WASHINGTON, DC-Mayor Adrian Fenty launched a summit September 5 at the Shakespeare Company's Lansburgh Theatre on 7th Street, NW, to launch the "creative economy" initiative. This meeting begins six to seven months of comprehensive research before the city determines several initiatives in which to invest.
According to Deputy Mayor Neil Albert, the city government doesn't have a range of investment amounts in mind, but will research 10 neighborhoods and then determine projects and corresponding investments based on the research results. The research is going to be led by the Office of Planning.
When asked about the city's initiatives in arts, Tony Gittens, Executive Director of the D.C. Commission of the Arts and Humanities, said that the city was going to initiate between seven to 10 projects. The range of these projects is not yet clear. However, strengthening arts education in public schools will definitely be one of the focuses.
Washington has strong creative assets. Carol Coletta, President and CEO of CEOs for Cities, said that there were 180,000 creative workers in Washington metro area. Washington ranks first in the nation in the number of reporters, public relations specialists, writers and editors. It ranks second in the nation on the number of jobs in arts, design, entertainment, sports and media. She also offered a comprehensive definition of creative industries that Washington could capitalize on: arts, publishing, architecture, advertising & design, performance, and museums.
Learning From Other Cities
Boston launched a similar initiative two years ago. Carol Walton, Manager for the Create Boston program at the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) shared at the summit that Boston picked six industries to start: film, music, media, design, visual arts, and performing arts. In the past two years, the city has attracted a talent base and developed a local game industry. The Boston Globe recently commented that the city was well-positioned to become a regional game industry center.
Stacey Mickelson, Director of Government Relations of Artspace Projects, Inc., a nonprofit created by Minneapolis, attended the panel discussions as well. His project is to transfer heavily polluted factories, which private development companies don't want, into living space for artists. He said that the government didn't judge the qualification of artists for assisted living space based on the quality of their work, but based on artists' passion for the arts and their enthusiasm for engaging the local communities.
Natural Strategic Partners for Big Cities
"Creative workers prefer not only cities; they prefer close-in neighborhoods in most metro areas. When I say close-in neighborhoods, I mean neighborhoods within three miles radius of the central business district. In the top 50 metro areas, creative workers are 53% more likely than other Americans to live in close-in neighborhoods," said Carol Coletta.
She offered that there were 2.2 million creative workers in the U.S. in 2004. By comparison, the number of employees in manufacturing computer and electronics is 1.3 million and in transportation equipments is 1.8 million. The trend in the U.S. workforce towards creative industries is something many city governments haven't understood or utilized in their public policies.
Professor Richard Lester of MIT says that the necessary conditions creative workers require are smart people, tolerance for risks, a supportive market and places to share ideas.
An error occurred on the server when processing the URL. Please contact the system administrator.