Wednesday, October 28, 2009

business + arts















(photo by Ishmael Orendain, Flickr Creative Commons)


We received a comment on our past entry from Miz-Eyesis – who says it would be great to have a sort of “networking party” or a place to connect the different artists in the state.

Hartford does have to support these different movements. That will also help sustain the local businesses which need local arts to help survive like bars, restaurants, night clubs and the various concert halls existing in this area.

The city needs to ponder hard on how to move into the 21st century more through the arts. There are so many ways to do it and so many facets from mainstream to underground sounds which should be reflected as art is a reflection on life. And further more it's through these actions which other businesses become more open to working with arts communities and brainstorming happens which can help one benefit the other.


She touches upon a good point here. It’s not just artists we need to focus on in this new “creative economy”. Its businesses – and focusing on the interaction between the two is key. The artists cannot be in one artsy bubble, with the businesspeople in their own, corporate bubble across town. According to “The Rise of the Creative Class” there needs to be a mutually beneficial relationship, each feeding off of one another. (Richard Florida wrote the 2002 book– which I’ll be stealing ideas from periodically.)

So, where in Hartford are businesses and artists working together – where could you see partnerships forming?

In terms of the other idea put forward by Miz-Eyesis, a shift into the 21st century economy, Florida says it’s already taking place:

Human Creativity is the ultimate economic resource. The ability to come up with new ideas and better ways of doing things is ultimately what raises productivity and thus living standards. The great transition from the agricultural to the industrial age was of course based upon natural resources and physical labor power, and ultimately gave rise to giant factory complexes in places like Detroit and Pittsburgh. The transformation now in progress is potentially bigger and more powerful. For the previous shift substituted on set of physical inputs (land and human labor) for another (raw materials and physical labor) while the current one is based fundamentally on human intelligence, knowledge and creativity.

Do you see this shift happening? Where in Hartford is it evident?

1 comments:

Steven Dahlberg said...

Also related to this topic ...

In January, I will be re-launching a monthly Creativity Networking series. It will take place at The Silo Gallery, which is at the Henderson Cultural Center, Hunt Hill Farm Trust, in New Milford, Connecticut. Anyone from around the region is welcome to participate in this series, which seeks to provide a regular time and place for people interested in creativity to find each other and to explore a wide-range of topics related to creativity. The series is intentionally interdisciplinary, and is often described as "Creativity and Fill-in-the-Blank" -- where the "blank" might be anything from food to spirituality to art to business to movement to education to ???. Watch for more details about this new series coming soon and check out the past series here:
http://www.appliedimagination.org/networking/archive_2009.htm

In addition to the Creativity Networking series, I co-hosted two exploratory meetings earlier this year, looking at the potential of a statewide creativity initiative, called Connecticut Creates. Several states currently have similar initiatives, which link education, arts, business, government and nonprofits. The goals of these projects tend to promote the role of interdisciplinary creativity in community and economic development. The earlier meetings were hosted by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and the International Centre for Creativity and Imagination. If anyone has interest in collaborating and developing this concept further, please contact me.

I'm glad to know there are others seeking to promote creativity and who want to connect as advocates in Connecticut. I look forward to hearing from more like-minds ....

Steve Dahlberg
news [at] appliedimagination [dot] org
International Centre for Creativity and Imagination
http://www.appliedimagination.org
Creative Community Building Program
University of Connecticut
http://www.CreativeCommunityBuilding.org

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