Commentary: On Creative Economies

By Michael Vinci
Creativity + Social Change, University of Connecticut
Media Reviewed:

Creative Economy Association of the North Shore
We are Massachusetts' think tank for greater creative and economic success. CEANS supports the growth of the creative economy in the North of Boston Shore Region, and the individuals who work within creative fields.

This video is a surprisingly miniature version of the Connecting Creative Communities Conference. There were people who wanted to promote creativity in their area. This video briefly profiles the Creative Economy Association of the North Shore (CEANS) of Massachusetts. They really just want their neighborhoods to make money (which is great!). People can find ways to draw people into their communities using creativity and that is good for everyone. Unfortunately, some people may think that their communities are not creative. Take for example:

• Waterbury, Connecticut, which is home of the Timex watch company. If the people there had not been creative then we would not have the styles of watches we now consider to be classic and timeless (no pun intended).
• New Britain, Connecticut, was and still is to some degree the home of Stanley Works. If not for the creativity of the people who worked in the factories we would not have many of the machining techniques we now have today.
• In Hartford, Connecticut, the insurance capital of the world, many principles and guidelines for writing policies were no doubt developed.

The bottom line is that there is something everywhere that makes any specific community unique. People had cows and used their milk for many, many years, but until the creative Louis Pasteur thought about how he could make that milk safer and last longer the world did not have the technique of pasteurization.

People everywhere are creative in their own ways and it is always showing. We just need to see it!