{"id":8746,"date":"2011-09-15T15:59:28","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T19:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=8746"},"modified":"2011-09-15T15:59:28","modified_gmt":"2011-09-15T19:59:28","slug":"creating-a-new-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2011\/09\/15\/creating-a-new-class\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating a New Class"},"content":{"rendered":"

Raleigh is home to many of the North Carolina’s brightest, most creative individuals. Economists, city leaders and even Census takers<\/a> call these people the \u201ccreative class.\u201d\u00a0 The buzzword encompasses everyone from starving artists and indie musicians to computer programmers at high tech companies \u2013 anyone who makes their living by thinking outside the box.<\/p>\n

Discussed at length by University of Toronto professor Richard Florida in his book \u201cThe Rise of the Creative Class,\u201d Florida defined the creative class is the \u201cfast-growing, highly educated, and well-paid segment of the workforce on whose efforts corporate profits and economic growth increasingly depend.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Florida, these workers make up around 30 percent of the American workforce and have an average annual salary of around $50,000.<\/p>\n

Raleigh competes with bigger cities when it comes to the size of its creative class. The Triangle made Florida\u2019s initial list of top 10 most creative cities, along with places such as San Francisco and Boston.<\/p>\n

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Acroentertainment performs by Moore Square for First Friday.<\/p><\/div>\n

According to the NC Employment Security Commission\u2019s fourth quarter 2010 report, 8,413 \u201carts, entertainment, and recreation\u201d jobs contributed more than $59 million in wages to Raleigh\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere certainly is a creative class in the Triangle. It\u2019s a growing part of the economy,\u201d said Ken Atkins, executive director of Wake County Economic Development with the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce. \u201cThe reason for that is the three tier-one universities and the Research Triangle Park, which has drawn a lot of bright, creative folks. You can be just as cool here as you can in the bigger cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Events like this weekend\u2019s SparkCon make it clear that Raleigh\u2019s creative class isn\u2019t just a subtle influence, they\u2019re a driving force. SparkCon is a four-day event started in 2006 by Designbox and Ali and Beth Khalifa.<\/p>\n

As Visual Art Exchange Executive Director Sarah Powers put it, SparkCon \u201cis an interdisciplinary art and design festival that showcases the creative community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powers said the festival shows how everyone, not just the creative class, is bettered by artistic exchange.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gets talent exposed to new audiences,\u201d Powers said. \u201cSecond, audiences get to see tons of new art and new art forms. Also, a huge chunk of it is leadership; that really helps our volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the creative class can contribute economically on its own, one of its greatest strengths, according to Florida and others, is in its ability to attract other opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat contributes culturally also contributes economically,\u201d said Derrick Minor, Downtown Raleigh Alliance director of downtown development. \u201cIt\u2019s an additional ecosystem that attracts others to come here. [They] drive people to downtown and people, in turn, pour money back into the economy. It\u2019s like a magnet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marvin Malecha, dean of N.C. State University\u2019s College of Design, has taught some of the people who make up that ecosystem.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most entrepreneurial spirit is that of the artist. They\u2019re the least likely to get help and the most likely to say, \u2018let\u2019s move on\u2019 when something isn\u2019t working,\u201d Malecha said. \u201cArtists are by nature risk takers and innovators. They\u2019re always investigating and questioning, because that\u2019s how they get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

While visual artists and musicians embody this ethic, entrepreneurs like Victor_Lytvinenko, co-owner of Raleigh Denim, live by it, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question you ask when you\u2019re trying to solve an artistic problem is the same question you ask when trying to answer questions about business,\u201d said Lytvinenko, who started out making jeans with his wife, Sarah, at home. \u201cHow to attack a problem of design is similar to how to attack a problem of business\u2014 it\u2019s something about problem solving; finding the right question to ask.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Victor Lytvinenko, co-owner of Raleigh Denim.<\/p><\/div>\n

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What the creative class contributes cannot always be answered numerically, but anecdotes abound.\u00a0 The Raleigh Chamber’s Atkins said he believes the impact they have on Raleigh\u2019s economy is undoubtedly much more significant than numbers indicate.<\/p>\n

Creativity \u201cis being able to not only have unique output, but also being able to inspire others with your work,\u201d said Joe Hall, guitarist and vocalist for indie band Hammer No More the Fingers. \u201cInspire them to work on something big\u2014 to give new life or new energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like the state motto written above his workshop floor, \u201cTo be, rather than to seem,\u201d Lytvinenko sees the creative class for what they bring to the community itself, not so much its economy. \u201cI hope our contribution is inspiration, to show that anything is possible. We\u2019re still here. Whatever it is you want to work on, it\u2019s possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Downtown Raleigh Alliance is working to bring more “creative class” to Raleigh. What impact does this group have and what does it mean for the City of Oaks? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24040,"featured_media":8747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24040"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}