Creative Santa Fe: Strengthening Santa Fe's Creative Economy
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City of Santa Fe, NM Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth December 11, 2009
“In times of war and sacrifice, the arts... remind us to sing and to laugh and to live. In times of plenty, they challenge our conscience and implore us to remember the least among us. In moments of division or doubt, they compel us to see the common values that we share; the ideals to which we aspire, even if we sometimes fall short. In days of hardship, they renew our hope that brighter days are still ahead.
So let’s never forget that art strengthens America. And that’s why we’re making sure that America strengthens its arts. It’s why we’re reenergizing the National Endowment of the Arts. That’s why we’re helping to sustain jobs in arts communities across the country.” – Remarks by President Obama at Reception for Kennedy Center Honorees, East Room, The White House, December 6, 2009.
Create Jobs by Increasing Creative Entrepreneurship and Enterprises
Santa Fe City and County have taken bold steps in recent months to improve the infrastructure for Creative Industries. The two biggest projects are the purchase of the College of Santa Fe by the City and the development of Santa Fe Studios by the County.
These two projects also create the need to move forward quickly on building the creative enterprises that will employ the students and workers who will be in our community because of these two new institutions. Now is the time to prepare future entrepreneurs in the creative sector and to strengthen and grow the businesses we have in Santa Fe so they will be prepared to take on new workers.
The next three years are absolutely critical to improving the entrepreneurship infrastructure in our community. Within three years a substantial number of students will be graduating from the College of Santa Fe and Santa Fe Studios will be open for business. We do not want to import workers to our community for these high paying jobs. These are good jobs for the people of Santa Fe.
An Arts and Creativity Center is critical to providing focused arts and creative sector entrepreneurship training. The Center will also provide affordable studios for artists, writers, designers, and cultural entrepreneurs. The shared facility will allow for greater collaboration between creative workers. It will also allow for artists, entrepreneurs, and non-profit organizations to share equipment and tools of production that they cannot afford on their own. From kilns to special computer software providing access to these important tools will give our creative workers a boost in building their businesses.
We envision an entrepreneurship curriculum developed jointly by the colleges in our community—the College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe Community College, and the Institute for American Indian Arts. Students attending any of these colleges could receive credit from their institution for the program. Partnerships with non-profit organizations such as the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship can also provide expertise to help students establish themselves in business.
The successful program we envision also will provide mentoring and internship opportunities that will give students real world work experiences to provide better trained employees to our local creative and cultural enterprises.
Creative Santa Fe is ready to make an Arts and Creativity Center a reality.
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