October, 2011
A sea change in arts policy is underway, as evidenced by the NEA’s new focus on “creative place-making” and the shift in cultural planning to a more broad based effort to situate the arts with the “creative industries.” This change in focus has spawned numerous efforts to develop better logic models and measurement systems for assessing the impact of investments in culture, including a number of “creative vitality indexes” under development now. As arts funders and advocates struggle to make connections between arts programs, businesses and the civic agenda, we still suffer for lack of a clearer vision of what a creative community looks like. In his remarks, Alan Brown will offer a potential model for building “creative capital” in cities and communities across the US. Participants will be asked to consider what conditions are optimal for creativity to flourish in a community like Chicago.