The Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development is a service, research, and instructional center based in UGA’s Mary Frances Early College of Education. The focus of the Torrance Center is in the identification and development of creative potential across the lifespan. It is renowned for its giftedness training programs and in future problem solving studies. The Torrance Center is closely affiliated with the Gifted and Creative Education program (GCE) in the Department of Educational Psychology. The overarching goals of the Torrance Center are to investigate, implement, and evaluate techniques for enhancing creative thinking across domains of human enterprise and to increase creativity literacy in the local, state, national, and international community.
Known to many as the "Father of Creativity," E. Paul Torrance, a native Georgian and UGA Alumni Foundation Distinguished Professor Emeritus, was a pioneer in creativity research and education for more than 50 years.
He was a monumental figure who dedicated his lifelong research and teaching to the development of creative potential of individuals of all abilities and ages. Across his career, his major accomplishments included 1,871 publications: 88 books; 256 parts of books or cooperative volumes; 408 journal articles; 538 reports, manuals, tests, etc.; 162 articles in popular journals or magazines; 355 conference papers; and 64 forewords or prefaces.
His legacy is highlighted by the creation of the Future Problem Solving Program International, the Incubation Model of Teaching, and the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. All programs, research, and teaching activities sponsored by the Torrance Center are built upon his legacy.
The Center was originally founded by Mary M. Frasier in the spring of 1984 as the Torrance Studies for Gifted, Creative, and Future Behaviors. At that time, the stated goals were:
Torrance Center directors:
With individual school districts as requested:
With individual universities as requested:
Director: Anna Abraham