Written by J’net Smith

Get sound business advice before sound legal advice.  

This one is a little tricky. Licensing artists definitely need a good Intellectual Property lawyer—that’s an Intellectual Property lawyer. But there are definitely ways of keeping expenses in check. For example, making sure you understand your business first, before you get the lawyer involved, is one great way to keep your costs down.

Every person who hires a lawyer is looking for legal advice, but few lawyers will provide business advice. First learn the business of Art Licensing through classes, coaching, blogs, articles, and by researching online. Everything you learn about the Art Licensing business is going to save you time and money in the long run.

Educating yourself about standard terms, royalties, advances, agreements, art development, approvals, product design, manufacturers, line development, production processes and retail distribution will be invaluable when it comes to creating contracts. This is because, while the lawyer can create the contract, they don’t know what business decisions are right for you (the licensor) and your business partner (the licensee).

Let me repeat that: your lawyer can create a contract, but they can’t possibly know what business decisions are right for you and the manufacturer. And every contract has a significant part of it which requires art licensing business decisions, such as the royalty rate, advance, grant of rights, territory, length of the agreement, to name a few. These are the ‘terms’ that the licensor and licensee must ‘plug’ into the contract, and they should not (generally) be recommended by your lawyer.

So back to Rule #1 of our ’20 Rules for Starting Your Art Licensing Business’—learn as much as you can about the Art Licensing business, and I recommend getting advice from licensing experts, as well as colleagues, manufacturers and fellow artists who have experience in the business. But don’t expect a lawyer to give you advice on the business terms for your contract.

About Jeanette Smith

Jeanette Smith is the consummate art licensing coach. In just six short years, J’net turned Dilbert™ from a relatively unknown syndication-based comic strip into a 200 million dollar a year global brand. Then in 2000, J’net translated and expanded on her extensive experience to train, advise and license all types of creators. She has helped hundreds of artists, graphic designers, painters, photographers, authors, illustrators, design firms, fine artists, creative companies, non-profits and agents to maximize the power of their brands and talents.

From her early days in New York building new divisions for such corporate giants as Official Airline Guides, MacMillan Publishing, Paramount Communications, and VIACOM International, to her six years of work at United Media spearheading the astronomical growth of Dilbert, Jeanette has compiled a long list of satisfied clients and has gained an enormous amount of respect and experience in marketing, licensing, advertising, PR, agenting, negotiating, and much more.

This article appeared in the Economist

Business schools need to produce leaders for the many, not the few, says Ken Starkey, a professor at Nottingham University Business School

Everyone has a boss. Who is yours?

Or are you part of the growing occupy movement having lost your full time job only to now be working 3 part-time low paying one’s instead? Lucky you. Now you have 3 of them.

Trust me. I feel your pain. My husband lost his high paying corporate job too and now he’s suffering from age discrimination in the workforce. Overqualified and 50 something.  They say 1/2 the price (or less) will do followed by ‘No Thank You.’ now.

So who’s your boss?

If you are an entrepreneur your boss is either your banker or investor if you have one. Your investor could also be a board of directors, the president of your company who is investing in you by giving you a job, or your trust fund manager who holds the keys to your pot of gold and the list of restrictions on how you can use it. (Remember how your parents said they wanted to leave their legacy with you?)

And if you’re independently able (no matter how big or how small)  the weight of realizing YOU are able to EXPRESS WHO YOU REALLY ARE becomes your higher authority.  If you’re independently able, where you spend your money and what you invest in is a complete reflection to the outside world of you.

The most frustrating thing about being independently able is when you are not able enough on your own to accomplish everything you know you need in this life to do. I fall into that category.  I can’t realize my highest purpose/my best use without finding a boss who truly cares about the creative industries and recognizes our power and potency as catalysts for change. Can you help me find one? I need a boss.

Seeking Creative Visionary Leader

Overview: In search of an individual with the resources and understanding that the creative industries require investment for training and the systematization of that training  to create loads of brand new economic opportunities.

Job Description: To facilitate the development and understanding of the value of creativity and its economic potential.  To develop a highly efficient model that will use the creative industries to train, deepen and bring humanity together to spark new ideas, develop better working relationships and ignite transformation and change across sectors.

Who is my boss? Do you know him or her?

I am looking for this individual. A BIG leader who will passionately stand up for envisioning a world filled with more creativity. And to do that we need transmittable entrepreneurial creativity training around the world.  Yes, Creativity Training for all! Yes We Can!

Ladies and Gentleman I don’t care who has said it, or how many countless times it has been promised and delayed or rain checked or even, you might believe, cancelled. YES WE CAN become WHOEVER we SAY we CAN Become. As an individual. As a people. And as a world. We simply need to harness more entrepreneurial creativity to do it to solve our problems and reignite our economic engine so it can roar again. But this time with some socially conscious ethically bound astonishingly efficient creatives with our hands too on the key to start the ignition.

The Resume of Lisa Canning

Qualifications:

1964- Present  Lisa Canning is a creative entrepreneurial thinker.  She is flexible, determined and a super hard worker. She is a little engine that can. Armed with creative leadership skills, she is an excellent win-win-win kind of collaborator.

What do the creative industries need most to economically flourish?

We need to be the core of a new kind of creative economic ecosystem. One that supports the spreading of our creative wealth to help ourselves and others achieve economic growth and develop a culture of innovation and creativity.

My ultimate goal with the IAE is to develop a creative entrepreneurial ecosystem that spans several different countries and U.S. cities.

The IAE wants to try and produce the human butterfly effect. We think the climate is just about right to turn on a few high powered table top fans and let some creative leadership begin to blow into a few ripe hot spots around the world. If butterflies are powerful enough to change wind patterns, which science has proven, then its time to try fueling our economy utilizing the strengths of hard core creatives. We want to study our students, and the ecosystem we build, to see what we can learn and what results we can measure from the work we do too.

What if a “bunch of little engines that could”  REALLY COULD restart the engine of our world economy?

And to really accomplish it, what do we need to do?

Creatives need training first. 9 months of it will do. Creatives need to learn how to think. How to act. How to transmit and speak.  And how to train their elephant too. Once they have done that, they need opportunities to be infused like STE[A]M into EVERYTHING we make and do… systematically.  A bit like the industrial age actually. Part of the development of creativity requires repetition which can be delivered to STEM folks efficiently. ETA is working on developing a system in fact right now to embed creatives into corporations, and help government leaders too. But first things first. We have to start with more trained creatives to stoke the winds of change.

I am super excited to read Victor Hwang and Greg Horowitt’s new book that will be released soon. It is #1 on Amazon’s Hot New Release for “New Business Enterprises”.  I met Greg, for the first time, last spring in Washington at a PNB-NAPEO meeting at the Aspen Institute in DC.

What makes places like Silicon Valley tick?  Can we replicate that magic in other places?

Discover the answers in this groundbreaking book from two of the world’s leading experts at the intersection of venture capital and global development. Victor W. Hwang and Greg Horowitt propose a radical new theory to explain the nature of innovation ecosystems: human networks that generate extraordinary creativity and output. They argue that free market thinking fails to consider the impact of human nature on the innovation process. This ambitious work challenges the basic assumptions that economists have held for over a century.

The authors argue that such ecosystems – what they call Rainforests – can only thrive when certain cultural behaviors unlock human potential. Their theory of the Rainforest is influenced by several breakthrough ideas in academia, including insights on sociobiology from Harvard, economic transactions from the University of Chicago, and design theory from Stanford.

With an unorthodox and entertaining narrative, the book reveals the mysterious mechanisms of Rainforests. Furthermore, the authors provide practical tools for readers to design, build, and sustain new innovation ecosystems. The Rainforest will transform the way you think about technology, business, and leadership.

The Rainforest is being released on February 21st, 2012.

About the Authors
Victor W. Hwang is a venture capitalist and entrepreneur living in Silicon Valley. He is co-founder and Managing Director of T2 Venture Capital, a firm that grows startups, invests capital, and assists the development of innovation economies worldwide. T2VC’s clients have included dozens of investors, governments, and corporations, including the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and Cisco, among many others.
Victor has spent his career at the intersection of private venture and public policy. He has founded or been involved in the original team of numerous startup companies. He is the former President of Larta Institute, which mentors hundreds of startups companies for federal agencies, such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. He practiced law as a corporate attorney on transactions ranging from angel and venture investments to multi-billion dollar corporate mergers and public offerings.

Greg Horowitt is a serial entrepreneur, lecturer, and advisor to governments and economic development organizations around the world including the U.S. State Department, Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), and Aspen Institute. In addition, he is co-founder of Global CONNECT, a think tank based at the University of California, San Diego, which focuses on the development and growth of innovation economies.

Under his leadership, Global CONNECT has grown to encompass one of the world’s largest networks of innovation hubs: more than 40 programs in 20 countries. He was formerly the interim Managing Director of CONNECT, an organization which is generally credited with San Diego’s success as a technology leader. He is also a lecturer and advisor to UC San Diego’s Rady MBA Ventures Program.

Written by Jeffrey Nytch, DMA
Director, Entrepreneurship Center for Music
University of Colorado – Boulder
www.jeffreynytch.com

University of Colorado Theory Instructor Philip Chang sent me the above image, and I thought it would make a good topic for this week’s entrepreneurial thought. It’s also a great corollary to last week’s discussion of the role of failure in achieving success (entrepreneurial or otherwise).

I’ve noticed that folks often think the road to success is a straight line. And by “folks” I mean humans in general, and artists in particular. And there are two problems with this. One is that the “straight line” view implies a single acceptable destination, when time and again we see careers that unfold in unexpected ways – ways that turn out to be far better than the original goal would have ever been. The second problem with the “straight line” approach is that it hardly ever works this way. Both our reading of history and the popular media reinforce this idea that the “greats” see greatness in their future, go for it, and perhaps after a period of struggle or hard work success shines its face on them and from there on out they’re on Easy Street.

This is a fiction. There might be individual cases where this is the way things unfolded, but they are the exception, not the rule. Far more often we travel a twisty path of apparent defeats and hollow victories before we finally figure out what we want to be about. And that’s okay: our path helps shape us, helps us develop our skills (can sometimes force us to develop new ones), and enriches our personal and professional lives in ways we can’t possibly foresee. Those experiences make us better.

What does this have to do with entrepreneurship? Well, folks who have made a life out of starting entrepreneurial ventures – so called “serial entrepreneurs” – all say the same thing: things never turn out as you expect them to, and that’s a good thing. Successful entrepreneurs have learned that obstacles and “failures” are often the most valuable learning experiences of them all, teaching critical lessons they would not have learned any other way. They learn to celebrate the twists and turns of the path, for those are often the points at which breakthroughs and innovations emerge that would have been missed otherwise. The same is true for student artists, whether they be pursuing a career in performance, education, scholarship, arts business, or something else altogether: it’s in the curvy paths of our life that the most powerful skills are developed. Celebrate those twists and turns – and see where they lead you!

At the IAE we are developing a methodology to create a new kind of leader- the creative kind.

I have been working with my colleagues at the University of Illinois to perfect our model. While our students come with creativity infused in everything they do already, they largely lack the transmittable skills to deepen its impact across sectors to help revive our broken world. Here is the latest version of what we call our Learning Cloud. Our Learning Cloud model was presented for the first time at the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship in New Orleans this past January.

This article was written by Liz Dwyer and appeared on Good Education.

Do you see yourself as a creative person? Our current standardized approach to teaching and learning tends to slot students students into silos—art-school types on one side and analytical thinkers on the fast track to law school on the other—so our society has a pretty limited understanding of what being creative actually means and what it looks like across disciplines. Creativity expert Michael Michalko, author of Creative Thinkering: Putting Your Imagination to Work has developed a list of 12 things most people aren’t taught in school—but should be—about creativity.

Michalko writes on his blog at Psychology Today that the most important thing students should be taught is that everyone “is born a creative, spontaneous thinker.” If students are told they’re creative, they become creative, and start working to acquire the skills needed to express that creative identity. Conversely, students who accept that they’re not creative develop mental blocks that keep them “from trying or attempting anything new.”

Michalko says students must also learn that “all creative geniuses work passionately hard and produce incredible numbers of ideas, most of which are bad.” For example, Thomas Edison came up with 3,000 ideas for lighting systems that didn’t work, and of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, some “were no better than his contemporaries could have written, and some were simply bad.”

Perhaps the most important entry on Michalko’s list is his last point, that “creativity is paradoxical.” Schools are places where students are supposed to acquire knowledge—but to create, a person must “forget the knowledge.” If you’re not able to leave what you think you know behind, you can’t approach problems with a fresh perspective. Students must also be taught to “desire success but embrace failure,” and to “listen to experts but know how to disregard them.”

Of course, savvy teachers and schools are already discarding the one-size-fits-all, siloed model of teaching and learning. And, they already know that it’s not enough for schools to simply add on a “creativity hour”; it must be infused into all aspects of our education system. Let’s hope more schools get on board with this paradigm shift so that an entire generation of students doesn’t grow up living their lives according to outdated 20th-century myths about creativity.

Written by Yvonne Fischer

Have you ever heard of social capital markets? These markets are responsible for influencing people and public policy. In addition, these capital markets are quickly becoming part of the social innovation movement, which has led to much progress through the development of new programs that benefit all involved and improve society.

The result of many parties (particularly private and public investors, philanthropists, non-profit leaders, entrepreneurs and local and national government agencies) investing in social capital markets is what is known as the impact economy. In short, it is the economic Petri dish where impact investing and proper economic conditions lead to economic growth and job creation.

Although the social capital marketplace used to be monopolized by private entrepreneurs and philanthropists, that trend is shifting as the economic need for more government and public sector involvement increases. According to the resource Public Administration, officials in said field in countries like the U.S. are now increasingly presented with the unique opportunity to influence public policy that will directly affect the social capital marketplace and America’s growing impact economy.

Public administrators have an opportunity to affect change in these markets in three ways:

1. Development of and participation in social impact markets;
2. Through creative public policy that affects how the markets are run and regulated;
3. Working in federal positions and creating innovation in the government.

Due to the need for more jobs in America, President Obama, philanthropists, government offices and public organizations have been attempting to foster growth of the impact economy. Recent additions of investment into the social capital market have included the Social Innovation Fund, the Department of Education’s Investing in Education Fund, and other fundraising and philanthropic endeavors from the private and non-profit sectors.

These movements within the public sector, the private sector, and beyond have all fostered tremendous potential for growth of the impact economy in America. However, there is often a need for those working within government to come up with new ideas and innovations. Too frequently are the same mistakes are repeated in government. Tradition trend to be the norm for various reasons, and this includes both at a local and national government level.

When change is difficult or politically uncomfortable, it can be especially intimidating for that change to take place. However, because of the economic climate currently, the federal and state governments will need creative and innovative people to lead, inspire, and continue to push the boundaries and limitations of tradition. Additionally these professionals will need to be on the cutting edge of advancement, and to drive the impact economy into the social markets that can offer the best returns.

One illustrative example of why innovation in the impact economy is effective is the Mayor’s Fund from New York City. It not only encourages a mix of the private and public sector, business people and entrepreneurs, but also encourages public participation and fosters positive outcomes for the residents of NYC, and has been shown to make a measurable impact.

It is important for the country and the world that social innovation continues to thrive. It is crucial that people become aware of the impact that the public sector can have, and the difference they can make by investing in social programs and the social capital marketplace. There has never been a better time than now for social progress to occur, and current and future public administrators have a wonderful opportunity to be a part of that growth through their participation in impact markets, their direct relation to public policy making and their influences in their local and national governments.

About Yvonne Fischer
Yvonne is a researcher and writer for the Public Administration team. She believes that the public sector is an untapped silo of creativity and innovation. It is her goal to educate and present to others the diverse impact of today’s socially-conscious public administrators.

It’s time we all took the creative sector more seriously. To do that we need to support and invest in training creatives around the world. And to all you creatives, you need to find a way to get the training you need.

Published Friday 3 February 2012 at 10:17 by Natalie Woolman

The creative industries suffer from an “under-investment in human capital”, have too few training opportunities and unfair access to jobs, according to a new report backed by the government.

The report, written for the Creative Industries Council, co-chaired by culture secretary Jeremy Hunt and business secretary Vince Cable, makes 17 recommendations for improving skills across the sector to drive growth.

It says there is a lack of professional development and training within the industries, which needs to be addressed.

The report states: “In order to maximise the potential of the sector, existing barriers need to be addressed – particularly those associated with skills and talent development, which are vital to maintaining competitive advantage.

“Many of these barriers are a consequence of the distinctive structure of the creative labour market – the sector is characterised by a prevalence of SMEs [small and medium enterprises], micro-businesses, start-ups, freelancers and project-based work.

“This structural feature is responsible for an overall market failure in which there is under-investment in human capital, fewer training opportunities, insufficiently structured career progression and unfair access to jobs and opportunities,” the report adds.

Its recommendations include building an online professional learning network for employers and individuals, establishing a single careers resource for the sector and a campaign to raise the profile of apprenticeships.

Cable said: “The government understands the vital role played by smaller firms, especially in the creative industries. We are committed to providing extra help to enable small employers to hire their first apprentices. We’ll also continue to develop new advanced and higher-level apprenticeships to deliver the world-class skills individuals and firms need to get ahead.”

Our commitment to social justice sometimes bleeds into our want to consume products. Is that okay?

People everywhere are waking up to the new (old) idea of justice and compassion. This is not news to you. Our continued global connectivity has led to a new sort of global awareness that is in some part affecting not only what we do, but how we do it. Need is becoming known (even if it’s not fully understood). People want to get “involved” more and more. Compassion-based organizations are popping up at an accelerated rate. It’s as though it’s officially cool to care. As a friend of mine often says, “Kids don’t start bands anymore, they start 501C3’s.”

While cynics sit in the corner, throwing their over-informed, under-exposed rocks, I find myself standing up and putting my rally cap on. I can’t help but think more people becoming more “involved” is only a good thing, and has the potential to lead to something truly great for the world we serve and for the individuals serving it.

The aspect of this new awareness that’s most interesting to me, however, is the way that Compassion 2.0 is mashing up with Consumerism 1.0. As more and more young people get their not-for-profits off the ground, the more smart, savvy and saturated they are with the power and magnetism of marketing and consumerism.

I believe we are stumbling into a new age of activism. We’ll call it: “Compassionism.” It’s the way we’ve created of doing good while still consuming goods. It’s a brilliant and subtle strategy (whether conscious or otherwise) to get people to do what they want to do, but are for whatever reason not doing. In other words, if you want people to give … give them something. Compassionism in its current form is the absolute encapsulation of the best and worst of globalization.

In this era of compassionism, it’s the organizations that have the best design and the coolest products that draw the most attention and rally the most followers … and have some of the greatest potential to do the most good.

We can see this already through the first physical manifestation of the Age of Compassionism—“aWEARness.” Let’s be honest, compassion has typically lacked a certain sense of fashion. Those late-night commercials with b-list celebrities from the ‘80s just aren’t cool enough to hook you. You have always known that poverty, hunger, slavery and oppression are wrong, but it didn’t catch your sense of coolness or your longing to belong until Brad said it, or Chris wrote it on his hand, or Gap put it on a red hoodie.

We are learning now what they already knew, that the causes with the coolest stuff are the ones “we” will be most interested in. If “I” see that “we” are all wearing this shirt, I will get one, not because I am interested in that cause, but because I am interested in fitting in. Suddenly (quite simultaneously), your acceptance is connected to your awareness and your awareness is connected to your acceptance.

In other words, you buy the shoes to get “in,” then once you’re “in” you are connected to a small group of people who actually care about the cause behind the consumerism. Your exposure to them may in turn lead to greater exposure to whatever cause or issue your product is originally connected to. Because someone gave you something for giving something, you may actually give more down the road.

Sound a little shallow? Maybe. But maybe not. Because at least now people are getting exposure to issues they previously had little to no exposure to or interest in. The cause becomes that much closer than it was before. The cause is now a reminder in your room, on your floor, on your car. The longer it’s around you, the greater potential it has of getting “in” you—aWEARness may eventually lead to awareness, which may in time actually lead to action. If that process does in fact happen, then it would most definitely make that $20 T-shirt worth every penny.

In this age of compassionism, there’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting to belong, to fit in—that’s human nature. There’s nothing inherently wrong with shirts, shoes and bags. There is nothing inherently wrong with good deeds having good design. There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of that … there’s just more.

What if, instead of settling for and perpetuating a culture of aWEARness and compassionism, we raise the stakes a little bit? How can we raise the stakes for what it means to wear one of these shirts, shoes or bags?

What would it look like to have to “earn it” instead of simply buying it? Is there something we can learn from the market principle of scarcity? How can we help the millions of people who own the shirt, shoe or bag begin to own the cause it represents?

I would like to offer a few thoughts and opportunities on how we can help compassion get beyond simply fashion:

• What if we only gave away shirts to people who go to or get involved with wherever or whatever it is the shirt is supposed to represent. Seriously. Have the best designers in the world make a limited run of 100 shirts, or hats, or fanny packs that you get for free when you actually go. Whether it means walking the dusty desolate streets of El Salvador, or feeding displaced families in northern Uganda or volunteering every Saturday night at a suicide prevention center. Turn a $15 shirt into 15 hours or, even better, 15 days and that shirt will mean a whole world of difference more to me.

• To get one of those beautiful bags, pair of earrings or bracelets made by women and children rescued out of human trafficking, you have to actually go and spend a week making them. Go and give that recently rescued sex slave a day off and you make the conflict-free jewelry that day. Go and be with her, hear her story, make her dinner, watch her children for one day. Then you would really have a story! “Merry Christmas, Mom. I worked for four days with former sex slaves to make your necklace. Enjoy!” Priceless.

• Make micro-lending sexy. Make it hip. Something that all the kids are into. Kiva has been killing it here. They’ve raised more money than almost any other “established” nonprofit last year without spending any significant money on traditional marketing, advertising or fund raising. Heifer International is an incredible organization that has been plugging away for years at this. But my hunch is you probably don’t have a Heifer T-shirt. (I’m pretty sure Heifer doesn’t make T-shirts. But if they did, they would be made out of the finest most breathable yak hair available.)

• To get a pair of shoes, ask us to give a pair of our own (at least one pair … and not your crappy old Pumas). Double and triple my return on investment by giving me the opportunity to give more than I get. In so doing, I am becoming more personally invested and connected to the work God is doing on their feet … and in my heart.

These are just a few thoughts on how we can move through our current culture of aWEARness and compassionism. These are not cynical naysayings, but a sincere and heartfelt desire to see my own compassion transcend my consumerism. To join with what God is actually already doing in the world beyond my closet.

About Jarret Stevens
Jarrett Stevens co-pastors Soul.City.Church, a transformational church in Chicago, with his wife Jeanne Stevens. He is the author of The Deity Formerly Known as God as well as the upcoming title, Four Small Words. This article originally appeared in Neue.

Written by Art Licensing Coach J’net Smith

Rule #6

Educate yourself about retail channels.  

It is important to have a clear understanding of the types of licensed products you want your art to appear on, as well as which type of retail channels, and retailers, carry those types of products.

Art licensing doesn’t mean you need to be in Wal-Mart. And while the landscape is always changing, today there are more products featuring licensed art sold in specialty retail channels (Spencer’s Gifts, Hot Topic, etc.), independent retailers (privately owned gift or card stores), and upscale department and chain stores (Bloomingdales, Nordstrom’s, etc.). And less than half of licensed art on products are sold through mass-market channels.

You need to think about where you want your product to ‘live at retail,’ and then plot your strategy for getting there. You, as the licensor (artist), need to make a decision as to where your art fits on products—what type of products, retail price points and retail channels are best for your style of art, and the brand you want to build. And when you make that decision, then you have to stick with it and be determined to make it happen.

There are a lot of manufacturers out there who will get you in department stores, but they also have distribution in drug stores, deep discounters and even ‘dollar’ stores. It’s up to you to ask about a manufacturers’ channel(s) of distribution and to come to an agreement as to where your product will be distributed.

No discussion of retail channels would be complete without the dual acknowledgement that retailers today are being held hostage by the economy, corporate mergers and price-driven consumers, while at the same time acting as the gatekeepers who hold the key to distribution (or not!) for manufacturers. This means retailers are both unusually stressed and powerful at the same time.

Regarding your art licensing business, keep in mind those retailers—whether brick and mortar, catalogs, or online e-tailers—allow or prevent the flow of products to consumers. So, they can help you reach consumers, or they can prevent your licensed products from reaching the consumers’ hands.

Today there are more and more online retailers who can take your art from production all the way to the consumer. But online sales of art licensing products are still miniscule compared to the level sold at brick and mortar retailers.

So, retailers still have the ultimate power. But years from now we may be stating something entirely different here. Understanding who the gatekeeper is—who has the power in an industry—will absolutely affect your marketing plan and how you create and manage your business.

About J’net Smith

Jeanette Smith is the consummate art licensing coach—she is passionate about helping you achieve a level of success beyond imagining and definitely knows how to do it! In just six short years, J’net turned Dilbert™ from a relatively unknown syndication-based comic strip into a 200 million dollar a year global brand. Then in 2000, J’net translated and expanded on her extensive experience to train, advise and license all types of creators. She has helped hundreds of artists, graphic designers, painters, photographers, authors, illustrators, design firms, fine artists, creative companies, non-profits and agents to maximize the power of their brands and talents.

J’net is best described by her combination of specialties—she is one of those very rare people who possess a balanced combination of creative sensibility and extraordinary business acumen. It is this combination that has served J’net over the span of a very impressive career,and has garnered her equally impressive press and testimonials!

From her early days in New York building new divisions for such corporate giants as Official Airline Guides, MacMillan Publishing, Paramount Communications, and VIACOM International, to her six years of work at United Media spearheading the astronomical growth of Dilbert, Jeanette has compiled a long list of satisfied clients and has gained an enormous amount of respect and experience in marketing, licensing, advertising, PR, agenting, negotiating, and much more.

Clint Eastwood was remarkable in the halftime Chrysler Commercial. Wow. So, what’s our strategy, America, for the second half?

Is it going to be about accepting and learning from a new breed of leader?

One who is socially conscious ethically bound creatively fueled and astonishingly- efficient?

The not for-profit-world, and the creative industries especially, are a gold mine for recruiting talent.  All NFP leaders need is some for-profit entrepreneurial training to become REAL CHANGE AGENTS to fortune 1000. And to all you hard core NFP leaders- we need to fight for some funding innovation. Look what happened in Detroit. A big government INVESTMENT came along for our auto industry at the RIGHT TIME (aka now) and  RAPID GROWTH and RECOVERY occurred.

And to all you foundations who don’t know how to deal with us up starts in your space? Not everything has to be old and established to be your next best investment. Get better at taking a few risks.  We all have to.

And more government bailouts are not the answer either. How many gazillions pf dollars is Fortune 1000 sitting on overseas that is not being used productively? What our government needs to do is let some of that money come back home free of charge to fuel growth that emanates from the creative industries.

The creative not-for-profit industries have some remarkable people who with a little investment and a little education, and a ‘herd’ building mentality, could do a lot for our economic recovery while they change the world. It’s time America.

Written by Bruce Nussbaum appeared on Co.DESIGN

Designers are merging their ways of thinking with startup culture. The result, writes Bruce Nussbaum, is greater innovation and astounding VC success rates.

I recently walked into a packed hall of 200 Parsons students for an event called “Start Something–Why Creatives Need to Become Entrepreneurs,” organized by the NYCreative Interns group. Four women entrepreneurs, including Laurel Touby, the founder of Mediabistro, were up front, talking about their experiences of launching their respective businesses. The incredible energy in the room highlighted an emerging trend–the headlong crash of creativity into capitalism to forge a startup model for the future. In this new model, designers drive the force of American entrepreneurialism.

This business model is a cause for true optimism. It’s not the big business capitalism that no longer generates jobs or income or tax revenues. Nor is it the old, slow attempts by design and design thinking to reform big corporations to make their culture more innovative, with limited success. Rather, it’s the capitalism of Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic–the original, early form of entrepreneurial capitalism. It’s the promise of design fusing with startup culture to increase innovation by raising the success rate of venture capital from 10% to as high as 80%. This growing desire among designers to bring their user focus, strategic vision, iterative methodologies, and propositional thinking to the still-geeky, tech/engineering-centric world of startups promises to be transformative and explosive.

