http://clevelandcause.tribe.net/thread/dcb4e277-93ac-4566-b19a-8619ddc5e15b?format=rss Tribe.net. Local Connections http://ClevelandCAUSE.tribe.net/thread/dcb4e277-93ac-4566-b19a-8619ddc5e15b#a745154c-c8f6-4636-a3e0-d4215004ee19 Why have a creative class: In Cleveland there is a strong push to increase public funding for the arts - most significantly as part of funds being raised by bonds or taxes to support a convention center. The organization leading the public awareness campaign is the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture - CPAC - and they are very active. The reason they state for their activity is economic: ---------------------- "Why Consider Public Funding for Arts & Culture? A strong arts and cultural sector provides jobs and strengthens our region's economy. Arts and culture transform neighborhoods and add value to our communities. And arts and culture strengthen our students and schools. Historically, Cuyahoga County has enjoyed one of the highest concentrations of arts and cultural institutions in the nation. These world-renowned assets are now at risk. The area has failed to protect them with reasonable public support even though some of the corporations and families who built them are gone. And competing metropolitan areas provide public support - including Columbus, Pittsburgh, Dayton, Cincinnati and Indianapolis. Without reasonable public funding we will lose one of our most significant competitive advantages as a region. " --------------- Visit CPAC's wensite to learn more about this issue, and see the events listings for the next Cultural Roundtable, Jan 29. Feel free to comment on this issue. CPAC website: http://www.supportartsandculture.com/index.html Weekly Cultural Roundtables scheduled at http://www.supportartsandculture.com/upcomingevents/ Subscribe to their updates by registering at http://www.supportartsandculture.com/action.html Tue, 27 Jan 2004 23:28:21 GMT http://ClevelandCAUSE.tribe.net/thread/dcb4e277-93ac-4566-b19a-8619ddc5e15b#a745154c-c8f6-4636-a3e0-d4215004ee19 Norm 2004-01-27T23:28:21Z http://ClevelandCAUSE.tribe.net/thread/dcb4e277-93ac-4566-b19a-8619ddc5e15b#de67d3c3-9374-4ba1-a7ac-7485a609db23 From CoolCleveland - more on the man behind CPAC Issue 31 leader Managing the campaign for Issue 31, the arts and economic-development levy planned for Cuyahoga County on the March 2nd ballot, is Chris Carmody, President of Cleveland's film commission. He'll be on paid leave from his job to serve unpaid campaign duty. "I feel very passionate about this issue," he stated, "it's a different approach to economic development." His challenge will be directing strategies to persuade voters to pass the property tax increase, which would raise $21 million per year for five years. See the PD here: http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1074854063256802.xml?eaall Wed, 28 Jan 2004 08:56:19 GMT http://ClevelandCAUSE.tribe.net/thread/dcb4e277-93ac-4566-b19a-8619ddc5e15b#de67d3c3-9374-4ba1-a7ac-7485a609db23 Norm 2004-01-28T08:56:19Z http://ClevelandCAUSE.tribe.net/thread/dcb4e277-93ac-4566-b19a-8619ddc5e15b#b1185135-9a36-4b79-8b58-67fcf3ba6507 Contact information for CPAC Director: Call Chris Carmody at 216-931-3130 Or send a note to CCarmodyIssue31@aol.com $20 million a year in economic development funding could be at stake. Wed, 28 Jan 2004 09:04:17 GMT http://ClevelandCAUSE.tribe.net/thread/dcb4e277-93ac-4566-b19a-8619ddc5e15b#b1185135-9a36-4b79-8b58-67fcf3ba6507 Norm 2004-01-28T09:04:17Z http://ClevelandCAUSE.tribe.net/thread/dcb4e277-93ac-4566-b19a-8619ddc5e15b#174ddbf7-14ef-473f-a920-0a4a4516ce1f CoolCleveland abstracts the following report of related interest: Investing in Creativity The new Urban Institute report on the arts in the USA contains information from the Investing in Creativity study, a national research initiative about the various factors enabling artists to pursue creative careers with artist support programs, policy initiatives, and characteristics of place. Watch for the upcoming breakout on the individual cities, including Cleveland. See USArtistsReport here: http://www.usartistsreport.org/index.asp Wed, 28 Jan 2004 09:11:57 GMT http://ClevelandCAUSE.tribe.net/thread/dcb4e277-93ac-4566-b19a-8619ddc5e15b#174ddbf7-14ef-473f-a920-0a4a4516ce1f Norm 2004-01-28T09:11:57Z http://ClevelandCAUSE.tribe.net/thread/dcb4e277-93ac-4566-b19a-8619ddc5e15b#4deb3820-6b72-4cd7-92f4-a0651906eff8 Frank Mills wrote an insightful assessment of the whole "Florida Creative Class" movement for Cleveland's Urban Dialect magazine, available on-line at: http://www.urbandialect.net/Culture/Culture.php?article=crclass&author=mills.f Cleveland’s Best New Marketing Scheme Or how the quest to lure the “creative class” to Northeast Ohio is one of our least creative ideas yet An essay by Frank A. Mills company URL is http://www.IdeasMatter.info I am no longer enamored with Richard Florida’s creative class theory. My disillusionment began after a chance discussion at Lucky’s Café in creative-class-trendy Tremont. Each of us present fit Florida’s definition of