Friday, March 7, 2008

Five Creative Region Initiatives

The DDN reports on the results of the Creative Region Initiative. Five initiatives or projects have been identified via the workshop facilitated by Richard Florida's consutlancy.

Here they are, with some first thoughts from yer humble host:


Film Dayton: Launch a film festival in Dayton, establishing a seed fund for aspiring movie makers and leveraging the area's 30 to 40 film professionals into a new industry. The effort would work with three film festivals already held in Dayton to create a local film scene.

This one sounds the most interesting and accessible of five and builds on something that is already percolating here, albeit at a slow simmer.

Trying to think of what three film fests they are talking about? The Jewish Film Fest, the Gay & Lesbian Film Fest, and Big Lens (work by the WSU film students)? There have been one-off fests every so often, like one on Appalachian culture (I think this was a Cityfolk project?), which was pretty interesting. So this is very do-able.


I'll be blogging on local film cultures, with examples from elsewhere, as this is something that could really work here.

Innovation Collaborative: Bring artists and engineers together to exchange new ideas. Dayton has 50 percent more engineers and 5 percent more artists than the national average, according to an analysis by the Creative Class Group.

Dayton Creative Incubator
: Using the technology incubator concept, put "techies" and artists together under one roof to bring them to life.

Building a bridge between CP Snows “Two Cultures”? These two seem similar, so I’ve grouped them together. Since I’m neither an artists nor a techie I wish them well, but doesn’t grab me much. This seems a bit vague too, but I guess they are talking about a sort of local think tank? This one would take money as they are talking about a physical space.

Young Creatives Summit:
Involve people under age 40 in more non-profit boards to include them in the area's decision making.

Absolutely! This one is pretty good. Not my age group, but I support the idea of bringing this younger demographic on board. It also demonstrates the community is supportive and welcoming of bright young things and not a bunch of old-fogy insiders.

Community Pride: Raise awareness of Dayton's diversity and assets, starting with showcasing the area better at the Dayton International Airport, the largest introduction to Dayton for visitors.

This sounds like a PR campaign, and it would be easy to set up some displays at the airport to make the point. Again some money required for displays and other media?

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So, any comments or observations?



5 comments:

Greg Hunter said...

Jeffery, Again thanks for the post, I have a similar request at DaytonOS.
I think the film thing would be excellent and timely. I heard Niki Dakota interview the WSU Grad and story board artist for No Country for Old Men and we have other links as well, Lowe, Sheen, ? her name from Juno. It would be an ideal time to capitalize on this.

Your not an artist or a techie, hmm I thought you were a cross between both worlds. You sure seem to admire Architecture. PS - I know a gentleman - Jack Staley-Mead Lawyer and long time Daytonian, who is currently writing a book on the history of South Park, but is interested in writing a small paper about the Architecture of Dayton in comparison with 13th Century work. I see a good fit for production if you are interested. He could explain better than I.

I would also push for the Artists and Engineers forum as that is my perception on how ideas get done and discussed.

Anonymous said...

Jeffrey, I wonder if the other film festival is the "International Experimental Filmfest" that's been held at Sinclair CC over the last few years? Don't know. I also know that Sinclair is hosting another film festival this year called "The Reel Stuff," which will feature aviation type flics. Concerning attracting film companies here, I know that Beth Duke, one of the owners of the Cannery, has been active with her company to market Dayton as a venue for filmmaking. With WSU as a major producer of grads in filmmaking, I can see this creative initiative taking off.

Jefferey said...

I had no idea they had a film fest at Sinclair too.

Maybe there could be some coordination between these different things, as sort of a calender of year of festivals, doing cooperative marketing of whats already going on, via a website and print media.

Unknown said...

FYI - MostMetro.com is the official website for the Creative Region Initiative. To get involved in the initiative, visit www.dayton.mostmetro.com/forum and join the discussions. The project teams are looking for others in the community to help shape and implement the ideas that came out of the workshop. These ideas may take different directions depending on community input, so it is important to get involved.

As for the Dayton Film team, they have some exciting ideas to both take advantage of our already successful various film fests AND to help grow what many people don't realize is a strong filmmaking group here in Dayton - both at WSU and even Stivers. Some great talent has come out of both programs and the idea is to help grow that talent even more while putting Dayton on the map for beginning and independent film making.

All of the projects are focusing on growing & celebrating the assets we already have here in Dayton. And unlike many other previous top-down approaches, this is truly a community-based effort. We hope you all find a way to get involved - whether by actually participating in projects you have an interest in or by simply sharing your ideas on the forum. Stay tuned to mostmetro.com for more info on how to join our efforts.

Jefferey said...

billy, these DDN blurbs are pretty much one or two lines, not much detail.

Perhaps the you or the other catyalysts could expand on what these initiatives are all about, provide more detail on whats envisioned for the five, over at Most Metro?