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.

*********************************************************************************

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.

“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}.

You can’t beat the yummy smell and bubbly goodness of handmade soap. I love it, don’t you?

According to the Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild, Inc.:

“The industry of handcrafted soap is growing and expanding; the number of handcrafted soapmakers has increased exponentially over the last 10 years and the support services for them, including vendors of all types, has become an industry unto its own.”

If you are an aspiring handcrafted soapmaker, or just a lover of handmade soap(!), below is a sampler of soapmakers’ blogs to inspire you to start your own:

1. DeShawn Marie Handcrafted Soap. She also has a Twitter feed, @deshawnmarie, a Facebook Page, and an Etsy shop.
2. The Handmade Soap Blog. They also have a Twitter feed, @pixiesoap, (with an awesome photo of Mint Chocolate Chunk soap as its background), a Facebook Page, a Flickr photostream page, and an Etsy shop.
3. Yummy Suds. They also have a Twitter feed, @yummysuds, a Facebook Page, and an Etsy shop.
4. The Soap Seduction. She also has a Twitter feed, @soapseduction, a Flickr photostream, and an Etsy shop.
5. Susan’s Natural Soap Blog. She also has a Twitter feed, @susansoaps, a Facebook Page, and a YouTube channel.
6. The Back Porch Soap Company blog is actually focused on how to start and run your own soap company. They also have a Facebook Page, and a Twitter feed, @BackPorchSoap.

According to the Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild Blog post, Announcing the 2010 HSMG Conference Speaker Line-Up and It’s Good!, they will have some sessions about how soapmakers can use social media, if you want to learn more about how to use tools like blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to promote your business.

Let me know about other yummy soapmaking blogs in the comments!

Flickr photo credit: Handmade Soaps by Daneen_Vol

1. Live Blogging & Live Tweeting
The smArts & Culture blog reported in February about the Portland Center Stage’s Live-Tweeting Theater experiment. “They invited ’30 or so of [their] closest twitter friends’ plus anyone else who cared to join them, to live-tweet the world premiere performance of the play Apollo.”

The Art of Business Blog also used the Portland Center Stage Twitter experiment as an example in their post, How Businesses are Using New Media for Publicity, and noted that, “The Vancouver Opera invited three bloggers to come and live blog and Twitter a performance of their latest Opera, Carmen. The show was a sell-out.”

2. Niche Social Networks
In his Mashable post, How Broadway Talks to its Audiences Using Social Media, Ken Davenport recommends creating niche social networks for fans like the social network, 80s Rock Fans created for the musical, Rock of Ages.

He also suggests that theaters do outreach in niche social networks that already exist: “Promoters of the play Billy Elliot can find groups of ballet lovers on a site like intermission.ning.com, while Next To Normal might look into DoctorsHangout.com to appeal to psychiatrists and psychologists who would find the subject matter compelling.”

3. Podcasts and Video
Jon Stancato of The Stolen Chair Theatre Company writes in his post on the Jenzabar Foundation blog that, “Stolen Chair participates in at least 3 podcasts a year (often through NYtheatrecast), giving supporters the opportunity to hear the voices of our creative team, often in dialogue with other New York theatre artists.”  The company also creates trailers to build excitement for new productions.

4. Collaborative Content Creation
The LA Times’ Culture Monster blog post, Theaters are taking social networking to a new level, reported in June about the La Jolla Playhouse’s Your Life, Our Stage initiative that invited people to, “submit ideas for a play based on their own lives by uploading videos, photos, artwork and written descriptions via the social networking vendor Brickfish.”

5. iPhone Applications
Finally, in its April post, Broadway in Chicago courts theatergoers with iPhone app, The Chicago Times blog, Media and Marketing Mix wrote about the Broadway in Chicago iPhone application that allows users to check performance times, purchase tickets and preview videos of of shows.

What are other examples have you seen of how theatres are using social media?

Image Credit: Broadway in Chicago iPhone application image taken from www.broadwayinchicago.com/iphone.php

1. Advertise shows, exhibitions, and festivals like William Baker did on in his blog post, Mudfire Exhibit.

2. Share photos and reflections from shows like Jen Mecca does in her post, Blowing Rock Photos on her blog, Jen Mecca’s Pottery Blog.

3. Show your creative process like Gary Rith did in his post, John Makes My Day, on his blog, Gary Rith Pottery Blog.  He also posted photos from a day in his studio and a video interview of him in his studio in the blog’s sidebar.

4. Share photos of new work like Vicki Hartman did in her post, More New Work on her blog, These 2 Words, and Steven Colby did in his post, 4 New Mugs on his blog, Steven Colby: Potter.

5. Promote your online store like Matt Grimitt did in his post, More Etsy Pots on his blog, Slipware Pottery.

6 Announce sales like Emily Murphy did in her post, Pottery Clearance Sale on her blog Potter Blog: Emily Murphy.

7. Build community with other potters like Doug Fitch of Devonshire Pottery who recently wrote a post about connecting face-to-face with “My Lovely Blogging Chums,” pottery bloggers Ron Philbeck, Ang, Hannah McAndrew, Andrew Douglas, and Paul Jessop

For more pottery blog inspiration, click through the blog rolls and blog lists in the sidebars of Jen Mecca’s Pottery Blog, Ron Philbeck Pottery’s blog, and Pottery Blog: Emily Murphy.

Image credit: Pottery with Malin by Christian Kjellström

Britt Bravo also blogs for Have Fun * Do Good, BlogHer, and WE Volunteer. She is a Big Vision Consultant.

When we were looking around for folks to add to our blog roll, we found a lot of people who are writing about social entrepreneurship, but not a lot who are writing about cultural entrepreneurship.

We need your help!  Let us know who is blogging about cultural entrepreneurship in the comments.

Below is a quick round-up of the bloggers we’ve found so far:

Creative Economy on Australian Policy Online
A Cultural Policy Blog by Ben Eltham
Social & Cultural Entrepreneur by Lotta Lekvall and Olav Unsgaard
Lab for Culture Blogs on LabforCulture.org
Magna Kultura Foundation blog by Dickie Aguado

In addition to writing about what we know about cultural entrepreneurs and cultural enterprises, we also want to shine a light on what you know, so let us know who we should be reading.

Image credit: Screenshot of Social & Cultural Entrepreneur by Lotta Lekvall and Olav Unsgaard