New England Creative Economy Projects

Click on the PDF icons below to download the workshop To Do list handouts.

PROJECTs		Theme
AHA! New Bedford Placemaking and Partnerships: Putting Creative Economy Strategies to Work in Your Community (New Bedford, MA) Speaker: Candace Lee Heald (Program Director) Since 1999, the 2nd Thursday Free Arts and Culture AHA! Nights and connected branded efforts have spurred a cultural renaissance and economic resurgence in New Bedford. Look at the mechanics of how the project works and some of the structural changes over the life of the project.		Heading Downtown
American Folk Festival Creating Business Partnerships (Bangor, ME) Speaker: Heather McCarthy (Director) Now entering its tenth year, the American Folk Festival has become a cornerstone of Maine’s summer calendar, bringing economic development, community and cultural benefits to the region. This presentation will discuss measuring the impact of the AFF on the community and how the Festival has in turn sparked more cultural activity.		Leadership & Partnerships
Arts Alive! (Keene, NH) Speakers: Alec Doyle (Executive Director, The Colonial Theatre), Leonard Matczynski (Chair) In an effort to expand access to arts and cultural resources in the Monadnock Region, Arts Alive! conducted an assessment of cultural needs and market demand and is now working with The Colonial Theatre and MoCo Arts to develop a multi-arts facility that would improve the quality of and access to spaces that support performance, rehearsal and audiences alike.		Leadership & Partnerships
ArtsBoston The Berkshires Audience Initiative (Boston, MA) Speaker: John Beck (Deputy Director) The Berkshires Audience Initiative is a cooperative effort among the area’s arts and cultural organizations to understand their existing audiences and broaden their reach. John Beck will describe how ArtsBoston re-imagined the "Big List" program for the Berkshires and how community database projects across the country are changing the way cultural organizations reach audiences and revolutionize advocacy efforts.		Sector Connector
Art-Speak, the City of Portsmouth Cultural Commission ArtWorks (Portsmouth, NH) Speaker: Anna Nuttall (Visual Arts Chair, Portsmouth School Department) ArtWorks was developed to enrich grade 8 students' knowledge of careers in visual arts through meaningful partnerships between the school district, locally-run businesses and individual professional artists. With NH State Council on the Arts funding, over 100 students learned about how they can participate in the local creative economy now and in the future.		Sector Connector
Berkshire Creative Berkshire Creative Challenge (Pittsfield, MA) Speaker: Helena Fruscio (Director) The Creative Challenge connects manufacturers and businesses with local designers, engineers and creative workers with the aim of stimulating innovative research and development for existing and/or new product lines.		Sector Connector
Berkshire Film and Media Commission (Great Barrington, MA) Speaker: Diane Pearlman (Executive Director) Diane Pearlman will review the strategies and collaborations under development for BFMC and the challenges this new non-profit faces in being integrated into and recognized as part of the Berkshire creative economy.		Sector Connector
Boston Center for the Arts Management through Decentralized Decision-making (Boston, MA) Speaker: Veronique Le Melle (Executive Director) Veronique Le Melle will share a team management model that empowers staff to become more engaged and confident in their ability to solve problems and approach tasks from new perspectives. Learn how team management can maximize organizational productivity by bringing staff members from various departments together to increase institutional capacity and discover untapped talents and skills in the process.		Leadership & Partnerships
The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts iQuilt (Hartford, CT) Speaker: Ronna Reynolds (Executive Vice President) iQuilt is a culture-based urban design plan which seeks to physically and programmatically connect downtown Hartford’s outstanding cultural assets, promote walkability and celebrate the Capitol City’s commitment to innovation. A winner of the NEA’s 2010 Mayors Conference on Urban Design competition, the iQuilt project has catalyzed the Hartford community and dramatically accelerated the revitalization of its downtown.		Policy & Planning
City of New Haven, Department of Cultural Affairs Project Storefronts (New Haven, CT) Speaker: Margaret Bodell (Public Art Coordinator) Learn how entrepreneur artists are activating empty retail spaces in New Haven to drive new consumers into underutilized areas, raise awareness of New Haven's different commercial districts and promote spaces to potential long-term tenants which can eventually create jobs. This unique project also promotes New Haven's various design businesses and increases their capacity through collaborations with the Economic Development Corporation.		Heading Downtown
City of Pittsfield, Department of Community Development Providing the Foundation for the Renaissance of Downtown Pittsfield (Pittsfield, MA) Speakers: Deanna Ruffer (Director of Department of Community Development) Utilizing a wide range of municipal land use and economic development tools and resources as well as creative public/private partnerships, the City of Pittsfield has succeeded in establishing itself as a destination in the heart of the Berkshires. Learn about these tools and how other communities can use similar approaches to bring people downtown to live, work and play.		Policy & Planning
