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.”

For example, in my own life, one of the things I started was the Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport. A dedicated maritime gallery did not exist before. There were many artists painting part-time in this genre, but none of them really had a market.

We created a sales gallery at Mystic Seaport Museum Stores, and began to invest in developing markets with collectors for artists. We developed; for example, a juried show. We developed an international competition that always had very prestigious juries. That business really caught on, and it produced support for the museum. It also built up a wonderful market to the point where over six for-profit galleries opened up, and began to do business, all the way from Seattle to Annapolis to Newport, Rhode Island. That would be one example of taking an initiative, and starting an enterprise.

Another would be – a friend and I are co-founders of the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market. We decided to build this market for master folk artists from around the world. This was 7 years ago. It is now the largest international folk art market in the world. It does close to $2 million a weekend that the artists take home to their communities. Forty-five countries are represented, and 130 folk artists are represented. We really created a market for that.

Or you take somebody like Dan Storper, who started Putumayo. He went around the world collecting traditional contemporary folk music, assembled those into themes on CDs, and began national distribution. He created a whole genre we now know as World Music.

There’s a woman in India, Darshan Shah, who started a weavers’ co-op. That co-op now has 600 women working, and weaving using traditional methods. She takes what they make into international markets in London and New York. She’s been in the International Folk Art Market. There are many examples like that of efforts to create markets to help entrepreneurs build their cultural enterprises.

There is a sphere of people who are familiar with the term, “cultural entrepreneurship,” but social entrepreneurship has become a more mainstream term. How is cultural entrepreneurship different, or related to social entrepreneurship?

Social enterprise and entrepreneurship started to address social issues in a community. So, it was generally focused on some social issue that was often around employment and/or to develop opportunities for farmers. For example, organic and fair trade yogurt, or coffee, which helps the coffee growers in Latin America.

In the case of cultural entrepreneurship, we’re addressing – not necessarily a problem, but sometimes that’s true. We’re focused on developing opportunities for people who are making their livelihoods in the field of culture.

For example, I’d seen potters in Peru whose tradition was to make clay water jars for their community. They’d bring them into the market, and sell them. Well, with the evolution of mass production of plastics, their neighbors started buying plastic buckets. Their market for clay water jars disappeared.

What we’ve been able to do is look at that situation. You have talent, you have raw materials, all the skills, but what you don’t have is a product that’s ready for a different market. We would work with them on product development, and then bring them into new markets. We’re really working directly with people who are making cultural-related products. That’s the difference between the two.

Why should people care about cultural entrepreneurship, when, in the “do-good” world, they could spend their time on social entrepreneurship, or being “green?” Why is cultural entrepreneurship important?

Giving people an opportunity, especially those who might be losing markets, enhances cultural diversity in our world. We know, through the franchise device and other globalization issues, that we’re tending towards becoming very homogeneous. There is standardization that’s required in international business, so cultural diversity is really at odds with this.

If we start losing cultural diversity, we begin to lose our whole sense of community because community is defined by culture. We want to give people an opportunity to really develop, innovate, and preserve their own culture. The US is one of the biggest exporters of “culture products.” For example, our music, our movies. They come with huge marketing dollars. So, in that case, they’re overwhelming local markets with American product.

The reaction has been, on the national level, in many countries, to create cultural policy that lends support to local artists so that they have an opportunity to make their films, music, artistry, paintings, or sculpture, and bring them to market so that they’re not overwhelmed by our exports, and the exports from the UK.

People value the expression of creativity coming out of the community, the diversity, and our concern with the issue of globalization making everything the same. On the other hand, globalization offers a tremendous opportunity for people in the cultural community because it broadens, and widens their market.

As co-Founder of the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship, what role does it play in the field of cultural entrepreneurship?

The role it plays is to really focus on the entrepreneur. There are many people in this cultural field who aren’t necessarily entrepreneurial. In all my experience, what I’ve found is that it’s the entrepreneur who can take the idea, develop it, create an enterprise, and along with it, create better livelihoods for people.

