An initial study on Maine’s creative economy suggests that its impact on the overall economy is quite small, which is to be expected given the brief time the state has focused on developing it. But Gov. John Baldacci is correct to see that in addition to their many benefits to society and the individual, the arts could provide economic opportunity for Maine.

Charles Colgan of the University of Southern Maine and Greg Wassall of Northeastern University have begun looking at the creative economy for a Blaine House commission on the subject and while they say their results aren’t showing a major return yet,

Mr. Colgan notes that because Maine’s creative economy is smaller than the national and New England average, the state has an opportunity that it did not consider until only a few years ago.

The timing of Maine’s interest is fortunate because President Bush recently proposed to expand the budget of its essential partner in developing and exhibiting the arts here, the National Endowment for the Arts. Under the president’s proposal, the NEA would receive an additional $18 million next year, a major step forward for an agency that had its budget cut a decade ago and had not been allowed to recover. Most of the new funding would go toward the agency’s American Masterpieces program, a combination of shows and education covering all art forms. It’s an exciting program that would allow Maine to draw on its history with the arts and to propose new artists worthy of inclusion. Maine, through its arts commission, must be organized well enough to take advantage of this and existing NEA funding.

The creative economy is much more than the arts, but the arts may be its most visible component and is an area where Maine could do much more. This will require a focused, sustained program of encouragement and funding so that new artists can thrive here, along with the many other people in medical research, computer technology, architecture, publishing and a dozen other fields that make up the creative economy.

The state’s opportunities for growth in this economy go well beyond the dollars that can be counted today.