City of Providence Department of Art, Culture + Tourism Transportation Corridors to Livable Communities: Building hubs for housing, jobs, and the arts around transit (Providence, RI) Speaker: Stephanie Fortunato (Special Projects Manager) This project aims to integrate transit, housing, economic development, sustainability, and arts and culture along the city’s five most heavily traveled transit corridors. Learn how the Department of Art, Culture & Tourism leverages relationships to raise the visibility of cultural resources and how the federal government’s promotion of livability principles presents an opportunity to integrate arts, culture and creativity into city policies and planning.		Policy & Planning
City of Torrington, Economic Development, Arts and Culture Commission Main Street MarketPlace (Torrington, CT) Speakers: Rose Ponte (Economic Development Director), Steve Criss (Chair, ACT Torrington) Learn about how the City of Torrington uses a 9-week summer event as an economic engine to revitalize Main Street for the next generation.		Heading Downtown
Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County Breaking the Silos - Building a Regional Brand for Arts and Culture with FCBuzz.org (Fairfield, CT) Speaker: Ryan Odinak (Executive Director) First there was the “OC.” Now learn how the “FC”—Fairfield County, CT— used the arts and culture brand FCBUZZ.org to unify its cities and towns. Find out how this partnership just keeps on producing new opportunities and marketing cost savings for all.		Sector Connector
Double Edge Theatre Center for Living Culture (Ashfield, MA) Speakers: Stacy Klein (Founder/Artistic Director; Carlos Uriona (Co-Creator & Core Actor/Producing Director In 1994, eight artists gave up their 12-year-old theatre space in Boston and moved to rural Ashfield to create their performances in seclusion. Now 17 years later, the Farm is a multi-disciplinary local/international center of culture including site specific and indoor ensemble pieces, working dynamically in partnerships with farmers. food retailers, and businesses. How did this happen and how do these distinct models of laboratory art and community culture fit together?		Leadership & Partnerships
Dreeszen & Associates Growing Creative Economy Partnerships: Four Predictable Stages (Florence, MA) Speakers: Craig Dreeszen; Meri Jenkins (Program Manager, Massachusetts Cultural Council) As most creative economy initiatives involve partners, it helps to understand four commonly observed stages of growth that partnerships go through as they plan and implement creative economic development programs. Workshop participants will learn to anticipate and resolve predictable challenges at each stage: Exploration and Planning, Start-up Operations, Growth, and Maturity.		Leadership & Partnerships
Fitchburg Cultural Alliance Pathways; Art at the Water Street Bridge (Fitchburg, MA) Speakers: Mary Chapin Durling (Development and Grants Coordinator); Gillian Christy (sculptor) Working with sculptor Gillian Christy, members of the Fitchburg Cultural Alliance undertake a public art project, engaging the community in its design and concept. The public-private partnership project encountered unexpected twists and turns leading us to change the age-old adage from “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” to “the road to public art is paved with good intentions plus a couple of ruts and boulders.”		Heading Downtown
Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce Creative Concord (Concord, NH) Speakers: Tim Sink (President); Byron O. Champlin (Chair, Creative Concord) Creative Concord is a priority task force of the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce. Learn about how the organization leveraged community partnerships in order retain the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen in Concord and relocate them into expanded new administrative and exhibitor space in downtown Concord.		Leadership & Partnerships
Island Moving Company Open for Dancing (Newport, RI) Speaker: Dominique Alfandre (Executive Director) Island Moving Company is a ballet company that has survived and prospered for almost 30 years by relying on a web of partnerships that provide performance venues and creative collaborations. As Newport, RI has no theatre, the Company has made a virtue of necessity by presenting dance in unconventional places and with unexpected allies.		Leadership & Partnerships
MASS MoCA Assets for Artists (North Adams, MA) Speakers: Blair Benjamin (Director of Real Estate and Community Development); Esther Robinson (Founder, ArtHome) Learn how a “matched savings program” for individual artists has been piloted in the Berkshires since 2008 and is now being rolled out statewide, with an innovative model that offers access to working capital, financial education, professional development, and first time homebuyer assistance.		Sector Connector
MCLA Berkshire Cultural Resource Center DownStreet Art (North Adams, MA) Speaker: Jonathan Secor (Director of Special Programs) DownStreet Art is a citywide public art project, actualized in primarily private spaces. DownStreet Art's mission is to drive traffic to a struggling downtown and attract out-of-town dollars. We will look at the successes. We will look at the failures. We will look at the space between sucess and failure.		Heading Downtown
NEFA/Planning Decisions/Maine Center for Creativity Economic Impact Study (Portland, ME) Speakers: Dee Schneidman (Research Manager, NEFA); Charles Lawton (Chief Economist, Planning Decisions, Inc.); Jean Maginnis (Executive Director, Maine Center for Creativity) NEFA and research partners will share findings to date from their latest New England nonprofit economic impact study. They will also discuss how such studies are done, why they're important, and how you can adapt NEFA methodology to your local community.		Policy & Planning
