Lewiston sessions to link arts, economic growth

The Blaine House Conference on the Creative Economy focuses on Maine. So why is everyone talking about Florida?

Let me give you a hint: It’s not vacation.

Richard Florida, whose 2002 book “The Rise of the Creative Class” laid the framework for a new way of linking the arts, creative industry and economic growth, will be the keynote speaker at the conference, which takes place May 7 at the Bates Mill Complex in Lewiston.

In a series of regional forums held this winter throughout Maine, conference organizers repeatedly heard one request: Bring Florida. His book and subsequent writings have become a bible of sorts for supporters of the creative economy, but they also have come under fire recently in mainstream and alternative media. This only adds to his appeal, says Abbe Levin of the Maine Arts Commission.

“I think that’s a good thing … that people are talking about it and talking about it in different ways,” Levin said. “With any concept, if we didn’t hear pros and cons, that’s not a good thing.”

Though Florida’s model is primarily urban, Levin said Maine shouldn’t discount his ideas simply because we live in a rural area.

“He brings to it the fact that he’s not only doing this work all over the United States but now all over the world,” Levin said. “If we don’t think about adopting [this concept] in rural areas, are we saying that only happens in urban areas? I think it brings that national perspective that we absolutely have to do.”

Former Maine news anchor Felicia Knight, who now serves as communications director for the National Endowment for the Arts, will also bring a national view. Ideally, she says, communities will embrace the creative economy without losing sight of “an even greater reason to embrace the arts.”

“What a community should try to do is create an environment where all its citizens have access to all the things that will let them be fully realized as human beings,” Knight said. “If a community wants to fully realize its potential, it will do that through the arts.”

In addition to Knight and Florida, several speakers will bring a regional and statewide view on the creative economy. Mayor John Barrett II of North Adams, Mass., will discuss the transformation that occurred after the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art opened in town.

In Pawtucket, R.I., where speaker Herbert Weiss serves as the economic and cultural affairs officer, more than 850,000 square feet of vacant mills and commercial property has undergone a transformation of its own – into affordable loft and studio space and artistic venues.

“We think he has a lot to share with many of our communities,” Levin said.

Because each community has different needs, the afternoon session of the conference will feature breakout sessions. These include talks on cultural tourism, youth retention, growing creative clusters, developing housing for artists and large-building reuse. Charles Colgan and Richard Barringer of the University of Southern Maine’s Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Policy also will share results of their research on the creative economy in the state.

Though artists, designers, architects and other “creative sector” workers are invited to the conference, economic developers, city and town leaders, and planners would benefit most.

“I think they have to gain from it, quite frankly, a new way of doing economic development,” Levin said. “This is a new concept and these are the practitioners. These are the people who will put these concepts into place.”