New nonprofit head to enhance city's creative economy
Photo/Courtesy Creative Portland Corp.
Jennifer Hutchins is the new executive director of the Creative Portland Corp. and the Portland Arts & Cultural Alliance
Two Portland arts organizations have come together to hire a full-time executive director to strengthen the local creative economy and attract talented newcomers to the city.
Creative Portland Corp. and the Portland Arts & Cultural Alliance have selected Jennifer Hutchins to be the organizations' shared leader. Her position will be equally funded by the nonprofits, which could not have afforded two separate directors, according to PACA Board President Alice Kornhauser.
Kornhauser says Hutchins will link PACA's mission to strengthen Portland's arts with that of Creative Portland, which focuses on economic development through the creative sector and has had success reaching out to the business community. PACA, among other activities, oversees the city's First Friday Art Walk.
"PACA has its strengths and Creative Portland has its strengths and Jennifer really bridges those two worlds," Kornhauser says.
Hutchins has a background in the arts and in public policy. She's currently the director of communications and external affairs for the Muskie School of Public Service, and in 2004, co-wrote a Muskie report for Gov. John Baldacci's inaugural Blaine House Summit on the Creative Economy. Prior to that, she did marketing for Portland Stage Co. Hutchins says in her new role, she will not just promote the arts, but also reach out to local government, colleges and universities, nonprofits and businesses to get them to support the idea of branding Portland as a creative place.
When she starts her new job Dec. 1, Hutchins will first talk to everyone she can, from legislators and owners of creative businesses to artists working in the streets. "I want to make as many connections as I can schedule," she says, with "key contacts in the community... I want to know, what do they need from us, and what they can bring to us."
Hutchins anticipates she will hear about the need for affordable space, both living space and studios, in the arts district, as well as ideas about collective places where artists or writers can meet and work. She also mentions finding ways to help the self-employed apply for grants and receive health insurance.
The concept behind a creative economy is that a city will more easily attract highly motivated, highly skilled people with good incomes if it has a vibrant arts community. And a creative economy can include not just artists, musicians and writers, but all of an area's innovators, such as boat builders, chefs or even software developers, Hutchins says. According to her 2004 report, more than 63,000 people in Maine were employed in the creative economy in 2002, making up about 10% of the state's wage and salary employment. Cumberland County is home to the largest chunk of those people, or 42%.
Hutchins is quick to clarify that Portland already has a strong arts community. Instead of starting anything new, she sees her job as cultivating what has already developed here organically. "Through leadership, networking and targeted strategies, we can take it that much further," she says. "We will target our resources toward what people need to be creatively viable."
She uses Portland's culinary environment as an example, which began with just a few solid restaurants and has become a nationally recognized foodie destination. At this point, she says -- as an example -- she might reach out to Southern Maine Community College's culinary program to look at how the city could develop an even more robust cooking school.
Hutchins says she also hopes to expand her budget to roughly $150,000, which would cover one or two staff and related programming, raising it through grants, donations and a current city allotment of $30,000.
Hutchins, who lives in Portland with her husband and two children and spent some of her childhood in Brunswick, says she's excited about her new job and "inspired by the work that's already been done and feeling very confident about jumping in and seeing where we can go."
"At the same time," she continues, "I don't wear rose-colored glasses. I understand the challenges of the current economy ... But let's give it our all and evaluate in three years and see what we've accomplished."
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