Portland Arts & Cultural Alliance/Creative Portland 2 Degrees Portland (Portland, ME) Speaker: Jennifer Hutchins (Executive Director) In Portland, Maine, it’s two degrees of separation, not six. Creative Portland has recently launched 2⁰ Portland, a networking and referral program that connects people who want to live and work in the city with those who already do. Jennifer Hutchins will talk about how this program is evolving into a nexus of cross-pollination for Portland’s creative community and how it attracts and supports creative entrepreneurs, professionals and workers.		Sector Connector
Provincetown Community Compact, Inc. The Think-ubator (Provincetown, MA) Speaker: Jay Critchley (Founder) The Provincetown Community Compact's "Think-ubator" was created to empower artists and community members by providing administrative support and fiscal sponsorship of grass-roots initiatives. It gives proponents a supportive entity to encourage and honor their creative initiatives.		Sector Connector
Real Art Ways RAW Specifics: Public Art in Hartford, Connecticut (Hartford, CT) Speaker: Will K. Wilkins (Executive Director) Real Art Ways uses commissioned public art projects as a way to support artists and engage with community. This workshop will invite group participation as we discuss what opportunities exist in our communities and share ideas about how to make projects happen.		Leadership & Partnerships
RiverzEdge Arts Project Engaging Youth Voices in Community Planning and Design (Woonsocket, RI) Speaker: Rebekah Greenwald Speck (Executive Director) Find out what happens when the voices of disenfranchised youth are brought into public planning and discourse and what it really takes to get authentic voices to the table. RiverzEdge Arts Project combines real world training in art and design with education and employment intervention in workforce development for teens.		Policy & Planning
Rockingham Arts and Museum Project (RAMP) Art Challenges Rural Communities (Bellows Falls, VT) Speaker: Robert McBride (Founding Director) Robert McBride focuses on developing a sense of place by integrating artists into the sustainability strategies for rural communities. He will discuss three approaches he has used in Bellows Falls VT involving affordable housing for artists, hosting quarterly artists town meetings and initiating public art projects.		Leadership & Partnerships
Studio Two Building Creative Communications (Lenox, MA) Speaker: Kevin Sprague (Principal and Creative Director) This session will focus on a core set of rules, technologies and practices that Creative Economy organizers can follow to build efficient, effective and scalable communications strategies for their projects and initiatives. Based on the effective brand and communications development strategy crafted by Kevin Sprague, Co-Chair of Berkshire Creative.		Sector Connector
The Steel Yard Building Stronger Community Networks Through Public Art (Providence, RI) Speakers: Howie Sneider (Public Projects Director) and Alma M. Carrillo Lopez (Program Director) The Steel Yard offers arts and technical programs designed to increase opportunities for cultural expression and career-oriented training. The organization trains and employs low-income residents to design and fabricate unique high-quality art-fences for local subsidized housing. Along with gaining marketable skills, course participants build lasting relationships with teachers, clients and community.		Leadership & Partnerships
Union Square Main Streets ArtsUnion (Somerville, MA) Speakers: Mimi Graney (Executive Director); Gregory Jenkins (Executive Director, Somerville Arts Council); Rachel Strutt (Program Manager, Somerville Arts Council) The arts meet urban planning as the ArtsUnion program in Somerville push for zoning changes and look to shift the mix of commercial development in Union Square. It's a careful balancing act to create policies that remove barriers and create incentives for arts-friendly businesses as Union Square transitions back to a pedestrian-oriented commercial center without losing its unique, funky, international village flavor.		Heading Downtown
Vermont Arts Exchange ART & SOUL (North Bennington, VT) Speakers: Matthew Perry (Co-Founder); Betsy Rosenbluth (Director of Projects, Orton Family Foundation) Through art making and creative planning, citizens discover the places, the traditions and the treasures that connect them to one another and to their town.		Policy & Planning
Western Avenue Studios (Lowell, MA) Speaker: Maxine Farkas (Director) Take one old mill building owned by a developer interested in building communities and add a group of artists looking for a place to work . . . mix throughly. Five and a half years later you have 149 studios with more than 200 artists working in many disciplines and a thriving community.		Leadership & Partnerships

THEMES

Leadership & Partnerships
Organizational leaders who are building capacity within their organizations and communities by developing strong partnerships with local stakeholders.

Heading Downtown

Innovative events and projects that catalyze the creative community and draw visitors from near and far, drawing attention and life to the economic centers.

Policy & Planning

Programs that use information and cultural plans to implement policy and zoning decisions that affect all citizens of their local community.

Sector Connector
Model projects that use technology, networking, and training to enhance the capacity of creative professionals.

Grants & Services

New England Creative Economy Projects