An interesting thread beneath this post about the disconnect between the "creative culture" initiative once ballyhooed by Action Greensboro and the actual creative culture of Greensboro. This is a telling comment. Here's part of what I had to say about the now-retired ConvergeSouth conference:
Instigated and run by volunteers, it brought people from DC and Atlanta and across the Carolinas to A&T each year to talk about (as the founding motto had it) creativity on the web for all people.
We ran it successfully until it felt played out and we were burnt out on it, and then we shut it down. We were happy with what we'd done.
But -- what if institutional support had been there at some point, not just for funding but for planning, marketing, etc?
What if the ideas and energy of the grassroots creative folks had been combined with the muscle of AG?
Then GSO today might have an ongoing creative arts/new media festival, something like a regional version of SXSW -- an actual creative effort that drives economic development, just as the creative culture rap has it.
But we don't.
Recent Comments