The pattern can be broken down into a series of dots. There’s the dot of students at Parsons, RISD, RCA, the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship, and Aalto University, in Helsinki, beginning to embrace the world of startups. (Stanford has been there for a while, thanks to David Kelley.)

There’s a dot of small design/innovation consultancies, such as Ammunition, Fuse, and Smart Design, which are developing and selling more of their own products, independently and through corporate partnerships. (Yves Béhar has been an entrepreneur for a decade; his latest product, a great new urban bike called Local, is now in production.) In addition, we have IDEO now supporting incubators such as General Assembly, Excelerate, and TechStars, and helping to launch products such as the Yoomi self-warming baby bottle.

Perhaps the most important dot of all is the one of innovative startups started by entrepreneurs with design degrees or backgrounds–YouTube, Flickr, Slideshare, Tumblr, Airbnb, Slideshare, Vimeo, and Feedburner, and YCombinator. These successful examples have inspired countless design students who want to start their own companies. They see that it can be done.

Another dot is Idiom, India’s answer to IDEO. The cutting-edge design/innovation consultancy has successfully launched 80 companies, out of 100 attempts, over the past six years, with the average launch taking about nine months from concept to profitability. (Idiom calls its process Mind to Market.) By applying the approaches and tools of design to the traditional startup process, Idiom increased the success rate of VC from 10% to 80%.

Led by its cofounder Sonia Manchanda, whom I consider to be the intellectual heir to the great C.K. Prahalad, Idiom is pioneering an entirely new VC model called Dream:In. I was lucky enough to participate in it last year. It goes like this: Hundreds of students were trained to interview and tape thousands of people about their dreams–their aspirations, not their needs. The dreams were collected, categorized, and presented to business people, consultants, and folks like me to help draw up business plans to enable those dreams. Those plans are now in a portfolio, from which venture capitalists can choose by category, by individual concept, or by investing in the fund itself. Each year, students go out, dreams come in, business plans replenish the portfolio. When was the last time we even thought about a radical change in the VC model? This made-in-India idea does.

What does this new direction of design toward entrepreneurship and away from big business mean? For me, two things. The less important is epistemological. The Parsons event by NYCreative Interns says it all–“Why Creatives Need to Become Entrepreneurs.” Creativity is a more inclusive term than design. Creativity is more easily accepted by venture capitalists, engineers, business people (and maybe even design students) than design. In addition, as design goes social, it moves toward industries such as advertising, with a long tradition of having “creatives” as part of its culture. In the past, I’ve said we should forget nomenclature–design, design thinking, innovation–it’s all a banana. Now that banana for me is creativity. But if anyone is uncomfortable with the term, just use the D-word.

The more important change from big business to new business is conceptual. We need new conceptual categories to deal with the new turn toward entrepreneurship. Zuckerberg, Hurley, Fake, Chase, Stone, Jobs–why and how and where they innovate require entirely different categories of design thinking, if you will, than we’ve used before. We need to learn much more about leadership and the roles of charisma and calling, and the transformation of inspiration into execution. Entrepreneurs are a lot like religious prophets–they embody their following, they “know” their tacit dreams and longings, and they express them. It’s no accident that The Economist put Jobs on its cover with a halo around his head while he held the newly launched iPad as a “tablet.”

Another critical concept is framing. One key to entrepreneurs’ success is that they frame things differently, they connect existing dots in unique ways. The two guys who started Method, for example, frame-changed the market for sustainable cleaning products from a “suffering-is-good-for-you” space to a “cool-design-that’s-good-for-the-planet” space.

We also need to know a lot more about “meaning,” not just the data gathered by ethnography but knowledge that takes us much deeper into understanding culture. We need to know more about shared spectacle and why we crave it, and how honing craft and skill to near perfection can enable you to make and do the unique–which is what entrepreneurs do.

The encouraging news is that we are seeing a dynamic expansion of the scale, range, and power of traditional design. It promises to revive a broken VC model, capture the imagination and energy of a new generation of young designer/creators, and perhaps even regenerate Western capitalism (yes, no small thing). But perhaps most important of all, the creative turn to the entrepreneurial is hopeful. Optimism has always been at the heart of design. This takes it to a new level.

To read more about creative capitalism, go here.

About Bruce Nussbaum
Bruce Nussbaum blogs, tweets and writes on innovation, design thinking and creativity. The former assistant managing editor for Business Week is a Professor of Innovation and Design at Parsons The New School of Design. He is founder of the Innovation & Design online channel; founder of IN: Inside Innovation, a quarterly innovation supplement. More here…

Failing your way to success. Yup. That’s how it’s done. It takes a LOT of support and a pretty great attitude too. That’s hard to do on your own. Kind of like weight loss I think. Best done with a herding mentality. That’s why Weight Watchers has been so successful. They understood the power of a “herd” early on.

But since I began 6 years ago- reinventing myself from my spare bedroom blogging to an audience of none- to where I am now?  I have to say it has been littered with set backs and disappointments that I could have allowed to loom larger than life and stop me cold in my tracks. AFTER ALL THIS TIME  I really never thought that the IAE WOULD STILL NOT HAVE the funding resources we need to achieve the grand plan. Love is blind! Thank God for my clarinet customers who are supporting me. Every customer who buys an instrument from me is donating $50.00 bucks to my school. Last year Lisa’s Clarinet Shop donated $27,500 to the IAE and my husband and I and a few others donated again 2 times that sum.

Lisa’s Clarinet Shop is the little engine that could. My husband has been out of work- downsized from one of those big corporate jobs- for over a year and my clarinet customers just keep coming and coming to support IAE. It’s like a miracle. Really.

This is the power of small business. Of passionate purpose driven living. ANYTHING IS possible. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN if you know who you are and what you simply MUST express with your time on this earth. ANYTHING is possible but you have to have the ability and DESIRE to sustain your effort and to never EVER give up.

And I believe the future is bright. Not just because I am an optimistic person, but because so many people around me are increasingly excited to see what is happening with our students at the IAE.

Every rose began hidden under the mud before it revealed itself and BLOOMED. My dream to realize the IAE does not get to skip any of the steps to Bloomin’ Success. We are walking the walk just like our students and I am searching for another little steam engine to help me over the hill…

THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD
(Watty Piper)

A little steam engine had a long train of cars to pull.

She went along very well till she came to a steep hill. But then, no matter how hard she tried, she could not move the long train of cars.

She pulled and she pulled. She puffed and she puffed. She backed and started off again. Choo! Choo!

But no! the cars would not go up the hill.

At last she left the train and started up the track alone. Do you think she had stopped working? No, indeed! She was going for help.

“Surely I can find someone to help me,” she thought.

Over the hill and up the track went the little steam engine. Choo, choo! Choo, choo! Choo, choo! Choo!

Pretty soon she saw a big steam engine standing on a side track. He looked very big and strong. Running alongside, she looked up and said:

“Will you help me over the hill with my train of cars? It is so long and heavy I can’t get it over.”

The big steam engine looked down at the little steam engine. The he said:

“Don’t you see that I am through my day’s work? I have been rubbed and scoured ready for my next run. No, I cannot help you,”

The little steam engine was sorry, but she went on, Choo, choo! Choo, choo! Choo, choo! Choo, choo!

Soon she came to a second big steam engine standing on a side track. He was puffing and puffing, as if he were tired.

