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Creative Class
Do you feel connected to the core of the creative class? Are you benefiting as a driver of the creative economy?
It’s election season, and I’ve caught the polling bug. Lately, I’ve been asking artists those two questions.
I asked them at the start of a workshop (“Artists Respond to the Creative Economy”) that I led for the Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA). About a quarter of the arts leaders gave a resounding, “yes!” About a quarter replied, “no.” About half offered a sheepish “sort of.”
The arts have become a litmus test for the “cool” quotient of any city. Cleary, public leaders want the arts. But do they want artists?
In fact, cities as large as New York and as small as Paducah, Kentucky, are demonstrating their commitment to retaining or attracting artists with targeted policies and initiatives.
But what do the rest of us do, who can’t move to Paducah?
Let’s try using a different language for working with our city mothers and fathers. Let’s retire the language of support. It smacks of frailty and special interest handouts.
Instead, let’s try the language of incentive packages.
That’s the language of local governments. That’s the way they woo corporations.
If local governments want to encourage a healthy cultural environment, then it makes sense for them to deploy the same strategy they use to encourage a healthy tax base: the incentive package.
What kinds of incentives can cities and towns readily leverage? Here are the top ideas generated by the TCA workshop:
- subsidized live/work space and other real estate incentives
- art-friendly zoning
- low-cost mortgages
- sales tax breaks
- arts incubator
- professional development (eg, a Small Business Development Program for the creative industries)
- arts and culture website
- subsidized health insurance
For more of my thoughts on artists, cities, and the creative economy, you can listen to these recent interviews:
“At 10” (WUMW Milwaukee)
Best,
Ann
October 2006