AIR Institute

Thriving Creative Communities

DAY ONE

Community Collaboration Project

COMMUNITY COLLABORATION

With your Collaboration Team and AIR Facilitator, create a project or program that embodies the Paradigm Shift. Your solution should engage art, business, government, and education sectors and should reach a non-local audience.

You will work as a team to complete a project plan that includes goals, audience, partners, budget, staffing plan, timeline, and marketing strategy. You will make a presentation of the project to a local panel on the final day of the Workshop.

Key Competencies

  • Paradigm Shift
  • Access Between Community & Creatives
  • Collaboration
  • Business Planning
  • Design Thinking
  • Project Design, Planning & Management
  • Communication
  • Marketing
  • Social Media
  • Using Technology
  • Revenue & Fund Development
  • Finance

Additional Resources

Pop Up STEAMshops

Berea Story Trail

606 COFFEE SHOP

Rise & Shine Market

Patrick County, VA Barn Quilt Trail

Trail Hands

Design Thinking

DESIGN THINKING

Designers and innovators use a process called design thinking to work on problems that require creative solutions. Design thinking is built on the principle that what people need and how we respond are the most important part of a design problem and its solution. Design thinking requires patience and an open mind. People who use design thinking generate ideas only after they have studied what people want and need first. Then they test and refine their ideas by quickly prototyping their solutions and getting feedback so that they can improve their original idea.

Design thinking is not always a linear process so it can sometimes feel chaotic because the answers or solutions do not happen quickly. The process works best when people from different disciplines work together so that unusual solutions emerge.

Key Competencies

  • Design Thinking
  • Collaboration
  • Creative Thinking
  • Access between Community & Creatives
  • Business Planning
  • Emotional intelligence
  • Paradigm Shift

Additional Resources

Art Builds Business Builds Art

ART BUILDS BUSINESS BUILDS ART

Our mental models influence how we view art, creativity, business, and community. We all have misconceptions about art and business, as well as about left- and right-brain thinking models. In order for the Shift to truly take place, everyone has to challenge their mental models. Art and business are better together.

Key Competencies

  • Paradigm Shift
  • Collaboration
  • Access Between Community & Creatives
  • Communication
  • Emotional Intelligence
  • Creative Thinking
  • Marketing

Art Fears Business Fears Art

That sounds like business,” the artists says, “and I want nothing to do with it. It will corrupt me and make me think small.”

“Art is frightening, unpredictable, and won’t pay,” the businessperson says.

Because the artist fears business, she hesitates to think as big as she could, to imagine the impact she might be able to make, to envision the leverage that’s available to her.

And, because the businessperson fears art, she holds back, looks for a map, follows the existing path and works hard to fit in, never understanding just how vivid her new ideas might be and how powerful her art could make her.

There’s often a route, a way to combine the original, human, and connected work you want to do with a market-based solution that will enable it to scale. Once you see it, it’s easier to call your bluff and make what you’re capable of.

—Seth Godin

Additional Resources

Tell Your Story

TELL YOUR STORY

Whether we like it or not, people judge us by what we say, the clothes we wear, and our actions and omissions. First impressions can be misleading if we don’t think about how we want to be perceived by others. And if you’re shy, exposing yourself can be a terrifying experience unless you practice and get comfortable talking about yourself. Over sharing on the Internet is very different from the in-person experience of telling someone you don’t know who you are.

The good news is that people generally want to like other people. We all love a good story and appreciate seeing someone passionate about their work and life choices.

Key Competencies

  • Communication
  • Access Between Community & Creatives
  • Marketing
  • Human Resources
  • Emotional Intelligence

Additional Resources

Who Are We?

Who Are We?

A key to increasing the value of creativity in our communities is finding common ground between normally unconnected groups so new collaborations can flourish. We can all help promote collaboration by becoming good listeners and better communicators. Remembering that we are not all alike, that we have different ways of processing information, thinking and feeling, can help us find common ground and common goals.

AIR programs encourage us all to reach beyond our existing networks and discover that we have more in common than we realize. Most of us will find that we are not just an artist or a businessperson. We have traits, strengths, and weaknesses that make us unique. But, more importantly, our differences and similarities can be very complementary. We are better together.

Key Competencies

• Paradigm Shift
• Access Between Community & Creatives
• Collaboration
• Communication
• Human Resources
• Emotional Intelligence

Additional Resources

Myers Briggs
Enneagram

Paradigm Shift

The Paradigm Shift

Creativity and the arts are poised to take a new role and value in our communities. There is a Paradigm Shift taking place that is encouraging collaboration between the world of creativity and the world of business. This Shift places a higher value on the act of creation and innovation, giving artists new ideas for career paths and increased opportunities to have a positive economic impact in their communities.
The Shift is also changing the definition of profit in the business world. More entrepreneurs and business leaders recognize that financial profit cannot be the only measure of success. The rise of social enterprise, businesses that value community and public benefit as much as profit, is allowing for shared values with the art world.

Key Competencies

• Paradigm Shift
• Access Between Community & Creatives
• Design Thinking
• Social Entrepreneurship & Social Enterprise
• Collaboration
• Creative Thinking

Additional Resources