“That big steam engine may help me,” thought the little steam engine. She ran alongside and asked:

“Will you help me bring my train of cars over the hill? It is so long and so heavy that I can’t get it over.”

The second big steam engine answered:

“I have just come in from a long, long run. Don’t you see how tired I am? Can’t you get some other engine to help you this time?

“I’ll try,” said the little steam engine, and off she went. Choo, choo! Choo, choo! Choo, choo!

After a while she came to a little steam engine just like herself. She ran alongside and said:

“Will you help me over the hill with my train of cars? It is so long and so heavy that I can’t get it over.”

“Yes, indeed!” said this little steam engine. “I’ll be glad to help you, if I can.”

So the little steam engines started back to where the train of cars had been standing. Both little steam engines went to the head of the train, one behind the other.

Puff, puff! Chug, choo! Off they started!

Slowly the cars began to move. Slowly they climbed the steep hill. As they climbed, each little steam engine began to sing:

“I-think-I-can! I-think-I-can! I-think-I-can! I-think-I-can! I-think-I-can! I-think-I-can! I think I can – I think I can – I think I can I think I can–”

And they did! Very soon they were over the hill and going down the other side.

Now they were on the plain again; and the little steam engine could pull her train herself. So she thanked the little engine who had come to help her, and said good-by.

And she went merrily on her way, singing:

“I-thought-I-could! I-thought-I-could! I-thought-I-could! I-thought-I-could! I thought i could – I thought I could – I thought I could – I thought I could – I thought I could – I thought I could I thought I could –”

IAE students Nancy Plummer with Nicole Pfeifer work our table at the event

January was a month of running hard for me. From the USASBE conference in New Orleans to PNB-NAPEO in Morocco, teaching and the clarinet shop  wedged in between, January was full of exciting conversations, opportunities for collaboration and a continuous flow of conversation about creativity ways to become self-employed.

January came to and end with WBEZ: Front and Center in Chicago throwing a self-employment party/mini training session at a very cool meeting place called Catalyst Ranch in Chicago. The IAE was invited to participate. We hosted 2 sessions: Entrepreneurship 101 and a mini pitching session we call: Create. Innovate. Repeat. (Which, by the way, if you live in Chicago, we have another one you can attend or pitch at, and its free, on Feb 16th.)

4 IAE student were selected to share with the audience what a great pitch looks. What a hard time it was deciding who should pitch. All of our students have been working so hard on their pitches.

Image Consultant Nancy Plummer from FineThreadsChicago delivered a wonderful pitch about how she can help individuals look their best.  Positive Aging Dance Instructor Brenda Starr Woods showed us how chair tap dancing can help us live longer.  Actor Osiris Khepera, OSirisHisName.com shared with us how he can create an amazing party by creating a special moment we could all share together. And Fashion Designer Stacie Randall, StacieRandall.com, shared with us an amazing story about how she transforms vintage clothing into collectables because of the secret stories they hold from their past.

Stacie Randall (red head) and Brenda Starr Woods (top hat), along with Nancy Plummer and Osiris Khepera, delivered a great pitch to almost 100 people. Did I mention that there were 300 more that could not even get in the door?

We love our No More Starving Artist Button and so did the attendees at the WBEZ event

Nicole Pfeifer held down the fort while students pitched, mingled and made connections. What a great job she did. We have 3 pages of names signed up on our list and over night 100 people signed up for our blog

During the second half of the 19^th Century, rail transportation in the United States was a booming enterprise. Expanding to every corner of the land, this lucrative growth industry seemed unstoppable. Yet within 70 years of its heyday, rail companies tumbled. And today, their impact of is negligible (beyond Amtrak and lines of Thomas the Tank Engine toys).  What on Earth happened?

Well, the world changed. The advent of automobiles, trucks, buses, and airplanes simply made trains less necessary. Less relevant. So they faded away.

But what if these companies had maintained a broader vision? What if they hadn’t been here simply to support railway systems, but rather to solve transportation needs of all sorts? Had that been the case, these businesses might still be major players in air, land, and sea travel today.

The mistake of overspecialization has plagued virtually every industry, large or small. We’ve seen this sad tale play out time and time again.

In the arts, for example, consider record labels. So massive was their influence and power just 15 short years ago that the top handful of multi-billion dollar corporations were oft referred to as the “music industry.” But make no mistake. That’s not how they approached the game. Instead, they were the “sound-reproduced-on-physical-products-industry.” Which explains why the move from records to CDs worked so seamlessly. Yet when digital reproduction and distribution became reality, the consequences were devastating. Imagine how differently history might have been written had these companies truly seen themselves as the backbone of a comprehensive and ever evolving music business.

Or how about orchestras? These organizations boast a rich and glorious tradition. But even so, American orchestras today are declaring bankruptcy at an alarming rate. What business are they in? Serving as a cultural and creative hub? Transforming communities through music? Celebrating the unique artistic identity of a region?  Not even close. Instead it’s much more narrowly defined: “Large ensemble music featuring a combination of strings, winds, and percussion performing primarily Western classical music by dead Europeans.” Hmmm…During this tumultuous time of disruptive change, couldn’t these ensembles rescue themselves from extinction by thinking wider and re-imagining core purpose? 

What about your own career? Do you just do that one very specific thing (i.e. play classical oboe, choreograph ballet, paint landscape murals)?  Or is your mission open and flexible, ensuring that your work will remain necessary, valuable, and valued no matter how much the world evolves, in any direction?

True, you can’t be all things to all people. True, there are tremendous benefits to addressing a particular niche. Just be sure that the positioning you choose is broad enough to ensure there will always be demand for your art.

As a young CEO of a growing company, I find that the most valuable insight I’m gaining these days has been from other CEOs. Certainly this realization isn’t revolutionary – YPO, EO, Mindshare and a host of other organizations are set up just for this kind of knowledge exchange.

But who has time for that? This is a social media world. We’re live in 140-character sound bites. So I decided to ping my favorite CEOs via Twitter to see what kind of wisdom they could drop on me. Here’s the great advice they shared.

Daniel Ek, CEO, Spotify

Figure out what the top five most important stuff is, focus relentlessly on that and keep iterating. Less is more.

Dennis Crowley, CEO, FourSquare

Don’t let people tell you your ideas won’t work. If you have a hunch that something will work, go build it. Ignore the haters.

Sarah Prevette, Founder, Sprouter

Just do it. Get it out there, absorb the feedback, adjust accordingly, hustle like hell, persevere and never lose your swagger.

Sarah Lacy, CEO, PandoDaily

Follow your gut. it may be wrong, but you won’t regret it if you fail. You’ll regret it if you ignore your gut and fail.

Craig Newmark, Founder, Craigslist

Treat people like you want to be treated. Apply to customer service.

Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO, VaynerMedia

Do work for your customers, not for press or VCs. The end user is what matters long term.

Matt Mullenweg, CEO, Automattic

Only reinvent the wheels you need to get rolling.

Jason Goldberg, CEO, Fab.com

Pick one thing and do that one thing — and only that one thing — better than anyone else ever could.

 Alexis Ohanian, CEO, Reddit

Make something people want. Then give more damns than anyone else about it and you’ll make something they love.

Chris Brogan, President, Human Business Works

Buy @ericries’s book. Beyond that? Build a platform. This is the big year.

