culturalentrepreneur.org

What do the US, China, Mexico, and Venzuela have in common?

Income inequality.

And, some would say, a diminishing freedom of expression. What does this have to do with cultural entrepreneurship and the Arts?

A recent report conducted by the National Committee on Responsive Philanthropy shows that, of the $2.3 billion given to US arts and culture organizations, less than 2% is given to organizations with budgets under $5million.  You might ask, “So what?”  The report next points out that the vast majority of arts and culture organizations with budgets over $5million are predominantly white, urban, and support “high art”.  In other words, the expressions of non-white, non-privileged, rural, emerging, controversial, or edgy artists is absent.

And still you ask, “So what?”

If the definition of art is: “art is made with the intention of stimulating thoughts and emotions”, do we really want 98% of the art we engage with to reflect the thoughts and emotions, experiences, hopes, dreams, and desperations of white, urban, wealthy Americans?  Or, do we want our collective expression to reflect who we are as a nation: 36% non white, 12.4% foreign born, $50,221 median household income, 48 million living in rural communities…

Income inequality is creating inequality of cultural and artistic expression.

A recent report by Longwoods International and the US Travel Association demonstrates the value – in measurable ROI dollars – of destination marketing.  Northern New Mexico is an area perfectly suited to this type of campaign, drawing attention to our myriad cultural sites, museums, creative enterprises, and fabulous landscapes. The Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship has launched a Northern New Mexico Cultural Corridor initiative that will bring together partners from the travel, hospitality, and cultural enterprise sectors to shape a dynamic marketing campaign. Stay tuned for updates on our website…

Finding the right community development partners can be difficult for non-profit organizations. Sometimes, because resources are scarce, non-profit leaders compete with one another when they should collaborate.  Fortunately, as we launched the Spanish language components of our Small Business Success Series, I could turn to people with whom I had worked successfully over the past decade: Sara Nelson, Founder of La Comunidad Habla, and Andrea Plaza, Founder of Encuentro.  Both these women are bold, visionary, and willing to partner to get their programs built and accomplish their goals.

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America didn’t invent entrepreneurship – but we sure do love it here.  Even President Obama is getting on the entrepreneurship bandwagon, announcing new programs to spur technology innovation that will lead to new companies being formed and hopefully, more jobs.

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Happy summer everyone!

I recently did an interview with Tom Aageson, the Co-Founder of the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship (who also happens to be my dad), for my personal podcast, The Big Vision Podcast, and personal blog, Have Fun, Do Good.

I thought I’d cross-post  our conversation below, in case any of you would like to read it. You can also listen to the interview on the player at the bottom of this post, on the Big Vision Podcast landing page, or on iTunes.

We started our conversation with Tom describing what cultural entrepreneurship is:

Tom Aageson: Cultural entrepreneurship is an effort on the part of an entrepreneur who is very committed to cultural development and sees opportunities. They’re really visionaries. They’re catalysts for economic development for cultural workers to develop enterprises that are either for-profit, or not-for-profit, it can be either, that generate employment.

They also enrich the community’s culture, and they use cultural capital. That can mean, for example, language; it can mean architecture; it can mean food; it can mean artisan work, or artistic work. It’s all a resource that can be converted into an enterprise for a community.

They can also use things like creative tourism to develop an enterprise based on people coming to experience the culture.

Britt Bravo: Can you give an example, or tell a story so that if someone saw it, they’d say, “Oh! That’s what that is. That’s cultural entrepreneurship.”

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I’ve got a round up full of goodies for you today!

Events and Education

Conference of Creative Entrepreneurs in Seattle August 13-15, 2010
“The mission of the Conference of Creative Entrepreneurs (CCE) is to create a small business conference addressing the needs and disparities of the designer, artist and handcrafter (Creative Professionals).”

