The Art of Economic Development – Community Colleges for Creative Economies

The avant-garde of community colleges

Many community colleges are unassumingly becoming
places students and communities do look to for leisuretime,
creative, and cultural activities, and they are
becoming institutions of choice for qualifying for creative,
and growing, occupations and industries.

Community colleges have become many
things to many people over their
century-long transformation from
junior colleges into comprehensive learning
environments.

As relative latecomers to
America’s education system, they have been
able and willing to take on missions and serve
people that other levels of education could
not or would not. Community colleges have
become well known for their effectiveness in
delivering education and training, supporting
industrial development, and serving all—including
the poorest, newest, and underachieving
segments of the population—all with
workmanlike efficiency.

Despite their achievements, few think of
community colleges as bastions of creativity
or particularly “cool” places. Effective, yes;
but not places with strong reputations for arts,
culture, or being “cool,” not places that are
likely to attract students—or, for that matter,
alumni, retirees, and knowledge-intensive
companies. Institutions of higher education
like the University of Michigan, University of
Wisconsin, Bennington, Bryn Mawr, or Bowdoin
not only offer strong programs of study
but also anchor environments where people
like to spend their free time. Community
colleges, in contrast, offer convenience and
value to students and companies. Because so
many of their students are local, have families,
and work full time, they do not serve the
same social function. The community college
is where people commute—sometimes long
distances—to acquire skills, credits or simply
pursue interests and then return to their
homes, families and jobs.

Yet many community colleges are unassumingly
becoming places students and communities
do look to for leisure-time, creative,
and cultural activities, and they are becoming
institutions of choice for qualifying for creative,
and growing, occupations and industries.
An increasing number of community colleges,
particularly in small cities and rural areas,
have large community or regional theatres and
museums on campus; host artisan or writers’
workshops, festivals, and concerts; and contribute
to rebuilding main streets. They offer
occupational and transfer programs in the
arts, graphic design, architecture, crafts, film
and video, animation, and other “creative
class” careers.

Community colleges, in fact, are becoming
known as “cool” places. Wilkesboro Community
College in rural North Carolina draws
more than 70,000 people to its campus for
MerleFest, a nationally known music festival,
each April, which brings about $14 million
into the area. Capital Community College in
Hartford, Connecticut, by taking over a
historic department store in the center of the
city and retaining its art deco interior, has
added immensely to the attraction of downtown.
Central Carolina Community College
in Siler City, North Carolina operates the
state’s first arts business incubator and one of
the few in the nation. Santa Fe Community
College’s fine furniture program adds another
dimension to the area’s already huge visual
arts and ceramics cluster. Okaloosa Walton
Community College in Florida claims the title
of “cultural and artistic center for Northwest
Florida” and fields the Northwest Florida
Symphony Orchestra.

By: Stuart Rosenfeld
Regional Technology Strategies
Carrboro, North Carolina 27510
http://www.rtsinc.org

Full Report: http://www.matr.net/files/rtsashvillereport.pdf