Creative Entrepreneurship and Education in Cultural Life

The goal of the conference was to provide participants with a better understanding of the latest developments in creative entrepreneurship theory and practice, and to provide new insights and understandings about creative entrepreneurship pedagogy. Overall, the conference sought to discuss creative enterprise and innovation, to define the arts/cultural/creative entrepreneurship field, and to more clearly understand who players in the field are in both the cultural industries and in the academy, nationally and internationally.

Additionally, the event sought to involve educators and practitioners in discussing new approaches to teaching and designing programs for university students and start-up creative entrepreneurs.

A key issue raised during the conference was the challenge of balancing creativity, financial profitability, and social need. This question generated much discussion and several compelling presentations. Tom Aageson (Museum of New Mexico Foundation, USA) shared important statistics with the group and made clear that art produces commerce and depends on commerce. Arts enterprise has great impact on the economy in the United States, with total expenditures, just from the non-profit side, of $134 billion with over 4.85 million full time jobs generated by this sector. Aageson offered his definition of the arts/cultural entrepreneur and cultural enterprise: cultural entrepreneur creates a vision for a cultural enterprise that bridges a market need with cultural traditions, culturalexperiences and cultural innovations, enhancing the livelihoods of cultural creators and workers and enriching the consumer and cultural enterprises adopt a business model approach to their activity and utilize cultural capital (creativity, talent, cultural traditions, knowledge and intellectual property) in a strategic fashion. Aageson also made a strong case that creative enterprises need public support: currently the return on investment in tax monies and job creation most often exceeds the investment of public funds.

Mark Lyman (SOFA, USA) contributed to the discussion by showing how American visual arts enterprises are capable of producing high returns on investment and achieving impressive commercial results without losing sight of their artistic mission. Jamie Garcia Alba (Inter- American Development Bank, USA) put the discussion in an international context by presenting the case of Brazilian popular music.

Another important thread of the conference was creative enterprise, cultural expression, and social change. A persuasive presentation around this issue came from Nil imanyazici- Navaie (Arts for Global Development, Inc.; Equals Three Communications, Inc. USA). Again, one of the points in her presentation was that the cultural/creative sector creates jobs, generates tax revenues, and stimulates economies through tourism and consumer purchases. At the same time, the sector shapes numerous aspects of society and has the impact on social/community development, organizational development and personal development. To illustrate the point, imanyazici-Navaie used examples of creative enterprises that help resolve important social issues around the globe. In her presentation, imanyazici-Navaie made the connection between sustainable economic development, creative social entrepreneurship, and communication. She defined creative social enterprises as organizations that utilize arts to further their missions in development and maintain their financial stability. She emphasized the cutting edge, innovative nature of creative social enterprise as social force driven by radical thinkers who have vision and see opportunities where others do not. Finally, she described entrepreneurial outcomes including direct promotion of artistic goods and services to generate income and indirect consequences, which integrate social content, the development of values, and capacity building. The participants shared imanyazici- Navaies concern that much needs to be done to promote creative entrepreneurship as a legitimate career choice for young people. She reminded the attendees that approximately 1.2 billion young people will enter the global labor pool in the next ten years a labor pool that is estimated to offer only 300 million jobs. This underscores the need for and the importance of creative entrepreneurship education.

Early on, Sian Prime (Goldsmiths, UK) shared a quote from Lord Putnam. Creativity gets diminished following old business models, old ways of earning a living. Are there new ways? Much of the conference sought to address this question and identify new ways of supporting and nurturing creativity in students and young professionals. There were a number of sessions dedicated to creative entrepreneurship education. Workshops run by Sean Prime and Gerald Lidstone, Gokce Dervisoglu, Paul Guise and Goran Pekovic, Jim Hart and Brendan McCall, Marian Donnelly and Anna Grega, and Angela Beeching were received with great interest. Everyone agreed that creative entrepreneurship education presents new opportunities for arts schools and universities and is necessary for rising a new generation of art professionals who strive to fulfill their creative potential in todays marketplace. At the same time, the question how do we inspire artists to expand their view of success to include entrepreneurial career options presents an on-going challenge for those teaching the subject.

Educational sessions were followed by the sessions on the need for research in creative entrepreneurship. Mark Evans (Coventry University, UK) shared the findings of his research of entrepreneurship education in the UK theatre sector. Questions raised in his presentation may present avenues for continuous research: What is the dominant model for entrepreneurship education? Should we borrow from a business school or develop an original model? What are the best pedagogy for teaching management of creative enterprise and entrepreneurship? What teaching models should we employ: traditional or experiential?

Lisa Kellys (University of Glasgow, UK) presentation How programmes such as The Apprentice work to normalise and encourage entrepreneurial activity in society expertly linked creative entrepreneurship with media and communication, and suggested that it is possible to learn strategies for business success from reality television shows.

Finally, during the session Cultural Policy and Creative Entrepreneurship. A Comparative Perspective Philippe Ravanas, Ekaterina Shekova (St. Petersburg State University, Russia), Levan Khetaguri, Maria Nairmark, and J. Dennis Rich (Columbia College Chicago, USA) discussed the relationship of policy to entrepreneurial effort. Additionally, Fabrice Thuriot presented a paper in which he explored the implications of cultural policy on the relationship between the government and cultural institutions in France. These sessions revealed that the cultural policy situation of various nations affects entrepreneurial possibilities and that this too is an area that needs further exploration and research.

Initial feedback from participants and event evaluations suggest that the conference was successful in achieving its goals. Overall, the response to the entire event was highly positive. Everyone enjoyed the opportunity of meeting and sharing ideas, networking and learning from each others experience. The diversity of experiences and cultural backgrounds has added great value to the event. The conference organizers hope that one consequence of the event will be new collaborations and cooperation opportunities. A few initiatives have already emerged. Some participants have been negotiating plans for exchange lectures and seminars, while others working on launching new training and consulting ventures. The conference organizers have been exploring the possibilities of holding international educational events annually or bi- annually. A facebook group has been created as a result of the conference

Some powerful momentum was started during the 3-4 days that were in Chicago, and I am interested in finding strategies that could keep this going. Now that we have found other 'allies' that understand and support the linking of arts & entrepreneurship, where do we go from here? How can we support the endeavors of each other, and provide a firmer network? What are tangible means that we can develop our dialogue, and to implement some of our ideas into action.

The presence of a facebook group and the comment above point toward the high level of interest about creative entrepreneurship and strongly suggests the importance of continuing collaboration.

Drawing upon the experience of the conference, it would appear that there are three distinct target groups for future efforts:

(http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=1051 91899799). One participant wrote:

Faculty members in university or academy settings and independent consultants

Professionals who already have experience in managing creative enterprises

Students and start-up arts entrepreneurs

The conference showed that a number of issues represent opportunities for further exploration. These need to be addressed in greater detail in the future:

Creative enterprise/entrepreneurship education within a variety of economic and cultural policy frameworks

Creative entrepreneurship and sustainable development

Teaching and learning resources in creative entrepreneurship

Creative entrepreneurship research

Management of creative enterprise

The presentations mentioned in this report are examples of the challenging ideas that were presented at the conference. At the end of three days of stimulating discussion, many questions remain open. At the same time, there is a strong awareness among participants from all nations that there is a need to better understand creative enterprise and to offer curricula that challenge students to think about the creation of value in their professional lives.

You can find the conference materials and further information at: