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December 03, 2008
AE Advisor Michael Jensen Discussion
A few weeks ago Arts Enterprise Business Faculty Advisor Michael Jensen hosted a discussion at the Work Gallery on State Street regarding The Promises and Perils of the Art Industry. Although Prof. Jensen is a very dynamic speaker, his outlook on prospective jobs in the arts industry was dismal at best, although his appreciation for the need for creative thinkers in our society cannot be doubted. Just the fact that the event was covered by the Monroe Street Journal was encouraging as well, it's good to see AE getting exposure to the business school community.
Much of the discussion involved Richard Florida's book The Rise of the Creative Class
Although I've never read the book (although it's on my Christmas wish list), it has been on the bestseller lists and with all the changes in the economy, Florida's ideas are becoming more and more forward-thinking. In our society, we really do need people that can think creatively and look for different solutions to new problems. Which is where the arts comes in. Of course, while artists/creative thinkers certainly would be useful to businesses, they often tend to follow their "passions" without being open to other opportunities, but that's another story. THe book examines various indexes: Bohemian, High Tech, Gay, Melting Pot-not what you usually see on Wall Street. But the interesting was result that open-minded, artistically advanced cities like San Francisco ranked high while places like Detroit ranked low. Shocker. Does this say that Detroit is a lousy city because it ranks low not only on high tech but also in terms of gays and bohemians (and not so low on melting pot)? Well, no. That is not to say that Detroit is not a lousy city-it is. And it certainly does have arts and culture, it's just not as strong as other places. Perhaps a stronger emphasis on the arts would improve the quality of life? It's possible, hard to say though. Part of me is confused as to whether this thing about how having artists improves society and makes cities like SF's high tech economy, when artists in general are paid so little. But I guess that's just the way it works. In an ideal world everyone would make a lot of money and get to do what they love. Unfortunately, we live in far from an ideal world-one that's kind of short on money right now.
Posted by srelder at December 3, 2008 06:44 PM