Catalyst Ranch’s
Creative Juice Blog
In her forthcoming book, Midnight Lunch: The 4 Phases of Team Collaboration Success, from Thomas Edison’s Lab, Sarah Miller Caldicott envisions a present-day Edison, transposing his innovation methodology to the digital age. Edison’s collaborative model, writes Caldicott, not only retains its relevance today, but presents a compelling resource for creative success. Today, most creative minds cite [...]
Social Media Week is coming back to Chicago for a second year and we're very excited to be part of it again on September 25th. Last year, we hosted a lively and informative panel about how the different generational groups use social media differently. Within that panel, we found the inspiration for our event this year. [...]
A sublime spectrum of Chicago historical and cultural perspectives coalesce in SHORTS!, the second installment of our Local Feature film series.
It's really easy to have your blinders up when you're focused on a project. When struggling for an idea, sometimes it's best to take a breath, and be open to possibility. That's what happened for our Gala Gal Lauren Smith as she was creating the September page for our yearly holiday calendar gift. Since it's inception, [...]
Our film series LOCAL FEATURE debuted with The Interrupters last week and the event was a smashing success! Attendees arrived early to munch on some delicious snacks, including the scrumptious cupcakes provided by GiGi's Bake Shop. After a warm welcome from our ever-friendly Ranch Staff, Gala Gal Lauren Smith kicked off the event by talking about the [...]
If anyone can attest to the joys (and challenges) of being a creative entrepreneur, it’d be our owner Eva Niewiadomski! In a recent interview with Womenetics, she said: “I worked at Quaker Oats for 15 years. My last year there was post the Pepsi merger with Quaker Oats. As is typical with mergers, the environment is stressful as the organizations try to meld together two disparate cultures. It was just not a good fit anymore for either of us. I took the severance package and decided to take this once in a lifetime opportunity and start my own business.”
The award-winning Kartemquin Films documentary about violence prevention was the Chicago movie of 2011. In this stirring and powerfully insightful year-long journey through Chicago’s inner city, director/producer Steve James (HOOP DREAMS) and author-turned-producer Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here) follow three courageous “violence interrupters” working for the innovative organization CeaseFire, as they patrol the city’s [...]
BIG BEN 3D Puzzle Hey there, sports fans! Are you disappointed that you were not able to be in London for the Olympic Games this year? Well, cheer up friends, because the Ranch is offering you the chance to bring a little piece of London into your own home! During the month of August, you can [...]
Chicago is a wonderful city with a flourishing arts scene. With so many aspiring filmmakers to pass through our ranks and having collaborated with established filmmakers on other projects, we were inspired this past spring to help celebrate them. Local Feature came from that inspiration. We're very excited to launch this new film series that celebrates [...]
CeaseFire is the subject of the powerful documentary "The Interrupters," which is the first film in our film series LOCAL FEATURE. CeaseFire is an anti-violence program and initiative of the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention aimed at reducing street violence by using outreach workers to interrupt potentially violent situations. Check out this post from their blog: