The Creative Economy

I have been doing a lot of work over the last few years on the "creative economy". Everyone seems to have a different opinion on the definition of the term creative economy and a lot has been written about these. While many feel that this encompasses our cultural facilities and outlets, I feel that the term is far more expansive than just our artistic community. Clearly this is part of it, but we have been very creative in our economy since the beginning of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We don't have natural resources such as oil fields or precious metals. We don't have vast expansive corn or wheat fields. What we have are more colleges and universities than anywhere else on a per capita basis. We have used our ability to be creative and innovative to spur a creative economy in Massachusetts. That has been good for us.

In the health care field, we (the citizens of Massachusetts) created the first vaccine in the 1790's. Mass. General Hospital was the first to use a general anesthesia. We played a large part in mapping the human genome and have the largest cluster of life science companies in the US. Recently, UMass professor Craig Mello was awarded a Nobel Prize for his work on RNAi. This is phenomenal.

In the field of telecommunications, we have the telephone being invented in Boston and the first commercial use of fiber optics. We also saw the invention of the power transformer, first mutual fund, first safety match, first computer (Dr. Vannevar Bush at MIT, no relation) and much much more. We are number one in the number of small business innovation research grants per capita in the US, and we have the greatest number of patents filed per capita in the nation.

It is our ability to be innovative and creative that fuels our economy. I believe our educational institutions and our vast array of cultural facilities lead to this creativity.

There are two bills that I filed this year that, I believe, will help to keep this creative economy thriving. The first is a bill establishing a creative economic council within the Mass Office of Business Development (MOBD). The administration, to their credit, has already hired someone to lead this effort in anticipation of the bills passage. When the bill passes, it will establish an advisory board to help shape policy concerning the creative economy. The second bill establishes a working group within our educational system to develop a creativity index in our schools. I have every confidence that this bill will pass also. Not only should we encourage creativity, but also we need to identify best practices and spread these across all of our schools. I recently wrote an editorial in the Boston Globe with Dan Hunter, the executive director of the Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities (MAASH). The following is that editorial. I believe this effort is as important as our push to improve our science and math skills. The hard sciences are important, but we have proven in Massachusetts time and again that our ability to innovate in these hard sciences is what drives our economy. I hope you enjoy the editorial.

Creative thinking in the classroom The following appeared in the Boston Globe on February 23, 2008 Op-Ed by Dan Bosley and Dan Hunter All the third-graders at Chase Street School in Somerset were on the floor under their desks - painting. They had been studying the Renaissance and the works of Michelangelo. And now the children were painting their own vision, Michelangelo-style. Years from now, will they remember the facts of the Renaissance, facts that can be measured by a standardized test? Or will they remember how it felt to be in Michelangelo's skin and the challenge of articulating their individual vision? They are likely to remember the art of creativity, something that is not measured on today's standardized tests. Standardized tests use individual student performances to provide one measure of school achievement. This is valuable. But, because the tests are the only public measure of school success, schools have an incentive to "teach to the test" and to educate children to be test takers. Is this all children need to learn? Are we adequately preparing them for the future? We have moved into an economy driven by ideas and innovation. Are we giving students the opportunity to develop creativity - the ability to generate ideas and then to critically evaluate potential? According to a coalition of researchers, 81 percent of corporate leaders in America say that "creativity is an essential skill for the 21st-century workforce." In addition to creativity, these business leaders look for such skills as collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking, and oral communication. We have proposed a bill that creates a new measure of accountability for schools in Massachusetts. With the Creative Challenge Index, a commission - comprising legislators, and business and community leaders working with the Department of Education and education leaders - would establish an index to measure how many opportunities schools provide for students to engage in the practice of creative work - taking a project from inspiration to revision to fruition. Through the index, schools can be rewarded for creative opportunities. Schools that provide opportunities for creative work in the arts, music, drama, and dance would rise in the Index. So would schools that engage students in a broad range of creative activities, such as science fair projects, debate club, fashion design, filmmaking, or architecture. The Creative Challenge Index would establish incentives for schools to foster creative skills through arts education and other innovative educational opportunities. Students need this practice not only to succeed in our new economy, but to realize their potential as human beings. Indeed, many citizens value arts education and the practice of creativity. "Coming from a technical job function, creativity is part of the essence of what we have our employee performance reviews based upon," said Nancy L. Barnes a logistics engineering technical manager. "The concept of 'creativity' stems from being able to explore in an art medium at a younger age and continuing to foster those skills throughout a child's 12 years in school." Stephen McNulty, a Boston police officer, said, "All the aspects of music performance have transferred as critical skills. It also gave me the adaptability and confidence to succeed in this very different career. Everyone should have such an opportunity. Who would have thought that my choir director and music teacher would have such a profound effect on my life?" John Langton of Waltham said, "I'm a computer scientist and work in R & D. Many of the skills necessary in the workforce require the ability to think creatively and constructively. The ability to write well and perform creative problem solving is indispensable in the real world, and intrinsically artistic." Creativity is indispensable in today's world. Children need to practice creative skills in schools to become the source of innovation to drive the economy in the future. The Legislature should pass the Creative Challenge Index. To be creative means asking, "How do you see the world and how do you see it in a way that no one else does?" Those questions lead to innovation - whether you are Michelangelo working under the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or a Somerset third-grader painting under your desk.