Message from Council Member Kevin Reich

February’s release of the Minneapolis Creative Vitality Index (CVI) confirmed what many of us long suspected: the Twin Cities metro area’s arts economy is one of the most vital in the nation. It’s significant news for the city as a whole and particularly impactful for the First Ward, with its thriving local creative economy. The Index demonstrates that the non-profit and for-profit creative sector puts an annual average of $700 million into the City’s economy and employs nearly 20,000 people, making up 5% of all City jobs. The metro area arts economy as a whole came in at sixth nationally in size, exceeded only by Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston. We see this vitality in microcosm in the First Ward, with the many artists in our Arts District, their strong organization with the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association (NEMAA) and signature events such as Art-A-Whirl as visible symbols of a creative economy in action. Additionally, as many of you pointed out at our ongoing Ward One Creative Economy forums over the past 3 years, a strong arts economy isn't limited to the artists themselves; it spawns a host of other industries and undertakings. Corporate Art Force, which relocated to the Arts District from Plymouth in 2010, is one such business, making connections between artists and corporate customers seeking to acquire original art. Blu Dot is another example of a company that chose to locate in the Arts District due to of its vitality. And there is a clear continuum of creative, productive endeavors from formal artists to designers to prototype makers and craftspeople, etc. co-locating in NE and driving our vibrancy and economy. It’s an axiom of business that if you can’t measure it, you can’t evaluate it. The CVI is a first step in measuring our creative economy and, as such, it’s a valuable tool for developing effective City planning and policy around arts and culture. On a smaller scale, NEMAA has undertaken a project to measure the economic impact of events like Art-A-Whirl on the NE community. We've always known we had something special in the First Ward; it’s good to have numbers to back that up.