Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Arts and cultural developmeent are moving to the center stage of economic development. The process started in the late 1990's when the Blair government in the UK issued a report on the "creative cluster". Learn more. That triggered a lively foucs on the creative sector among a number of UK cities.
A couple of years later, the idea moved to the U.S. with the New England Foundation for the Arts. Learn more.Now we see the idea taking hold in the U.S. Providence, RI -- home of the Rhode Island School of Design -- has embraced creativity as a core strategy in its economic development.
Now more civic leaders are taking their arts community seriously. For the past year or so, I have been keeping an eye on Durham, NC. Here's an example of an arts community that has engaged in a broad process to define the future of its arts community.
Earlier this week, they released the Durham Cultural Master Plan. Read more about the plan from the project web site. Go. Read an article on the plan's release. Go. Or, download the July draft of the plan.
posted by Ed Morrison |
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Some Background on EDPro Weblog
The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it.
One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information.
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Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development
As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking.
Background on Ed Morrison
Download some background information on me here.
Durham releases arts master plan