Our role is to really help the cultural entrepreneur. We do that through mentoring. We find other entrepreneurs, in, or outside of the field of culture, to help mentor these entrepreneurs so that they can build their enterprises. Therefore, they help themselves, their families, and their community. This is one of the areas where we can do a lot in rural development as well.

A lot of social entrepreneurship work has to be done in urban areas, where many of the social problems exist, whereas cultural entrepreneurship can be done in both rural and urban areas. There are a lot of opportunities there, and we didn’t see anybody really addressing this so we said, “Why don’t we begin to develop this and get into rural areas?” like New Mexico, which is very poor, and begin to help those entrepreneurs come forward into the market.

How can people get involved in the Global Center’s work?

It depends on their interests. They can certainly let us know if they’re successful entrepreneurs, and if they think they’d like to be a mentor. They can give the Center financial support to expand its programs. Eventually, we will go global, and there may be opportunities in other countries that people know about, as well. We have a lot of experience in training people to build their cultural enterprise.

What’s the path that brought you to this work? What is the path that brought you to spending so much energy on cultural entrepreneurship?

I’ve always had a heart for artisans and their creative work. I’ve admired what they do. Out of that I have a basic philosophy which is, “Do what you love and love what you’re doing.”

I just said, “Maybe we really ought to start this.” It was just like this friend and I sitting down and saying, “Why don’t we start a folk art market where one didn’t exist before?” We saw the need for that, got really excited, and a lot of other people got really excited. It’s the same with the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship.

We’ve also started a program here called New Mexico Creates which uses our museum shops as a market link for New Mexico’s artists and artisans. We were able to increase our buying from $300,000 a year to over a million dollars a year by featuring more of their work, and working with the artists to improve their products.

It came just out of this caring.

Of course, you know that my blog is called, “Have Fun Do Good.” How do you have fun and do good?

As I said before, by really doing what you love and loving what you’re doing. Out of it comes a lot of fun, and you end up doing a lot of good in a community that can always use an extra hand. Our cultural community is not the highest paid in the world, and anything we can do to build opportunities for increasing their livelihoods is meaningful to a lot of people.

I enjoy what I’m doing, and it results in good.

Is there anything else that you want to add before we close, about the Global Center, cultural entrepreneurship, or anything else?

The website for the Global Center is www.culturalentrepreneur.org. New Mexico Creates is www.newmexicocreates.org. The International Folk Art Market is www.folkartmarket.org. I think people will enjoy looking at some of those sites. Perhaps they’ll inspire a conversation, and people can get in touch with me through the Global Center’s site.

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!”

Keeping Your Creative Business on Track by Carol Sinclair, Edinburgh Adviser, Cultural Enterprise Office on June 4, 2010 in Aberdeen
“This workshop provides an opportunity to take stock of your achievements to date and explore the options that lie ahead. You can use it to review your business plan, kick start the next plan, have a reality check or remotivate yourself.”

More cultural entrepreneurship events in Scotland are listed on the Cultural Enterprise Office site.

In the News

Wanted: Cultural Entrepreneurs by Noel Grima in The Malta Independent Online (April 4, 2010)
“. . . what is absolutely important and necessary is cultural entrepreneurship. It was this leadership that enabled the Salzburg Festival to reach where it has been for many years. And it was also this that led to responders to a survey in 2009 choosing Salzburg, along with Barcelona, after Florence, Rome and Venice, as Europe’s fourth most beautiful city (ahead of Vienna, Paris and Bruges).”

“Label Lookout: Suno” in Harper’s Bazaar (May, 2010)
“Suno is the new name to know . . . .Made by local artisans in Kenya, the eclectic pieces are rife with vivid prints, from abstract polka dots to tribal inspired patterns, and are meant to be mixed and matched.”

Community Voices (that’s you!)

On last week’s Resource Roundup, John Eger shared his piece, Creativity, Innovation and the American University, in the comments.  Thanks, John!

