Saturday, October 6, 2007

I can't act ... am I out?

So does creativity equal traditional arts? To be among the creative class must we be visual artists, writers, actors and musicians? Heck no. The creative class is a big ol’ umbrella encompassing many professions. In fact, one could argue, that virtually every profession could find room under the creative class definition. From intellectual property attorneys, publishing houses focusing on independent products, advertising agencies exploring non-traditional media to new cuisine chefs and real estate developers creating co-op work places, etc., etc., etc. The list goes on infinitely.

But, because we all generally start with thoughts of traditional arts when talking about creativity, let’s agree that that alone is a valid source of economic development. Florida’s arts and cultural industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the state. Its annual statewide economic impact has grown from $1.7 billion in 1997 to over $2.9 billion and now supports over 28,000 full-time equivalent jobs.

Want more? Oh yeah you do. The link below will take you to local reports for Jacksonville, Orlando, Palm Beach and Tampa.

http://www.florida-arts.org/resources/economicimpactofthearts.htm

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I wonder if a broader name for the village would be more understood and accepting...something like Cultural Village -