilization when one of the most significant institutions, education, has to be self-reflective and take a serious look at itself. This is to examine and explore some of its basic assumptions and the directions it is taking. Similarly another major institution, business which is connected through education, requires reflection and exploration of its basic assumptions. The world today is technology driven, product driven, and has become multicultural. There is collaboration as well as competition among nations across the world, especially in research and the education of its citizens. The Consortium is one such attempt to gather like-minded educationists, business people, researchers, and academicians to reflect on the diverse streams of knowledge and the cumulative wisdom from the evolution of human existence. The Consortium has been designed to reflect on the vastness of cumulative knowledge available and to create a setting where this can be shared in an environment of collaborative sharing and explorations. The primary focus of the Consortium is on the Concept of Business. Within this primary theme a whole range of themes have been taken up for the Consortium. The Consortium theme for October 12 and 13, 2011, was Business and the Arts. This theme reflected the spirit of the Consortium that streams of knowledge cannot be walled into such specificity that it dampens the spirit of learning and discovery. The Consortium revolved around the scientific inquiry and the expressive reflections of the arts and how they are in a rhythm. Compartmentalization only creates unnatural boundaries that inhibit the involvement of the learner and the participant into the realms of learning.