Dig into New England's Free Directory
of Creative Enterprises and Artists
|
|
"While You Are Out" by Sova Theater, Photo by Linda van Egmond
|
|
Spring is springing - the birds are singing; CreativeGround's growth is just beginning! We celebrate Asian American and Pacific Island American (AAPI) New Englanders this month and are grateful for their contributions to and influences on our region's creative economy. Read on for tips and tricks, opportunities, and more.
|
|
What's Up with CreativeGround? |
|
We planted seeds for a richer CreativeGround two years ago, when we created a sustainable growth plan with consultants. Now, we are excited to tease some prototype design elements for the website upgrade. Note our refreshed logo (above) that resembles a raised garden bed - the individual plot dots representing the individual contributors to the fertile ecosystem of New England's creative economy. We're quite into the community garden metaphor!
Keep scrolling to peek at the new Search function that combines Search and Explore while keeping your favorite features (like narrowing by discipline, mapping, or searching by location). You'll note an overall brighter, rounder, and friendlier experience. We cannot wait to share the refreshed site with you this year!
|
|
Get Involved
- Nominate a profile to be featured on the website
- Indicate your interest in blogging about the sector
- Indicate your interest in being a Community Cultivator
|
|
|
|
Screenshot of a prototype of the Search functionality on the soon-to-be-launched refreshed CreativeGround site |
|
CreativeGround Profiles To Explore |
|
Freshly Picked
Check out new featured profiles on CreativeGround! Read the latest Featured Profiles blog to get the high level information, then check out their profiles to learn more, and/or get some inspiration for your own profile updates.
|
|
|
Dirt-y Dancing: What Your CreativeGround Neighbors are Digging Into
NEFA's Regional Dance Development Initiative (RDDI): New England Now is happening now. RDDI convenes in a different region of the U.S. every few years to engage with dance artists and leaders of that area. This artist lab focuses on abundance, health, and collectively building a future filled with opportunities for New England dance to thrive. Read about the panelists and the cohort of twelve artists (including Chavi Bansal, Aretha Aoki, and Ian Berg).
|
|
Chavi Bansal (Massachusetts)
|
|
|
|
Freshen Up Your Online Profile
We polled our readers and found that most people search CreativeGround by discipline. For the best Search Engine Optimization (SEO), make sure your Description of Work and Background section talks about the work that you do. Focus on explaining the selections you've made for your lists of disciplines and activities.
Are you doing something that isn't listed as an option on your CreativeGround profile? Let us know.
|
|
Dig Deeper: Cleaning profiles that aren't yours
Does CreativeGround's online presentation of your community have inaccuracies? View profiles that may have closed, relocated, or mutated into a new venture. Click on "Flag this profile for review" to let a CreativeGround team member know!
|
|
"Real Time" vs "Longitudinal" Measures of the Creative Economy
Because it’s online and different every time you search it, the CreativeGround directory tracks the creative people and places of New England in real time. Known as “cultural asset mapping,” the profiles give us a snapshot of the region’s creative entities and where they are. We rely on people "on the ground" (you) to reflect changes in their profiles as they happen in order to reflect the current reality of our creative economy,
- The categories for any kind of real time data tracking need to be inclusive, flexible and responsive to the real environment, which is why CreativeGround’s lists of Institution/Business types, Disciplines, and Activities are always evolving and based on feedback from the community they measure.
Longitudinal studies measure the creative economy’s changes over time. The “real time” directory helps us to use CreativeGround as the database that we maintain for the purposes of this kind of longitudinal research analysis.
- For example, when someone marks a CreativeGround profile as “Out of Business” we ask for the date of the closure. Those inactive profiles might no longer be visible in the searchable directory, but we keep track of when entities open and close so that we can make long-range comparisons with real time data – “how many entities closed 2009-2014 or 2020-2023?”
|
|
Poll: Springing Back Into Action |
|
|
What will most support your reemergence into the post-quarantine arts world this summer?
|
|
Advice around compliance with public health guidelines
|
|
|
|
|
Space (to create/make/rehearse, to present, to showcase)
|
|
|
|
|
Funding (grants, partnerships, job opportunities)
|
|
|
|
|
Tools and materials (including technology)
|
|
|
|
|
Relationships (with community, collaborators, arts leaders...)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Regional Opportunities
Your State Arts Agency
|
|
National Endowment for the Arts
Additional National Highlights
|
|
CreativeGround on the "Ground" |
|
Are you planning any events in which you might want CreativeGround involved? We're considering virtual and in person events for the near future. Let us know what you have planned and how we can support your community by emailing creativeground@nefa.org. |
|
CONTACT
Morganna Becker (she/her/hers)
Community Engagement Coordinator, Creative Economy
|
|
A project of the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), CreativeGround is brought to you through ongoing partnerships with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Connecticut Office of the Arts, the Maine Arts Commission, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, and the Vermont Arts Council. |
|
|
At the New England Foundation for the Arts, we believe that one of the roles of the arts is to make the invisible, visible. We also believe that it is not the responsibility of those who have been made invisible to remind us that they are still here. Therefore, as a committed ally, NEFA acknowledges that the ground on which we work is the traditional land of the Massachuset and Wampanoag people; we honor their ancestors past, present, and future, and recognize their continued existence and contributions to our society.
NEFA also acknowledges that all the places that our distributed staff live and work, and where we provide support and hold events, are Indigenous lands. We offer our respect to the Elders – past, present, and future.
|
|
You're receiving this email because you have opted into receive communications for CreativeGround. Please contact CreativeGround@nefa.org with an questions or concerns.
Manage your email preferences by signing into CreativeGround and clicking the "Edit" tab on your "My Account" page.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
