The new paradigm: Creatives and arts entrepreneurs

Why arts entrepreneurs, and why now? The world is hungry for new ways to fuel economic development, inspire innovation, and build stronger communities. Small and large businesses in the United States and globally need an infusion of creativity and entrepreneurialism to help people to (re) solve challenges and seize opportunities. However, higher education in the arts often only focuses on craft-making and not on entrepreneurial skill-set building. Shifts in educational opportunities and pedagogy are needed to ensure an emerging paradigm of entrepreneurs can instil their creativity and ingenuity into the economy. Creativity is a resource that to varying degrees all humans possess. Human ingenuity has been recognized as an essential tool to creating new products, services and ideas to help solve our world’s problems. An IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the first ‘leadership competency’ needed for future success (IBM, 2010). However, a study of over 300,000 responses to the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, accurately predicting kids’ creative accomplishments as adults since 1958, discovered scores had diminished continuously since 1991 (Bronson and Merryman, 2010). While the US has been considered one of the most economically developed countries in the world, evidence suggests it has grown complacent. One index reveals the US ranks 11th out of 142 countries evaluated based on a variety of factors including wealth, economic growth and quality of life (Legatum Prosperity Index, 2014).