Sir Ken Robinson

Sir Ken Robinson was born in Liverpool in 1950 into a working‑class family and contracted polio at age four, an experience that affected his schooling and early life. He studied English and drama, completing advanced academic work in drama and theatre in education, and developed an early career working on arts-in-schools projects and curriculum initiatives. Robinson served in academic roles including Professor of Arts Education at the University of Warwick and later worked as Senior Adviser to the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles. Across the 1980s and 1990s Robinson led and contributed to national and international commissions and projects on arts education and learning policy; he chaired the UK government’s national commission on education at the invitation of Prime Minister Tony Blair, producing influential reports on learning and creativity. In recognition of his services to the arts he was knighted in 2003, becoming Sir Ken Robinson. His public profile rose sharply after his 2006 TED Talk 'Do Schools Kill Creativity?', which became one of the most‑watched TED Talks worldwide and established him as a leading advocate for placing creativity on an equal footing with literacy in education. Robinson was a prolific author and speaker: his books include The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything and Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative, and he worked with governments, cultural institutions and businesses globally on education reform, creativity and innovation in organizations. He lived and worked between the UK and the United States in later years, continuing to speak and consult internationally until his death in California in August 2020 after a battle with cancer.