Creative Economy

The creative economy is a powerful engine of growth and community vitality. Together, artists, cultural nonprofits, and creative businesses produce and distribute cultural goods and services that generate jobs, revenue, and quality of life. A thriving cultural sector leads to thriving communities.

Program Goals

NEFA’s vision for our region is a sustainable, inclusive, and connected New England creative economy that is valued by all New England communities. This means that creative people and places are recognized, supported, well-informed, and connected to each other and the broader ecosystem.

In pursuit of that vision, we work to strengthen the creative community by supporting its visibility, networking and knowledge building - both internally among creatives as well as externally with the broader community.

Research & Data

NEFA has a 40+ year history of providing arts organizations with data-driven research to be used for advocacy to their local governments, strengthening and informing local, statewide, and regional efforts to build New England’s creative economy. NEFA research models can be used by anyone in the U.S. to quantify and develop their own creative community.

Research Publications

See highlights from our latest report, The Jobs in the New England Creative Economy and Why They Matter (June 2017) including data for each New England state at nefa.org/necreativejobsmatter.

Meetings & Events

NEFA connects constituents who care about building creative communities - to each other and to ideas, practical information, and tools used in New England neighborhoods. Learn more about the Creative Communities Exchange (CCX) and Creative Economy Network.

CreativeGround

CreativeGround is the dynamic regional directory that celebrates and reflects the vital work of artists, creatives, culture bearers, creative organizations and businesses. It is the place for all to gain insight into the vibrant regional creative ecosystem.

Sharing the stories, relationships, and data of the creative community empowers its people with more knowledge, connection, and resources. When creative communities are supported, all communities thrive.

Learn More About CreativeGround

Community Initiatives

Community initiatives are posted by advocates from around New England to share creative economy projects that leverage local creativity and cross-sector partnerships to address social, economic, and cultural issues in their communities.

Search the community initiatives or submit your own.

NEFA's Creative Economy Milestones

NEFA has a history of providing arts organizations with data-driven research to be used for advocacy to their local governments and has become the foundation for local and statewide efforts to build New England’s creative economy.

Creative Economy Awards

At the Creative Communities Exchange,  NEFA's  Creative Economy awards -  for an organization or for a specific project - are presented in recognition of successful strategies, scope of impact on the creative economy, and possibility for replication in other communities. 

Past Creative Economy Award Recipients

2019 Award recipients: 

• The Steel Yard of Providence, RI: Founded in 2001 as an industrial arts center in the outskirts of Providence, the Steel Yard has grown into a 3.8-acre campus that includes a craft school, a manufacturing studio, and an outdoor community venue. They also bring their inclusive design and public art process to other communities, training local artists and championing fair pay for creative work.
• Burlington City Arts of Burlington, VT has evolved from a festival organizer into a crucial city department that keeps the arts at the center of Burlington’s life. BCA was one of the first departments in the nation to be designated as cultural planner, they integrate the arts into planning for economic development, education, and urban design. They have renovated and manage city facilities like Contois Auditorium, Memorial Auditorium, and the Firehouse, now known as the BCA Center. They continue to produce and partner on events large and small, but also manage exhibitions, educational programs, calls for artists, art sales, and other artist resources, including all the public art they help facilitate.
• Constelación de Historias, a project of ZUMIX, a youth development, arts, and creative technology organization in East Boston.MA. Constelación de Historias was born out of a need to gather community voices around the crucial issue of gentrification in East Boston. Constelación de Historias used the ZUMIX Radio platform and partnerships with local advocacy groups and youth journalists to produce radio stories and events that gave a voice to local citizens during the City of Boston’s comprehensive planning process for East Boston.

2017 award recipients:

• Rhode Island Latino Arts, of Providence, RI, is the leading nonprofit organization exclusively dedicated to the promotion, advancement, development and cultivation of Latino arts, including the art, culture, history and heritage of Rhode Island Latinos.

• African Burying Ground Memorial Park, City of Portsmouth, NH: after the unexpected revealing of a more than 300-year old burying ground for African and African-descended people underneath a city street, the City of Portsmouth, NH, closed and transformed the street into an evocative public gathering space to acknowledge its past and to return the site to sacred ground. 

2015 award recipients: 

• Creative Portland of Portland, ME, to recognize the exceptional leadership and work of the organization on behalf of Portland's – and Maine’s – creative economy.
• The Square One Initiative is an effort to comprehensively revitalize the commercial corridor of Olneyville, a low-income neighborhood on the west side of Providence, Rhode Island.

2013 award recipients:

• Community Supported Art (CSArt) is a collaboration among multiple partners in Cambridge and Somerville, MA. CSArt uses the model of community- supported agriculture to link producers--artists who develop a limited edition of an original work of art--with consumers who want to “buy local.”  
• Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (CMNH) had been searching for a decade for a larger space when the City of Dover invited the Children’s Museum to renovate and move into a historic armory right in the middle of town. 

2011 award recipients:

• Rockingham Arts and Museum Project (RAMP)
• Project Storefronts