Matt Howard, CEO, ZoomSafer

Startup wisdom: The number one job of a CEO is to not run out of money.

Brian Wong, CEO, Kiip

Always be learning from others. Whenever you meet someone, you don’t want something from them, you want to learn from them.

Seth Priebatsch, Chief Ninja, SCVNGR and LevelUp

Something my dad taught me: Ask forgiveness, not permission!

Hooman Radfar, Founder, Clearspring

Give away the wins, own the loses. Your job is to curate greatness.

Alexa Hirschfeld, CEO, Paperless Post

Users and employees are key predictive indicators of a company’s success; press and investors generally months behind.

Got some other great wisdom for your fellow CEOs? Leave me a comment!

Peter Corbett (@corbett3000) is the CEO of the creative agency iStrategyLabs, and is the founding organizer of DC Tech Meetup.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Search Engine People Blog.

Failure Club is inspiring. One of the core tenants  The IAE teaches is how to rebound from repeatedly failing and to fail often in super small ways. Failure Club is pretty cool but the overarching message is wrong. It’s how to BLOOM guys- to do so you fail along the way A LOT.

That’s why it helps to have a group working together to BLOOM, but it takes more than just hanging together. You need to learn how to learn from others.

You need to learn how to think.

You gotta learn to train your elephant. Yah. At last.

That’s what we do at the IAE. God knows there are a lot of smart creatives in the world who simply don’t know how to get their ideas to be taken seriously enough to become real.. enough. I hear you. I have felt your pain. At IAE you will find a home if you are a self defined creative and feeling kind of, well, IGNORED.

episode-13-ignacio-28032806.html

Written by Colin Darke Posted on Huffington Post on 1/25/12

 

Sorry for that language.

I love artists. I’ve been an artist my entire life. And I love myself. Most artists love themselves.

Three out of hundreds and hundreds of my self portraits.

The New York Times knows that artists can save the world. Artists can lift the spirit so that everyone feels better, so everyone hugs one another, so every place is filled with rainbows (not real rainbows, maybe graffiti rainbows or rainbows made out of discarded car parts). True story: a carjacker jumped into the back of my car, put a gun to my head, and told me to drive. I said, “Miss, please don’t hurt me. I am an artist. You can take a photograph I took of the abandoned rail road station that is in my portfolio that takes up the whole backseat next to you. No questions asked.” She shuffled through my portfolio, and then she said abruptly, “stop the car.” She jumped out and ran. She was no doubt running home to show her significant other my beautiful photograph. This, no doubt, was the first step that would change her from a carjacker to a social worker.

For every doctor, police officer, fire fighter, social worker, priest, nun, or public defender, I can make you a painting of a doctor, police officer, fire fighter, social worker, priest, nun, or public defender. In return, most of them cannot even draw a straight line with a ruler (this is likely the fault of an education focused on math and science rather than art). Most of these people would also likely see a painting at a gallery and merely say, “I like that.” Really! Really! You “like” that . . . how juvenile and misinformed and narcissistic! Can you really talk about art without saying “didactic” or Duchamp or contrived or outsider or derivative? But it’s not their fault. Rather, it is society’s fault for not forcing people to understand and support the arts.

We need rules! We need legislation that requires every household with a non-artist to at least board an artist. We need to increase taxes on everything to pay for art school education. We need to allow artists to pay for everything with doodles and sketches instead of money (didn’t Picasso do that?).

The above sarcasm was my initial reaction to headlines about a new report that artists have a huge economic impact on Michigan. It is more of a reaction to how certain artists chose to interpret the initial data. No offense to “artists” or artists, I just do not think that individual artists have a direct impact on the overall economic makeup of a city. They may have an indirect impact through strengthening the culture of an area and making it more livable. And they have the direct impact of making life better by inspiring us and creating awe inspiring images, performances, etc. – that is why I am involved with TheDetroiter.com. The arts and artists inspire me. I like to be inspired. So I try to support other artists as much as I can – very selfish.

But back to that new report, I needed more facts. ArtServe Michigan released a new report, Creative State Michigan, to show that nonprofit arts and cultural organization have a huge economic impact (in a good way) to the State of Michigan. The Huffington Post has already covered the initial release, but I wanted to flesh out some of the facts and the overall takeaway. So I reached out to Jennifer Goulet, President and CEO of ArtServe Michigan, for some answers — and I posted them below. If you are a cynic (like me), I think you will still have trouble arguing with Ms. Goulet (like I did). This is an important survey, and the state (and all states) should give it a lot of weight. To see it for yourself, go here: www.CreativeStateMI.org.
What are the take-aways from this survey?

• 211 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations contributed nearly half a billion dollars in expenditures alone to the economy of Michigan in 2009.
• Of the462 million in annual expenditures by these 211 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations in 2009,152 million was paid out in salaries for 15,560 jobs.
• There is a significant impact of state dollars invested in the arts and culture nonprofit sector: For every1 invested by the state, these arts and culture nonprofit sector contributed51 into the Michigan economy.
• From 2006 to 2010, the number of arts-related jobs increased by 4 percent in Michigan, while arts-related businesses increased by 43 percent.
• Arts education conducted by Michigan nonprofits aligns with school programs to promote creative problem solving and build skills in design, arts and crafts. In 2009, the 211 organizations hosted 1,841,368 schoolchildren in their facilities and offered 797 programs in schools.

Does the survey show that the state should invest in more nonprofit art organizations that focus on the arts community?

Absolutely! The survey demonstrates the arts and culture nonprofits impact on Michigan’s economy and its reach in serving audiences in communities of all sizes across the state. In Michigan’s economic recovery and restructuring, there are important roles and opportunities for collaboration for nonprofits, businesses and government. The state must invest in all essential infrastructures — from transportation to education to health care to the arts — needed to strengthen and sustain healthy and vibrant communities that attract the talent, business investment and economic activity for Michigan’s reinvention. The creative sector has always had great stories to share about how arts and cultural experiences transform us individually or as a society. But, with the growing set of data coming from the Michigan Cultural Data Project, we also can demonstrate our significance in economic impact or audience reach information. We can make a stronger case for rebuilding investment in the arts and cultural sector as part of state economic development strategies.

Arts and culture nonprofits have long known that inspiring works of art and innovative designs have the power to transform people’s lives and to create vibrant communities. Its leaders have also known that, as businesses, they directly contribute to the economy as they purchase materials and services in their communities and pay workers who in turn buy goods and services. But until recently, they have not been able to “back-up” their stories with hard facts that demonstrate their combined impact. Now, with data collected through the Michigan Cultural Data Project and other new sources, the sector can fully illustrate its impact in Michigan with annual standardized, reliable information.

Should the state invest more in artists?

Yes. On a simple level, artists are an essential asset providing the foundation enabling and enriching the work of Michigan’s nonprofit arts and cultural organizations. Artists and the professionals comprising the creative industries are a widely diverse population — from the visual artist exhibiting in a local gallery to the dancer or musician teaching classes at a local school or performing at a downtown theater to the writer lending time and talent with youth in an afterschool program to the graphic designer lending creativity to branding campaigns to the emerging talent with a great idea and desire to be an entrepreneur. Across this spectrum, there is a tremendous opportunity for Michigan’s artistic sector to be engaged in efforts to build sustainable communities, stimulate local and state economies and be innovative and creative problem-solvers and community connectors. There’s valuable opportunity to invest in artists as entrepreneurs that are contributing individually and collectively to Michigan’s reinvention aims. And in embracing opportunities where others might just see risks like setting up a studio or gallery in vacant, underutilized urban spaces or opening temporary pop-up retail in areas lacking customers. Both bring attention, audiences, activity and the promise of change to areas facing urban decline.

