Our Purpose
The William P. Perry Center for Creative Inquiry and Innovation promotes the humanity of progress. As an independent research forum, the Center explores how the fields of creative inquiry, including the humanities, arts, sciences, and technologies, can evolve together responsibly, collaboratively, and with intellectual discipline to elevate the human condition. Our purpose is to illuminate pathways where innovation aligns with ethics, imagination, and dignity, ensuring that discovery remains accountable to the values that define our shared humanity.
Our Mission
To ignite collaboration between the arts, sciences, and emerging technologies in pursuit of creative discovery. The Center cultivates strong minds that think critically, create boldly, and design responsibly.
By uniting diverse disciplines, we advance innovation that is imaginative, human-centered, and intellectually rigorous, focused on ensuring that progress never outpaces purpose.
Our Vision
To be the leading global forum for cross-disciplinary innovation, where philosophers, engineers, artists, and scientists shape technologies that expand human potential.
We envision a future in which technology is built not only with intelligence but infused with imagination, conscience, and a deep respect for human dignity.
Our goal is to inspire systems that amplify empathy, creativity, and understanding, while reminding the world that every advance must also advance the soul.
Our Values
Interdisciplinary Imagination - We believe progress begins where disciplines intersect. The fusion of art, science, and technology generates insights that no single field can achieve alone.Creative Excellence - We strive for mastery in both thought and craft. Creativity is a disciplined practice, a deliberate act of transforming knowledge into something new, useful, and meaningful.
Intellectual Courage - We pursue new ideas without fear of uncertainty. Great innovation requires questioning convention and venturing beyond established limits.
Human-Centered Progress - We encourage design and innovate with humanity in mind. Every technological advancement should deepen our understanding of ourselves and enrich the human experience.
Integrity of Inquiry - Our research is guided in curiosity, truth, and respect for the complexity of ideas. We hold ourselves accountable to the process of honest and open exploration.
Lifelong Learning - We see learning as a continuous act of creation. Growth, reflection, and experimentation are essential to both individual and societal evolution.
Our Principles
1. The Power of Convergence: We unite thinkers and creators from every field to explore the frontiers between art, science, and technology. Discovery thrives in dialogue, not in isolation.
2. Inquiry with Imagination: Critical thought and creativity are partners. We value both precision and wonder as forces that shape innovation.
3. Technology as Expression: Technology is more than a tool; it is a language through which culture speaks. We aim to give technology form, meaning, and beauty.
4. Collaboration as Culture: We believe the most transformative work emerges through shared intellect and mutual respect. The Center is a hub for diverse perspectives, ideas, and talents.
5. Innovation with Integrity: While creativity knows nobounds, responsibility requires direction. We explore advancement not as disruption for its own sake but as aforce that fosters human flourishing.
6. The Ongoing Experiment: Every idea is a living experiment, continually shaped through feedback, reflection,and refinement. Progress itself is not a product but an evolving practice of understanding.
The William P. Perry Center
for Creative Inquiry and Innovation, Inc
P.O. Box 1135
Washington, DC 20013