The Curb Center at Vanderbilt

Creative Ecosystems

Examining the institutions, relationships, laws, norms and practices that shape the production, distribution and consumption of creative goods.

Read more about our research in Creative Ecosystems:

Cities as Creative Ecologies

Recent attention has focused on the transformative promise of “creative cities” to drive economic growth, strengthen global branding and enhance citizens’ quality of life.  Yet research examining how to invest in a city’s creative capacity has only begun to explore how cities work as complex social systems.  What are the factors that contribute to and define the vitality of a city’s creative ecology?  What informal, below-the-radar points of leverage and insight can be tapped?   Who are the unidentified agents of change and growth?

NPAC:  Assessing the Capacity for Collective Action in the Performing Arts Field

In 2008, the National Performing Arts Convention embarked on an ambitious goal: to bring together over 3700 professionals arts leaders across performing arts disciplines to learn from each other, identify common goals, and advance a field-wide agenda. Several questions faced leaders as they debated and dialogued at the Convention:  Was collective action possible in the often fragmented and competitive performing arts field?  What were the opportunities for action?  What constraints needed to be addressed now, and in the future?

Read more about our projects:

Paula Cleggett, Emerging Visual Artists Elect DC

October 12th, 2011

Like most cities, artists, gallery owners, critics, curators, collectors and the curious weave a nebulous network to sustain a creative community. Unlike most cities, the DC art scene operates in the shadows of national monuments, free national art museums and internationally recognized art centers. Cities across the U.S. battle against the pervading myth that you can only make it as an artist in a culture-rich metropolis like New York, Los Angeles or Chicago. True, DC has distinct offerings and challenges…but clear indications show that emerging artists don’t settle for DC, they choose DC. More…

Elizabeth Long Lingo, Assessing the Performing Arts Field’s Capacity for Collective Action

September 1st, 2009

In 2008, the National Performing Arts Convention embarked on an ambitious goal: to bring together over 3700 professionals arts leaders across performing arts disciplines to learn from each other, identify common goals, and advance a field-wide agenda. Several questions faced leaders as they debated and dialogued at the Convention: Was collective action possible in the often fragmented and competitive performing arts field? What were the opportunities for action? More…

Elizabeth Long Lingo, 2007 Nashville Art Summit Report, The Curb Center

September 23rd, 2007

Recent attention has focused on the transformative promise of “creative cities” to drive economic growth, strengthen global branding and enhance citizens’ quality of life. Yet research examining how to invest in a city’s creative capacity has only begun to explore how cities work as complex social systems. What are the factors that contribute to and define the vitality of a city’s creative ecology? What informal, below-the-radar points of leverage and insight can be tapped? Who are the unidentified agents of change and growth? As part of this project, Lingo synthesized findings from the 2007 Nashville Art Summit, a first-of-its-kind opportunity for arts leaders to reflect collectively on the general state of their art forms, identify best practices and opportunities for change, and examine the factors that might foster the vitality of the Nashville arts scene as a whole. More…

Steven Tepper, Creative Assets and the Changing Economy, The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society

September 30th, 2002

Many arts advocates and policymakers have argued that certain changes in the economy (globalization, digitalization, the rise of the “knowledge” worker, the boom in intellectual property, changes in leisure consumption) are having a catalytic effect on art and culture. In particular, the arts are heralded as engines of economic growth and development. Scholars and pundits More…

Learn more about Creative Ecosystems

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