By investing in artists, wealth is created from ideas — Detroit is rich with young and old who have great ideas and the creative spirit to bring them to fruition.

How do these art organizations bring money to the overall economy apart from hiring individuals within the specific organization?

In FY 2009, this group of organizations spent nearly half a billion dollars to support creative programs and operations. While $152 million supported jobs in local communities, more than $300 million was invested to support program and operational costs — such as maintenance of buildings, purchasing materials like office supplies or computers, contracting for services like graphic design or accounting or fees to contract musicians for concert performances, as well as overhead costs such as space rental, utilities and even taxes. These costs range widely — from reupholstering seats in an auditorium to buying office supplies to licensing software to manage ticket sales or ordering clay for students to learn pottery.

Do these organizations add to the overall cultural and “livability” to areas, so a company may list a vibrant art community as a factor to moving to one area over another?

Without a doubt, arts and cultural organizations contribute richly to the vibrancy and livability of Michigan’s communities, making them places where talent want to land and where businesses want to invest and bring their employees. Arts and cultural programs and events are destinations in our communities that significantly add to the quality of life. Their presence signals a community environment where innovations, creative expression, learning and shared experience are important — important to talent and businesses alike. And, as demonstrated by this report, the arts are an economic driver contributing jobs and spending across our state.

With Michigan Cultural Data Project data, we know that in 2009 the 211 organizations hosted more than 12 million visitors and that 52% of those visits were free — important measures of accessibility for people of all ages and at a time when the economy forced many to make difficult decisions on how to allocate resources. Another measure of livability and vitality is the number of members, subscribers and board directors supporting these institutions and events — 331,416. Community members are strong supporters of our nonprofit organizations whether serving on a board or committee, attending events or sharing skills as a volunteer. These figures collectively are snapshots in time, as it represents about 10% of all of the arts and culture organizations in Michigan in one year. With more than 600 organizations registered now in the Michigan Cultural Data Project, and as more organizations enter their data into the system, the measure of the creative impact will only grow.

About Colin Darke
Colin Darke is an artist, writer, and attorney based in Detroit, Michigan.
The Detroit News described Colin’s paintings as employing “a bold, colorful style reminiscent of the German Expressionists.” He regularly shows his work throughout Detroit, and in 2010 Colin was juried into the 18th Annual National Juried Exhibition (Juror: Rackstraw Downes (2009 MacArthur Fellow)) at the Bowery Gallery in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York, New York. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Detroit cultural blog www.TheDetroiter.com (est. 2002), and he is a regular contributor to the Brooklyn based art criticism blog www.Hyperallergic.com.

Follow Colin Darke on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@colindarke

In this new RSAnimate, renowned psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist explains how our ‘divided brain’ has profoundly altered human behaviour, culture and society. To view the full lecture, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbUHxC4wiWk

Written by John M. Eger  appeared on Huffington Post, January 18th, 2012

The book by Walter Isaacson about Steve Jobs, former CEO and founder of Apple Computer, has now sold over one million copies.

After talking with many of Steve’s colleagues, Issacson discovered that to Steve, “You were either [a shithead or a hero], one or the other, sometimes on the same day.” Clearly he was not a guy everybody loved. Yet he did “revolutionize six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. You might even add a seventh: retail stores, which Jobs did not quite revolutionize, but he did re-imagine.”

Isaacson also discovered that in all Apple’s products “technology would be married to great design, elegance, human touches, and even romance.” On a personal note, Isaacson added, “The creativity that can occur when a feel for both the humanities and the sciences combine in one strong personality was the topic that most interested me in my biographies of Franklin and Einstein, and I believe … will be a key to creating innovative economies in the twenty-first century.”

Maybe it takes the tragic death of an icon or another earth-shattering event to get our attention. Leonard Shlain, author of Art and Physics: Parallel Visions of Space, Time and Light (1993), early on noted the symbiotic relationship only now becoming commonplace. Maybe Jobs even read Shlain’s book.

There is now more talk, more awareness of the importance of art and design. And there is a greater recognition that our schools, our communities, our attitudes must change.

This new awareness, new recognition is vital. One might say understanding the challenge of the new global economy is even critical. It demands that we renew and reinvent ourselves to better understand and appreciate the arts (and of course the sciences) and importantly, the esthetic makeup of the places where we live and work. There is no alternative short of letting our cities and our communities atrophy and die, and with it, the great experiment in freedom and free enterprise we so highly value.

We created the pen-based computer, the silicon chip and the Internet itself, now the vehicle for every nation, every city, and every community worldwide to compete with every other. We can be proud of what we have accomplished, but we must be mindful that a new — truly global –economy has been unleashed.

This intersection of art and technology is the future for America. Creativity and innovation will be the hallmark of our greatest corporations, our workplace, and our most enterprising communities.

Does all creativity come from the arts and so-called creative communities? Of course not, but the chances of nurturing creativity through arts based training is a no brainier.

Today, as Sandra Rupert, President of Art Education Partnership observed,

Arts learning experiences play a vital role in developing students’ capacities for critical thinking, creativity, imagination, and innovation. These capacities are increasingly recognized as core skills and competencies all students need as part of a high-quality and complete 21st-century education.

This of course is why STEAM — the idea that the arts are as important as science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) — is so important. It is also why cities and regions must have creative people by nurturing its young people and, reinventing a system of education that engenders the new thinking skills to meet the challenges of the new economy.

Government has a vital role too. Promoting accessible broadband and encouraging land use policies that encourage development of creative economic clusters including art districts, public art and art and cultural institutions such as museums. Governments can also embrace green initiatives, which encourage private sector initiatives and foster the concept of sustainability. And they can use technology to improve productivity, foster new, more efficient delivery of government services and encourage business and the non-profit sector to use technology as well.

Involvement by the whole community will be needed to make meaningful changes and civic collaboration or engagement is critical. New and existing organizations responsible for planning and development and for weaving the fabric of the new community demand that all institutions and individuals become owners of the new agenda which must include: public art, art integration, graffiti parks, art districts, museums, regional collaboration, civic engagement and robust information infrastructures. All are important to the region of the future, to development of a creative community.

A truly creative community can nurture, attract and retain the talent we need to succeed let alone survive in the new economy.

About John M. Eger
John M. Eger, Van Deerlin Endowed Professor of Communications and Public Policy and Director of the Creative Economy Initiative at San Diego State University teaches in the School of Journalism and Media Studies, and the SDSU Honors Program.

He is an author and lecturer on the subjects of creativity and innovation, education and economic development, and also serves as President of The World Foundation for Smart Communities, a research and educational organization dedicated to helping local communities connect to the global economy. http://www.smartcommunities.org/

A former Adviser to two Presidents and Director of the White House Office of Telecommunications Policy he helped spearhead the restructuring of America’s telecom Industry and was Senior Vice President of CBS responsible for worldwide enterprises, which opened China to commercial television.