Creative NEO

The State of the Arts in Ohio

March 24 was “Arts Advocacy Day 2004”, hosted by Ohio Citizens for the Arts & the Ohio Arts Council. Ed Morrison, Director of REI@Weatherhead, led workshops on new ways of thinking about the value of the creative industries to innovation. Other session topics: Public/Private Partnerships in the Arts, Arts-in-Education, Arts Advocacy & Leadership. The audience included Capital legislators, state arts leaders, community and industry entrepreneurs. The day concluded with the Governor’s Awards for the Arts in Ohio, an annual celebration of Ohio’s arts, business, community and patron constituents.

Links to visit:
http://www.ohiocitizensforthearts.org
http://www.oac.state.oh.us/events/GovAwards

Partnership Building

Last week we met with members of the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) to explore ways of collaborating and building partnerships for the future. Visit: http://www.cia.edu/

Our brainstorming session touched on many ideas involving students, faculty and industry. Some outcomes included future student internships and programs for industry. By working together, we can improve our ability and capacity to innovate solutions for the future.

CIA is one of REI@Weatherhead's neighbors in University Circle (UCI), a unique cultural center created by Cleveland's elite during the early 1900's. UCI is thought of as being as valuable to Northeast Ohio as the Cuyahoga River once was to Cleveland's industrial age. Today, University Circle could itself be a place of wealth creation if partnerships between member institutions ignite. Visit:http://www.universitycircle.org

Arts Day Conference in Columbus, OH

March 24th is Arts Advocacy Day in Ohio. The gathering is hosted by Ohio Citizens for the Arts (OCA), a non-profit with a long history of speaking out on public policy issues in Columbus and Washington, D.C. The OCA lobbies for arts and arts education funding for the Ohio Arts Council http://www.oac.state.oh.us/ and the National Endowment for the Arts http://www.nea.gov.

In previous years, Arts Advocacy Day was celebrated in the historic state capital building in Columbus with up to 800 constituents for lunch and the Governor presenting leadership awards. But this year it's different.

Arts Day starts with advocacy briefings by leaders on the edge followed by a full day of grass roots sessions including Advocacy 101, Community Development, Appalachian Arts, Economic Development and Arts Education Advocacy.

REI@Weatherhead's Ed Morrison will talk about why the creative industries are important to economic development in our communities and how they provide critical frameworks for building our Innovation Economy in Ohio. Go: http://www.weatherhead.cwru.edu/rei

To learn more about Ohio Citizens for the Arts and Arts Day go to: http://www.ohiocitizensforthearts.org

New Zealand creative economy strategy

This week the Asia Society in New York held a half day conference on New Zealand's creative economy. The strategy focuses on creating the conditions in which new ideas, new thinking and innovation can drive economic development.

Read the speech of Pete Hodgson, New Zealand's Minister of Research, Science & Technology. Go.

New Zealand Interactive Games Report

Building interactive games represents one of the promising areas for NEO. To give you some orientation to this opportunity, read the recent report from New Zealand that looks at their interactive gaming cluster. Download the report.

The interactive gaming market involves two major segments: the PC/console segment anchors the anchors the market. Worldwide, the PC/console segment is growing at an 11% annual rate. By 2007, the consensus forecast is that the market will be about $35.8 billion.

Mobile gaming -- games on "smart" handsets -- was a $400 million market at the end of 2001, and it is will grow as smart handsets gain market penetration.

The New Zealand report provides a good overview of how the games industry works.

Creative Industries

Business development in creative digital media represents a major opportunity for Northeast Ohio.

Here is some history. "Arts and culture" traditionally sit on the edges of economic development. Economic developers view cultural attractions as "amenities" that add to a community's "quality of life". Professionals in the tourism development business see the world somewhat ddifferently. They view cultural attractions as potential magnets to draw outside visitors.

Either way, cultural and arts organizations have always had difficulty making their case that they have a real economic impact. In recent years, the task is a little easier, as national arts organizations have developed more effective ways to gather and analyze economic data. (See, for example, Cultural Policy & the Arts National Data Archive and Americans for the Arts. You can also see an on-line calculator for economic impacts here.

Beginning in 1997, the economic developer's view of the role of arts in an economy began to shift. The Blair goverment in the U.K. published an important report on "the creative industries". You can visit their web site here.

The idea of treating creative industries as an important source of high income jobs began to take off. Now, you can see in the UK a wide range of urban centers that are embracing the strategy of developing creative industries. They have developed their own web site for creative industry development. (You can see more detail on the UK cluster here.

Additionally, within the UK, different locations are launching their own efforts. So, you can now visit Creative Edinburgh, Creative Northern Ireland and Creative London. (The move to promote creative industries has spread to New Zealand.)

In June 2000, the New England Council picked up the trend when they published the report, , The Creative Economy Initiative: The Role of Arts and Culture in New England’s Economic Competitiveness. With their partners, they have launched the Creative Economy Initiative. More recently, Providence, home of the Rhode Island School of Design, has adopted creative industries as a core of their economic development strategy. (Read their report.

These efforts provide a blueprint for Northeast Ohio to build its creative industries into major new businesses.