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This will be my last post on the GCCE blog for awhile sooooo, if you have sites, blog posts, events, or articles that you would like to share with the GCCE community, please email them to GCCE co-Founders Tom Aageson (tom@culturalentrepreneur.org), and Alice Loy (alice@culturalentrepreneur.org).

You can keep in touch with me on my blog, Have Fun Do Good, on Twitter at @bbravo, and on Facebook.

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

The Craft Research Fund is calling for applications for the 2010 Craft Research Fund Project Grant, and the 2010 Craft Research Fund Graduate Research Grant. The deadline to apply is July 1st.

While you’re on the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design’s site, check out their 2008 report about The Economic Impact of the Craft Industry in Western North Carolina.

3. International Summer School 2010 in Economics of Art and Culture in Deventer, The Netherlands.

“The courses, led by Professor Arjo Klamer, Chair of the Economics of Art and Culture, Erasmus University Rotterdam, examine the relationship between culture and economics, and the link between creativity, arts, and business. They serve to bridge the knowledge and experiences of those involved in the various cultural sectors.”

Check out the cool course listings!

• June 28 – July 1: Economics of Cultural Heritage and Museums
• June 28 – July 1: Cultural Entrepreneurship
• June 28 – July 1: Art Production and Markets
• July 28 – August 4: Creativity, Economy, and Society
• August 4 – 11: The Value of Culture: On the Relationship between Economics, Culture, and Art

4. Annette Naudin’s Blog

I keep running into Annette’s blog, so I thought I’d share it with you. According to her bio, Annette is a senior lecturer at Birmingham City University and award leader of the MA Media and Creative Enterprise programme. She is currently doing a PhD, part time, at Warwick University on the subject of Cultural Entrepreneurship and Education.

She describes her blog as being, “a blog about my research in Cultural Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship Education for the creative, media and cultural industries.”  You can also follow her on Twitter at @annettenaudin.

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

Image credit: Screenshot of Culture Label: Living and Breathing Cultural Entrepreneurship by Mark Nagurski on iddictive.com.

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

“HAND/EYE is an independent, international publication which explores the nexus between design and development, culture and commerce, art and craft, and environment and ethics.”

4. Handmade in America

“HandMade in America’s mission is to grow handmade economies through craft, cultural heritage and community assets.”

5. Titan Teaterskole: The International Theater Academy of Norway

“A NOKUT- and Lånekassen-approved 2-year theater education combining artistic craft with practical business skill.” They’re also on Twitter at @TITANteater

6. The Createquity blog by Ian David Moss

“A unique virtual think tank exploring the intersection of the arts with a wide range of topics including politics, economics, philanthropy, leadership, research, and urban planning, Createquity is a hub for next-generation ideas on the role of the arts in a creative society.”  They’re also on Twitter at @createquity

The GCCE blog was mentioned in their recent review of new arts policy or arts-policy-relevant blogs.  Ian had the great suggestion that we have cultural entrepreneurs blog, or guest blog on the GCCE blog.

Who are some cultural entrepreneurs who you think would be great contributing bloggers?

Flickr photo credit: Culture is not a crime uploaded by Dawn Endico.

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:

* The nature of cultural enterprises
* The cultural entrepreneur
* Strategies for marketing cultural capital
* Financing cultural enterprises
* Cultural industries and the role of entrepreneurship
* Cultural entrepreneurship and networking: creation and management of cultural networks
* Cultural entrepreneurship and innovation
* Creating cultural value for stakeholders
* Culture driven CSR
* Managing cultural enterprises
* Market orientation versus cultural goods”

For more information about the conference, and how to submit your paper, go to the EURAC research and Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt websites.

What are some other cultural entrepreneurship conferences happening in 2010? Culturelink Network, “the Network of Networks for Research and Cooperation in Cultural Development,” has a list of culture-related international meetings and conferences on their site. Who else has already created a list of cultural entrepreneurship related conferences?

Flickr photo credit: Looking above Bolzano Centro uploaded by Jon Shave.

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.

