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.

We finished Round Two of our presentations in Central Lousiana on the state of that region’s workforce.  The work is part of the Rapides Foundation’s “Beyond High School” Project.  Trent Williams presented some of RTS most recent finding including a detailed analysis of future employer growth, the current capacity of the post-secondary system to meet this growth, and employer attitudes towards the workforce development system.  You can read more about Trent’s presentation here.

Our ongoing work with the Rapides Foundation continues this month, with RTS making presentations to community leaders in Central Louisiana around the future of Workforce Development.  Chris Beacham, our Director of Economic Development Programs, talked about the current state of Cenla’s economy and what the future holds for the region.  Chris’ presentation can be downloaded here and you can read about the effort in the Alexandria newspaper here.

A group of international experts on cluster-based economic development gathered in Burlington Vermont, September 21-24 in a meeting sponsored by RTS and the Ford Foundation.  The group discussed issues around clusters in rural, disadvantaged communities and how effective strategies can be devised that address not only economic development but social equity and inclusion and enivronmental impact–or what is being called the triple bottom line of development.   RTS is in the midst of a project for the Foundation in which several organizations are tasked with looking at different ways to approach the TBL. While RTS is looking at clusters, other groups are looking at entrepneurship, finance and supply chain development as ways to impact rural development in a triple bottom line manner.  In the coming weeks, we will be posting more materials from the meeting on this web site.  You can see a full participant list here.

Sheridan, Wyoming is the latest place where RTS and its partners in the Alliance for Creative Advantage are exploring the impact of the creative economy.  Among our findings are that the creative economy of Sheridan and Johnson Counties includes an estimated 1,123 people who earn their living from the creative content of what they produce, support and/or sell. Based on the number employed or self-employed in the two counties, the creative economy represents more than one in 20 people employed, which is higher than manufacturing, and about one in 14 enterprises.   Our report offers recommendations on how the community can take the next steps to making sure that the region builds on its reputation as a center for Western art.  You can download our report here.

We recently brought together  more than 80 community leaders, business owners, artists and non-profits in Bentonville and Little Rock, Arkansas to hear  our preliminary recommendations on the next steps that the state can take to enhance its creative economy  Local press featured the meeting as well.  Click here to read their account.

We plan to hold two more of these meeting later this Fall.

You can read more about RTS work in Arkansas, sponsored by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, with our Year 1 and Year 2 report, plus our series of vignettes on Arkansas’ economy.