The theater, art, music and other creative pursuits are more than passions.
They combine to form a vital economic engine – especially in New England.
That is the message of the New England Council, an alliance of business, academia and other groups that promotes economic development in the region. The group convened more than 70 business, government and artistic leaders from across New England last month in meeting as the newly formed “Creative Economy Council.”
The initiative has been called the first effort of its kind in the country, a board partnership dedicated to spotlighting the role of cultural arts as an economic generator.
“This is the first time that the business community has stepped up and said how important the arts are to the economy,” said James T. Brett, president and chief executive officer of the New England Council. “In years past it’s always been the arts community trying to explain to the business community what it is they do and why it’s important.”
The idea sprouted at the New England Council four years ago, at the urging of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Since then the group mostly has gathered data – compiling two exhaustive reports – and batted ideas back and forth.
But a few firm proposals flowed from the council’s first official meeting in January. Among them: a design initiative, spearheaded by Rhode Island School of Design President Roger Mandle and Massachusetts College of the Arts President Kay Sloan.
Mandle said the council has tabbed the Center for Business + Design – a joint venture between RISD and Bryant College that supports entrepreneurial designers – as a potential model for similar ventures in Boston and Portland, Maine.
“We’re interested in helping to nurture and expand the design business in New England,” Mandle said.
The Creative Economy Council’s efforts could build on what is seen as one of Rhode Island’s strong points. Unlike traditional sectors like manufacturing and financial services – where Rhode Island long has languished in the shadows of neighboring states – many here see arts and culture as the Ocean State’s baby.
“Growth of the arts in Rhode Island is faster and more dynamic than it is in other states in the New England region,” said Randall Rosenbaum, executive director of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, who is a member of the Creative Economy Council.
And there are numbers to prove it.
A study by the New England Council in 2000 attempted to quantify the contribution of cultural arts to the economy by tallying statistics from the region’s “creative cluster:” a diverse mix of industries composed of graphic designers, artists, architects, actors, writers, filmmakers, broadcast media and other professions.
• Creative jobs account for 3.5 percent of New England’s employment, and 4.5 percent of all Rhode Island jobs.
• The total payroll for the creative sector is $4.3 billion in New England, $276.6 million in Rhode Island
• There are nearly as many jobs in Rhode Island’s “creative cluster” (21,247) as there are in its financial-services industry (23,295).
Under the new design initiative, outlined at the council’s inaugural meeting last month, New England’s ample design talent and resources would be used to attract business to the region.
“People tend to forget that everything they wear or drive or eat from or walk in – somebody had to design it,” Mandle said. “There are many, many products that depend on design for added value.”
Indeed, while new art studios and Web design firms are important, organizers say the “creative economy” plays an equally important role: as the lifeblood of new ideas to many sectors.
Tourism businesses market cultural destinations to visitors; furniture and textile manufacturers need people to create new designs; media outlets rely on creative minds for fresh, compelling content.
Mandle said the group plans to form a committee of regional governors and economic-development officers to explore ways that New England can best leverage its design resources.
Rosenbaum added that the Creative Economy Council’s goals fit well with a few other Rhode Island nonprofit groups focused on enhancing artistic and cultural sectors, including the Economic Policy Council and the Providence Foundation.
Christopher “Kip” Bergstrom, executive director of the Economic Policy Council, has in the past espoused the views of Carnegie Mellon University Professor Richard Florida, who wrote the book “The Rise of the Creative Class,” released last year.
In the book, Florida describes the “creative class” as drawing the spheres of innovation (technological creativity), business (economic creativity) and culture (artistic and cultural creativity) into one another, in more intimate and powerful combinations than ever.”
“Rhode Island has two of the three pieces in place,” reads an EPC grant proposal last year to the Rhode Island Foundation. “We have the inventors …we have the artists. What we lack is sufficient entrepreneurial talent to bring these other two creative sectors together in new combinations that will grow our economy.”
Combining those two elements is the goal of the Creative Economy Council.
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