She also said that understanding why you’ve created your business can act as a touchstone as you make decisions:

“If you keep on knowing, and take the time to understand your core reasons for doing what you’re doing, that gives you the direction to take. But you also need to understand in having a point of view, that it means that you can’t get everybody, but you’ll always be able to know what to do next, because you’re following a core value.”

So, take a moment to ask yourself:

• Why am I a cultural entrepreneur?
• What challenging decisions about the direction of my business do I need to make right now?
• How can reflecting on why I created my business help me make those decisions?

Flickr photo credit: Question mark uploaded by Marco Bellucci

One of the best facilitated networking events I’ve attended was produced by a local branch of eWomenNetwork. We sat at tables with 6 or 7 other women entrepreneurs, and were encouraged to introduce ourselves by saying (in this order):

1. Something unusual about ourselves
2. Something we needed help with
3. Help we could offer
4. A description of our business
   

What I learned from this exercise, that can be applied to more casual networking situations, is:

1. People will remember a funny story, or an unusual fact about you before they will remember your elevator pitch.
2. Know what you need, and how to ask for it. People are very willing to help, if you are specific.
3. Know that you have as much to offer as the people you want to meet.  During the eWomenNetwork exercise, we weren’t allowed to give the women at the table our business card unless we could fulfill one of their needs.  If we could help them, we wrote a note on our business card like, “Call me for a designer recommendation for your website.”
4. Share the details of what your business is about after engaging with someone in a personal way.  They are more likely to listen, and remember what you say.

Here are a few more networking tips:

1. If possible, find a list of event attendees, and contact the ones you want to meet beforehand.
2. Set goals for yourself like, “I will meet three new people tonight.”
3. Practice how to introduce yourself, and ask for what you need.  Try using the PitchWizard on 15SecondPitch.com to craft your introduction.
4. Really listen to the person you are talking to, rather than think about what you are going to say next.
5. Follow up with people the day after the event.  You can write an email, or connect with them using social media tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

What are some of your networking tips for entrepreneurs?

Flickr photo credit:  Hey there, nice to meet you uploaded by Shannon Yeh

Also check out the extensive list in the sidebar of the Arts Entrepreneurship Educator’s Network.

Who else should be added to the list?

Are you a mid-career museum, preservation, or historic site professional with a desire to change your institution and engage your community? Do you wants to learn how innovators in cultural institutions apply the tools of successful businesses, and acquire the skills of an entrepreneurial leader?

If you just answered yes and yes, consider applying to be a fellow for the First Cultural Entrepreneurship Institute at Cooperstown happening May 2-5, 2010.  According to the call for applications on the Museum Association of New York’s site, 20 fellows will be selected to receive the 3 1/2 day training, plus room and board, for only $200. The deadline to apply is March 22, 2010.

The Institute is a joint program of the Cooperstown Graduate Program and the Museum Association of New York.  Major funding was provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

For more information about how to apply, go to the Museum Association of New York’s website.

“On the business side, blogs are designed to help promote creative wares or services, and if done well, they can be an invaluable business tool.  Those who blog for business live creatively; their businesses, their personal lives, and friendships are all approached through their creative spirit and it shows in their blogs.  Whether they promote products and services through their sidebar links or talk about business in every post, their blogs are beautiful and inspiring.”

-Tara Frey, Blogging for Bliss

I just finished reading Blogging for Bliss: Crafting Your Own Online Journal:  A Guide for Crafters, Artists and Creatives by Tara Frey, and highly recommend it.  Frey covers everything from what to write about, how to choose a blogging platforms, how to customize your blog’s look, ways to increase traffic, and the basics of blogvertising.

In addition to all kinds of fantastic practical information, she also has profiles of over 50 bloggers, many whose blogs help them promote their creative businesses like:

• a stitch in dye
• Curious Sofa Diaries
• Naughty Secretary Club
• Sommer Designs
• Teresa Sheeley
• Twisted Sister

Whether you are a new, or experienced blogger, I think you’ll find something practical and/or inspiring in Blogging for Bliss to help you take your creative business blog to the next level.

You can learn more about Blogging for Bliss and Tara Frey on her blog, tara frey {typing out loud}.