Flying Lessons: Tips + Tricks To Help Your Creative Business Soar (e-course) by Kellie Rae Roberts starting May 30, 2010
“It’s finally here….an inspiring and informative e-course where I share everything I know about how to start, grow, or expand your creative business. It’s going to be informative, inspiring, and fun, fun, fun.”

CraftyCon 2010 in Chicago October 21-23, 2010
“One day some people were talking about how awesome it would be to have a conference for crafters that allowed them to learn business skills, network with other crafters and professionals in the industry. They were frustrated with the lack of events created for crafters, by crafters. So they decided to just make it happen!”

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Happy Earth Day GCCE’ers!

Below are a few cultural entrepreneurship related sites and opportunities I thought might interest you.

1. Culture Label: Living and Breathing Cultural Entrepreneurship by Mark Nagurski on iddictive.com

Check out Mark’s article about a service called Culture Label, a “one-stop-culture-shop, bringing you an edit of products currently available from over 70 leading museum shops, galleries, artists and culture institutions from around the world.“

Here’s what Culture Label has to say about cultural entrepreneurship:

“For us, cultural entrepreneurship is all about connecting culture and consumers – demolishing walls and supplying enormous mainstream demand. In doing so, over and over we’ve seen vibrant new relationships develop between museums, galleries and the world at large.”

2. Craft Research Grants from the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design

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Below are a handful of articles and sites about cultural entrepreneurship that have come across my desk this month.

If you have sites, blog posts, events, or articles that you think should be shared with the GCCE community, please post them in the comments, or email links to me at britt AT brittbravo DOT com.

1. How to Become a Cultural Entrepreneur by Corey Kahler in CityArts

“Genevieve Tremblay, the Bellevue Arts Commissioner profiled in City Arts magazine (Seattle and Eastside editions) this month, shows that there’s not only a place for more structural and economic development in Bellevue, but also cultural expansion.”

At the end of piece Corey links to a handful of cultural entrepreneurship resources:

• Trembley’s business, Cultural Entrepreneurs: “Cultural Entrepreneurs provides strategic innovation planning for organizations at the convergence of the arts, education, and technology.”

• The Social and Cultural Entrepreneur blog: “On this blog we would like to explore entrepreneurship from a cultural and social point of view.”

• And the GCCE!  (Thanks, Corey!).

2. Artists in Creative Enterprise (ACE)

“Artists in Creative Enterprise is a community interest and social enterprise partnership between published and professional writers, poets, storytellers, performers, filmmakers, and publishers who use the creative arts to enable individuals, groups and communities to create and benefit from new opportunities.”

3. HandEye Magazine and the HandEye Blog

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Happy Thursday, cultural entrepreneurs!

While searching for listings of 2010 conferences related to cultural entrepreneurship, I came across the 4th International Conference on Culture and Economy happening June 29-30, 2010 in Bolzano-Bozen, Italy (pictured above).

The European Academy of Bolzano-Bozen and the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt are organizing a Scientific Track within the conference, and have put out a call for papers. The deadline to submit your abstract is May 3, 2010.

Here’s a little description of what they’re looking for:

“The Scientific Track of the conference will address various topics on the intersection between culture, economy and entrepreneurship. Academics and practitioners are invited to submit research papers relating to one of the following areas / topics:

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This week I listened to an inspiring interview on the Tranquility du Jour podcast with Poppy King, the founder of Lipstick Queen, and author of Lessons of a Lipstick Queen: Finding and Developing the Great Idea That Can Change Your Life.

One of the ideas she came back to over and over again was embracing and incorporating your personality into your business, and allowing your own uniqueness to set your own apart.

She also talked about the importance of understanding why you created your business, and sharing that story with your customers:

“Often people who start something, they’re shy about saying why they did, when really, that’s what makes something capture people’s imagination. It’s not so much, what it is, but why it is.”

In the case of King, she started her own lipstick brand in Melbourne, Australia, at the age of 18, because she couldn’t find a lipstick she wanted to wear.

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