One of the most dynamic cities in the South, Charleston, South Carolina, has asked RTS to examine its creative economy. We will take a look at a three county region’s creative enterprises, workers and assets and help develop strategies to enhance the creative economy’s impact in the Low Country. The project will also benchmark Charleston’s creative economy against selected communities in the Southeast.

Helping communities act more collaboratively in regional approaches has long been a hallmark of RTS’ work. A new effort in South Dakota will allow us to work with a group of counties and municipalities looking to create a new regional growth strategy. The strategy will include an analysis of the region’s clusters and a plan designed to build and support the research enterprise and educational assets at the region’s universities and link them to the private sector as economic development drivers.

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) awarded RTS a grant to assess the workforce trends and training requirements necessary to meet the needs of the ARC region’s increasingly important energy sector.  We will be working with colleagues at Penn State to project energy workforce growth, particularly in light of new green energy legislation. We’ll also be looking at the ability of the region’s community colleges and universities to train workers to meet the expected need.  Finally, we’ll take a look at best practices at these institutions.

Working with a group of business leaders in the Shreveport, Louisiana region, RTS is looking at ways to increase the ability of minority entrepreneurs and small business owners to compete and prosper.  In 2008, RTS reported back to the  Strategic Action Council of Northwest Louisiana on the most important economic development challenges and opportunities facing the region, identifying issues relating to the numbers and capacity of minority-owned businesses as critical. The SAC agreed with that assessment and has asked RTS to further investigate the challenges facing these firms and to develop a plan to begin to ensure their success.  RTS staff will conduct extensive on-the-ground interviews and focus groups with entrepreneurs and owners in the region to find out what exactly they see are the most important barriers to their success and how the region can help them grow.

Our latest work in the creative economy takes us to the land of Faulkner, the Blues and a whole lot of new artists making a name for themselves.  The Mississippi Arts Comission along with the Mississippi Development Authority has contracted with RTS and the Alliance for Creative Advantage to analyze how the state’s creative industries contribute to the economic health of the state.  Along with looking at the impact of the arts, we will also be examining how manufacturing companies such as Viking Ranges and Peavey Electronics have used design to not only grow their enteprises but influence growth in the region.  Over the next few months, we will be traveling to the Magnolia State to conduct focus groups, write vignettes about creative economy from the Delta to the Gulf Coast and help the state develop strategies for enhancing the impact of arts and design.

The National Governor’s Association report Using Arts and Culture to Stimulate State Economic Development provides the nation’s governors with ” examples from states across the country to help governors incorporate the arts and culture into their long-term economic development strategies.”  RTS’ work in Arkansas and North Carolina is featured prominently in the work.  The work specifically mentions RTS’ approach of using case studies as a way to ” provide powerful insight into a state’s cultural industries, illuminating the economic impact of specific industries, the relationships between various businesses and occupations, and the needs of various economic clusters.  The report can be downloaded from NGA’s site here.

RTS is beginning work on a couple of new projects that stress our belief in the interconnection between workforce and economic development.  For the Golden Leaf Foundation, we are looking at the aerospace industry in North Carolina.  We will provide an overview of the aerospace manufacturing environment and technologies, types of jobs in this industry cluster, knowledge and skills employees need and an assessment of the aerospace job market in the state.  The ultimate goal of the study is offer the Foundation and its partners the necessary information and analysis to develop a comprehensive strategic plan aimed at ensuring that this industry will thrive and produce good, high paying jobs now and into the future.  While the aerospace cluster is a growing one in the state, we are also looking at a traditional industry in our work with the Allegheny Hardwood Utilization Group of Pennsylvania. For AHUG, we are identifying careers in the forest products industry and how workers can be better prepared not only to enter the workforce, but also build careers in the industry.  You can read more about these two projects and others we are working on by going to the Current Projects section.

Our latest edition of CraftNet Sketches has arrived.  Sketches is our way to keep you up to date on the goings-on of CraftNet, a network of community college’s who are collaborating together to create innovative approaches to using artisan-based strengths as a way to foster economic development.  In this issue of Sketches, we highlight Berea College’s E-Commerce program that is helping student artists find a new marketplace for their work. We also focus on the upcoming Craft Organization Development Association annual meeting in St. Paul, which will feature the public debut of CraftNet’s E-Commerce Curriculum.  We also use this issue of Sketches to welcome CraftNet’s newest member Flathead Valley Community College located in Kalispell, Montana.  You can read all about CraftNet and download past issues of Sketches here.

Stuart Rosenfeld traveled to Denver recently to make a series of presentations relating to our work on Colorado’s creative economy.  Stuart gave the keynote speech at the annual Cultural Forum, which this year was entitled “Avancing Colorado’s Creative Economy.”  Our report to the Arts Council of Colorado that we worked as part of the Alliance for Creative Advantage will be released in January.

RTS recognizes the importance of capital access to entrepreneurs and small businesses.  Recently, through our work with the Rapides Foundation, we commissioned an analysis of the capital market for small businesses in Central Louisiana.  The report, Assessment of the Capital Market in Central Louisiana identifies what gaps exist both in terms of types of capital and in skill-building services available to entrepreneurs.  Our friends Deb Markley of the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, and Dr. David Barkley of Clemson University prepared the report.