individuals comprising the creative class — techies, attorneys, university professors and artsy types, male and female, straight and gay. As the conversation wore on, two interrelated topics arose: (1) The lack of raw ideas generated by Cleveland’s creative class, and (2) Cleveland’s grand assortment of creative oddballs. It was at this intersection of ideas that the proverbial light bulb turned on: despite the use of the word “creative,” the creative class is not about creativity at all. Richard Florida defines the term “creative class” as a “growing, highly educated, and well-paid segment of the workforce upon whose efforts corporate profits and economic growth increasingly depend.” (Washington Monthly, May 2002) The creative class, as postulated by Florida in his The Rise of the Creative Class: How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life (2002), is about class structure and the necessity of a creative class for post-industrial economic growth. Florida asserts that between the working and corporate classes lies a quasi-autonomous, heterogeneous creative class. This class is essential for transforming cities into places that can create economic growth and effectively meet the labor needs arising from such growth. At the core of Florida’s argument is the claim that creativity single-handedly motivates economic growth. As Florida sees it, creativity thrives not on monoculture, hierarchy or exclusion, but instead on diversity, flexibility and quasi-autonomy. Florida’s most creative social and cultural milieus, therefore, are cities with high gay, bohemian and immigrant indexes. But a close reading of The Rise of the Creative Class shows that creativity has been reshaped to define an informal cluster of highly specific “knowledge sensitive” occupations (not individuals), including financial, legal and management services and the healthcare professions. The “super-creative core” of this class, according to Florida, includes those in science, engineering, architecture, mathematics and art — all highly educated fields. The term “knowledge sensitive” hints at the way Florida understands creativity. For Florida, the creative class is synonymous with the ability to manage and manipulate information. Indeed, these are useful skills, but should not to be confused with creativity. Read on at http://www.urbandialect.net/Culture/Culture.php?article=crclass&author=mills.f Tue, 10 Feb 2004 21:47:14 GMT http://ClevelandCAUSE.tribe.net/thread/dcb4e277-93ac-4566-b19a-8619ddc5e15b#4deb3820-6b72-4cd7-92f4-a0651906eff8 Norm 2004-02-10T21:47:14Z http://ClevelandCAUSE.tribe.net/thread/dcb4e277-93ac-4566-b19a-8619ddc5e15b#3c91ec2c-2bca-45eb-bb6e-60e024175ca9 It is probably worthwhile to look at a historical context here. Most believe that the Renissance started in Florence, Italy, in the 1400s. The vast art and architecture that literally pushed the bounds of what was acceptable in society (at that time), was really sponsored by a few very wealthy families. The patrons privately pushed art as a means to compete for glory, amongst each other. It was NOT funded by government taxation, special levies, or other redistribution schemes. To me, this confluence of events culminated with the completion of the dome on the church (at angles that were unheard of). The leading patron invited dignitaries from throughout Europe, Northern Africa, and Persia, to see this marvel of engineering -- along with the decades of art available nearly everywhere in Florence. All eyes were truly on Florence, which sparked, at least European, if not global creativity in Architecture and Art... Now, considering Cleveland, redistribution schemes (even for the nobel cause of art) would seem to drive away the potential capitalists and entrepreneurs who power the economy. I would also point to Peter Lewis' patronage in creating an engineering marvel at Weatherhead. Truly amazing and inspiring. After all, there are no straight lines in that building. What is more amazing -- I heard and saw designs for an incredible sky scraper. Indeed, "sky scraper" does not even capture what the building would be... a sort of 50-75 story monument with open pass through areas, etc... It's location was supposed to be built right over top of Route 2, in downtown. Lewis was going to move Progressive Insurance's HQ from Mayfield Hts (a suburb) to downtown in this Art Deco monument like sky scraper. As the story goes (perhaps this is an urban myth), the then mayor (White) and other Cleveland leaders through it was too out of bounds to either permit using the airspace over the highway or to even issue a permit to build such a building. This to me -- seems like a great loss. It would be as if the government of Florence would have prevented the dome from being built over the open air church in its city center -- the dome that many tourists go and see, nearly 600 years later. This would seem to be a root problem. Tue, 17 Feb 2004 00:37:50 GMT http://ClevelandCAUSE.tribe.net/thread/dcb4e277-93ac-4566-b19a-8619ddc5e15b#3c91ec2c-2bca-45eb-bb6e-60e024175ca9 Jason 2004-02-17T00:37:50Z