Meetings & Events

NEFA gathers creative community catalysts to share resources, ideas, practical information, and actionable tools that can be executed in their own communities.

Creative Communities Exchange

Find out about attending and presenting!
2013 Creative Communities Exchange
June 6-7, 2013 | Portland, ME

This fast-paced event gathers creative and cultural community leaders for networking and practical creative economy workshops prepared by their peers. The Exchange highlights a wide range of successful initiatives from around New England that focus on various elements of the creative economy (e.g. downtown revitalization, artist and small business professional development, impact data collection, planning, zoning, space development, and marketing).

Participants are creative and cultural community leaders who work on creative economy projects in various sectors and types of organizations including cultural nonprofits, creative businesses, economic development, city planning, funders, researchers, and government. They share successes, challenges, and lessons learned to gain actionable tools they can use to strengthen their own communities.

Several months before the event, presenters submit initiative descriptions through NEFA's Community Initiatives form, finalists are selected, and the presentations are reviewed. At the event, workshop presentations focus on a single initiative, are strictly timed and include a how-to demonstration, Q&A, and networking time. Presenters provide participants with an instructional handout outlining their initiative process.

Two creative economy initiatives are recognized at each CCX with NEFA's creative economy award.

This biennial event rotates to different New England communities and is co-hosted by NEFA and local representatives.

Past Exchanges

• March 9-11, 2010: Connecting Creative Communities
  Co-hosted by City of Providence Department of Art, Culture + Tourism
  The Biltmore Hotel (Providence, RI)
• May 19-20, 2011: Creative Communities Exchange
  Co-hosted by Berkshire Creative 
  MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA)
  Photos from the event
  Guest speaker Rocco Landesman (Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts) at the awards luncheon:

Creative Economy Network meetings

NEFA periodically convenes an informal network of creative community leaders to discuss New England creative economy priorities and strategies.

Read the summary from NEFA's last Creative Economy Network meeting, held on March 23, 2012, in Greenfield, MA, and contact NEFA if you would like to participate in upcoming meetings.