culturalentrepreneur.org

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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Photo Courtesy of Denise Avila

Last week Thomas Friedman came out with another great opinion piece, “The New Untouchables” in which he argues that the “huge ethical breakdown on Wall Street, coincided with an education breakdown on Main Street” and that our middle-class workers are rapidly losing their ability to out-compete middle wage workers in foreign nations.  He suggests that The New Untouchables are those who, “have the ability to imagine new services, new opportunities and new ways to recruit work”, those with a creative and entrepreneurial mindset, in other words.  Furthermore, he makes the point that,

“Those who are waiting for this recession to end so someone can again hand them work could have a long wait.”

The days of work being handed out to those who happen to be standing nearby are over.  Instead we are tasked with using our ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit to seek out new market opportunities and leverage our creative talents into new ventures.  And this call to join the Creative Force is being answered loud and clear by cultural entrepreneurs.

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Painting “First Light” by Ron Ukrainetz

At GCCE our core tenets are:

We believe talented entrepreneurs drive wealth creation;
     Therefore, we are entrepreneur focused.
We believe cultural entrepreneurs have unique opportunities and needs;
     Therefore we are experts in building cultural enterprises.
We believe markets drive profit opportunities;
     Therefore we build toward growing cultural markets.
We believe enterprise networks increase innovation and speed to market;
     Therefore, we build clusters of cultural enterprises.

But, today in Bozeman, Montana, while giving a short presentation to a group at TechRanch, I realized one tenet was missing.  Therefore, I am going to add this:

We believe all communities are culturally rich;

Therefore, all communities can thrive in the Creative Age…even communities whose economies have historically not been based on human capital, like the communities of Montana I am visiting this week.

Bozeman, Montana- the land of glacially carved valleys, towering granite peaks, and wild trout-filled rivers. 

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In 2007 Newsweek published an article about the growing concern that our children are becoming increasingly disinterested in school and are falling behind in science, math, and reading.  A more recent commentary by Dr. John Eger, wisely warns, “We cannot continue to fail to put creativity at the center of education”.  Dr. Eger holds the Van Deerlin Endowed Chair of Communications and Public Policy in the School of Journalism & Media Studies at San Diego State University and like many of us, is concerned that kids are apparently losing their creative drive and expressive abilities. 

Yet when I go to cultural events like the recent Las Golondrinas Fall Harvest Festival, I see kids engaged, thriving, learning.   So are kids losing their creative drive or are we squashing it with an over-emphasis on wrote memorization and standardized tests?  These are concerning questions that are at the heart of education policy reform. 

I argue these questions are also at the heart of economic policy reform. 

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This weekend I sifted through about forty academic articles on the Cultural Economy, Cultural Industries, Cultural Enterprises, Cultural Entrepreneurs.  My brain is still swimming with terms like cultural geography, the intersection of culture and economics, and regional economic development. 

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In 2007 I helped found the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship so I could combine my passion for creating thriving cultural communities, addressing economic challenges, and building successful enterprises.  I love working with cultural entrepreneurs – they are bold, resourceful, and bring innovation into our lives. Living in Santa Fe allows me to soak up culture and engage with cultural enterprises at every turn…Santa Fe is ground zero for cultural entrepreneurship thought leadership, policy development and markets.

Cultural entrepreneurs can reach me at alice@culturalentrepreneur.org