Last week we read a case study from Stanford Business School
called Identifying Venture Opportunities.
In the case, the author says [re: opportunity space], “understanding the opportunity
space around an idea is a critical step in the venture creation process,”
(Hornblower, Jocelyn, 4). It got me thinking about the term “space.” Frequently, it seems discussion of opportunity space revolves around industries, product
variations and ideas. However, in my business “space” more aptly refers to
physical venues and geographical regions. As I was thinking about this
distinction, I happened upon the following video:
This short clip explores an initiative born out of the Google
for Entrepreneurs program called The Madison Block in Detroit, MI. What started
with one Tech Company in the old Madison Theater downtown, has exploded into a
full block of formerly vacant buildings being turned over to house numerous
tech start-ups. The idea of tech start-ups is not novel. The geographical opportunity
space of Detroit, however, is what caught my attention. Not only has this initiative
helped to reinvigorate the downtown area of a city suffering from massive
financial and social decay, but it created space for entrepreneurs to exist,
collaborate, and innovate. All while achieving a larger social objective (revitalization).
Furthermore, the Google sponsored initiative has connected Detroit to 6 other
major, re-developing cities across the country.
So here’s the rub. I work in the arts. My industry has no
Google. Even still, many arts organizations understand the power of unified “arts
blocks,” focused both on growing a small business and re-enlivening a community
that has fallen into disrepair. One has only to consider the Pittsburgh
Cultural Trust and the downtown cultural district. The Trust, however, is an
anomaly rather than the standard. It exists, in large part, due to Pittsburgh’s unique
commitment to the arts through the RAD tax.
My question is pretty simple. In a day and age where government/foundation
support is becoming less accessible for many small arts organizations, and very
few massive funding powerhouses exist to initiate rapid growth, how can
non-tech based culturepreneurs take advantage of this type of geographical opportunity
space; building successful arts based businesses, while helping revitalize
communities in need of deeper artistic experiences?
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