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Creative Economy in Maine a Possible Model for Nation

January 19, 2010 - AUGUSTA -- Maine's creative economy is being considered as a model for other states.

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, and the state's leading arts advocate will meet with the new chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts today in Washington to tout Maine's efforts to promote and support creative enterprise.

Pingree and Donna McNeil, director of the Maine Arts Commission, will share Maine's experience in using the arts and culture as economic development tools with Rocco Landesman, who has led the NEA since August.

Landesman requested the meeting, McNeil said.

"He called me around Thanksgiving. He complimented the work we've done in the state of Maine and asked if I would be willing to come to Washington to talk with him more about it. He said, 'The NEA is talking the talk, but Maine is walking the walk,'" McNeil said.

Pingree will host today's meeting at her Washington office.

"I'm excited to meet (Landesman), and I am glad that he is interested in Maine," Pingree said. "Maine is a good example of where the creative economy can play an important role in economic development and where we can be developed further as a model for other states."

She credited McNeil and her staff "for being aggressive on this issue. Particularly in a down economy, you have to turn over every stone."

Maine employs about 68,000 people in creative-sector jobs. The state has tried to promote the idea that a large proportion of the state's work force earns its living by conceiving, developing and marketing commercially viable and innovative ideas.

"The creative economy is not about someone who sets up a booth outside the ferry terminal and sells beads," McNeil said. "It's about all the businesses up and down Congress Street and Commercial Street and Wharf Street (in Portland) who are involved with inherently creative enterprise, whether that's someone designing and building furniture, an architect or a designer working in an ad agency."

The key, she said, is developing public policies and private initiatives that help Maine businesses and entrepreneurs nurture their creativity while promoting Maine as a place that welcomes creative people and enterprises.

Since 2004, Maine has held three statewide conferences on the topic, and the Maine Arts Commission has tailored its grant-making practices to dovetail with the creative economy philosophy. This month, it announced a grant program called Creative Communities = Economic Development, with a maximum award of $50,000.

The program will support efforts that foster creative economic growth. As many as two grants will be awarded, for a total of $100,000.

Previously, the Maine Arts Commission gave $10,000 grants to 10 communities. McNeil said the commission decided to change the program to increase the impact.

"We were not getting good grant applications, and the money was not producing much effort," she said. "I thought that in a recession, to be most effective, we had to deliver the kinds of dollars that could bring about real change."

But, she noted, $100,000 is a small sum when it comes to real economic development.

McNeil hopes to leverage today's meeting with Landesman into more money for Maine, from the NEA or through partnerships with private foundations.

Landesman has ties to Maine, including studies at Colby College in Waterville in the 1960s. He later received an honorary degree from the college.

McNeil and Pingree intend to invite Landesman to Maine so he can see the work Maine is doing to promote and sustain a creative work force, Pingree said.

By BOB KEYES, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, January 19, 2010


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