Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Contact: Maren Brown, Arts Extension Service
413-545-2360 or
Dee Boyle-Clapp, Arts Extension Service
413-545-5241, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

UMass Arts Extension Service Maintains Creative Economy Edge With New Online Course
Searching for a course on the Creative Economy taught by instructors with direct experience?  This month, the Arts Extension Service at the University of Massachusetts Amherst maintained its commanding role in Creative Economy research and practice with the launch of the nation’s first online Creative Economy course.  Taught by Tom Borrup, the nation’s leading creative economy expert and author of the award-winning book, The Creative Community Builder’s Handbook, this course takes a broad look at how one determines the unique ‘assets’ of their community while students learn to create alliances with local business, governance, neighborhood associations, and the arts community to create an environment that builds communities from within while positively transforming the local economy. 
 
Borrup, a Connecticut native who splits his time between Minneapolis and Miami, practices what he teaches in Western Massachusetts and across the country.  He is currently working on a three-year initiative funded by the Ford Foundation’s Asset Building and Community Development Division, to strengthen the capacity of community-based cultural organizations to serve an active role in the social and economic revitalization of mixed-income, mixed-race neighborhoods.  Two of the four sites where he is serving as a liaison include The Center for Creative Community Development, in North Adams, MA; and Nuestras Raices, in Holyoke, MA.  Other sites include the Queens Museum of Art in New York City and the Movimiento de Arte y Cultural Latino Americana, in San Jose, CA. 

Borrup and the Arts Extension Service (AES) have a long history of collaboration.  “The Creative Economy has been on AES’ radar before it was recognized as an economic driver. We had the opportunity to work closely with Tom on several early Creative Economy initiatives so we could have materials ready when the field needed them.  Tom was a great help in that process and were pleased when he agreed to teach this course,” said Maren Brown, Director of the Arts Extension Service at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  Of those initiatives, the first began thanks to support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Borrup, Craig Dreeszen, (former AES director, consultant and an AES online instructor), and Brown developed Peripheral Vision, a regional training program to equip community development professionals and civic leaders with tools and skills to build collaborative cultural strategies for their own economic development.  Borrup and Brown contributed to The Partners in Creative Economy Planning Workbook and its companion CD, which Dreeszen wrote as a hands-on how-to guide for community leaders and artists.  And Borrup wrote a new chapter, “Fuel for the Creative Engine: Arts and the Economy,” for AES’ textbook, Fundamentals of Arts Management, which he is utilizing in his Creative Economy course.

AES research in the Creative Economy was recently enhanced by two studies including those recently completed for the Massachusetts Cultural Council measuring the impact of their creative economy programs across the Commonwealth (with the UMass Donahue Institute and the UMass Dartmouth Center for Policy and Analysis), and for the UMass College of Humanities and Fine Arts (CHFA), which studied the impact CHFA alumni have on the Pioneer Valley creative economy (in collaboration with the UMass Donahue Institute).  This, along with an exhaustive study of the best practices of 32 creative economy projects in Massachusetts, and input from hundreds of organizations across the nation, AES has gleaned substantial information and insight into the opportunities and difficulties involved when creating these initiatives.  According to Brown, “Combining Tom’s and AES’ research and our shared work on the ground has fueled this course and each of our workshops.  We are pleased to be able to provide our students and arts managers in the field with current trends and best practices so as they begin their climb to build their own creative economy programs they get to start a step or two higher on the ladder.” 

When asked about the work of the Arts Extension Service, which teaches online arts management classes; offers a certificate program and the nation’s only online bachelor’s degree completion program in Arts Management; trainings and workshops across the country; produces publications and work kits; and conducts research, Brown sees an advantage in being affiliated with the University:  “We are proud to be a part of the University of Massachusetts.  Since much of our work is nationally-based, and we are fortunate to be able to bring the UMass reputation to a national audience.”  In fact, several AES leaders have become vastly influential in the arts management field. “Theirs was well deserved recognition,” said Maren Brown when she recently learned that two of her colleagues and current members of the Arts Extension Institute board were named the first annual Barry’s Blog’s Ranking of the Nonprofit Arts Sector’s 25 Most Powerful and Influential Leaders, a blog of News, Advice & Opinion for the Arts Administrator found on the Western States Arts Federation website.  The list was created by sampling the arts management field by asking, “Who are the most powerful, influential people in (the arts management) field? Who sets our agendas, who controls the purse strings, who frames the dialogues? Which leaders are the most respected and highly-regarded? Who are our trend-setters, our taste-makers, our best thinkers, and established power brokers?”  The ranking turned out remarkably well for the AES.

Robert L. Lynch, director of the Arts Extension Service from 1976 – 1985, and now President and CEO of Americans for the Arts, was named number one.  According to Barry’s Blog:
“BOB LYNCH… Consensus number one on majority of responses…. Bob has guided expansion of Americans for the Arts initiatives into advocacy, business, research, alliances, arts education, marketing and emerging leadership – building the nation’s largest and strongest arts service provider organization. Clearly the premier spokesperson for the arts sector in America. His seemingly laid- back, diplomatic style belies real ambition for the organization. A true political player – smart, savvy, and boundless enthusiasm.

Sharing the spot for number twenty-one was Belchertown resident, Barbara Schaffer-Bacon.  Schaffer-Bacon was the director of the Arts Extension Service from 1986 – 1990 and is currently the president of the Arts Extension Institute, a nonprofit board that advises the Arts Extension Service and brings research from the field to the organization.  Schaffer-Bacon is an independent arts management consultant and is co-director of the Americans for the Arts’ Animating Democracy Initiative. According to Barry’s Blog these women are: “…three of the more prominent and highly regarded thinkers / consultants in the field. Barbara is long standing big picture thinker.”

Says Brown, “We are proud of both Bob and Barb and are grateful to instructors like Tom, who bring their expertise to the Arts Extension Service.  We are excited that we have access to those individuals with a deep understanding of the Creative Economy and the teaching skills to create the next generation of leaders who can bring that work forward.” 

To register for the Creative Economy course for spring, or to learn more about the Arts Extension Service, look them up online at  www.artsextensionservice.org or call 413-545-2360.                            
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