Deepening Tradition

Teaching Artists as Cultural Ambassadors in Communities

Yesterday I had the pleasure of presenting a Keynote at the New Jersey Arts Education Consortium's Multi-Day Teaching Artist Training entitled CREATECommunity.  The Prezi below developed in Social Entrepreneurship was a major tool in delivering the message.

In FACT Social Entrepreneurship Proposal on Prezi

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The Power to Have Our Say

  This oral history project began in Professor Joel Gardner's Oral History Class. It includes interviews with a jailed civil rights pioneer and the sister of James Chaney (one of the slain Mississippi activist killed and buried by the KKK in the infamous 1964 voter rights photograph) VOTE - and just as important........ as one of the interviewees states:  "Bring Somebody with you!"

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In The Field

The on-campus residencies at MACS are seven to ten days each semester.  During each residency we experience the world of cultural sustainability through incredible field trips.  This week in our Models of  Social Entrepreneurship course we visited the Affinity Lab in Washington, DC.  to research the intricacies of co-working social enterprises.  Affinity Lab is the innovative brainchild of Phillipe Chetrit, Berit Oskey and Charles Planck.

As a creative membership model, Affinity presents brilliant solutions to issues that start ups and small social enterprises may inure.  It is a flexible blend of shared office space, incubators, and an entrepreneurial club.  Phillipe explained, "the space is always about the people." Other key dimensions are collaborative programming, communications tools, and space design.  Currently the 10-year old Lab hosts 65 members.

My colleagues and I benefitted from engaging and stimulating conversations with Ian Fisk of The William James Foundation; Chris Bradshaw of Dreaming Outloud; and, Freeman White of Launcht.com.  The exchange engendered critical assessments toward our goals as scholars and cultural workers.

To explore possibilities for launching your social entrepreneurial dream visit Affinity Lab and research co-working spaces in your local area.

Models of Entrepreneurship is taught by co-director of the MACS program, Tiffany Espinosa in collaboration with Rebecca Saltman.

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