The state of Oklahoma is working to reframe itself as the ”state of creativity” with a significant public relations, project positioning, and on-line effort to make their point. The Oklahoma Creativity Project, launched last month, works to get the now-ascendant ”C” word to the front-of-mind of citizens, legislators, and business leaders both inside and outside the state.
The goals of the initiative are to:
- Establish Oklahoma as The State of Creativity.
- Empower all Oklahomans to develop their capacities for creativity and innovation.
- Facilitate the growth of an entrepreneurial economy that will stimulate new careers, companies, and industries.
- Make possible the further development of world-class cultural and educational opportunities.
The project web site is intended to serve as the hub for this conversation, and for individual users to post their own profiles and insights, and make connections through ”pods.”
The initiative is the most public evidence yet of the arrival of ”creativity” (hand-in-hand with ”commerce”) on the arts agenda, and the renewed effort to connect expression and cultural life to entrepreneurialism, public problem-solving, and regional vitality. It’s an evolutionary twist on the ”creative class,” which focused on workers who were already outwardly creative in their jobs and profile, suggesting now that creativity can be grown at home (in many forums and formats) as well as lured from elsewhere. It will be interesting to see who shows up to talk, and how much front-loading such a large public conversation will require.
In my own backyard, the new logo design of the Wisconsin Arts Board (unveiled here on YouTube) embraces both ”C” words as central to their purpose, extending them to four: creativity, culture, community, commerce.
What’s the next word in the glossary of cultural advocacy? My money is one step down the alphabet, on the word ”discovery.”
