Saturday Creators’ Conclave Will Explore How Arts and Cultural Activity Impact Economic Development

While Syracuse hosts CRAVE, an interdisciplinary arts festival and conclave Sept. 20-21 across the Connective Corridor, an accompanying statewide “Creators’ Conclave” will explore how the arts can revitalize communities through new performance models and audience engagement strategies.

Sam Read

The Saturday, Sept. 21, conclave will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at The Warehouse in Armory Square, 350 W. Fayette St. It will be led by Sam Read, creator of Seattle’s well-known “Arts Crush” Festival (a program of Theatre Puget Sound), who is with the University of Washington’s School of Drama.

“I am thrilled to be working with the creative community of Syracuse on the creation of this festival,” says Read, who worked with the CRAVE developers earlier this spring on content development. “CRAVE represents the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit that is vital to moving the arts forward in our country. Investing in the creativity of our audiences and activating our communities as collaborators in the artistic experience are both essential to the sustainability of our cultural organizations.”

Artists, along with arts educators, arts councils and nonprofit arts groups, as well as cultural, history, heritage, tourism and community development organizations across New York State, are invited to register for the conclave as part of CRAVE. They are also welcome to make it a weekend sampling Syracuse’s Connective Corridor cultural district, learning from national leaders, sharing best practices from other communities, and interacting with global artists like DJ Spooky (aka Paul D. Miller), artist-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who will headline the festival.

Three $1,000 planning prizes will be awarded at the conclave through a blind peer review process for projects to be developed in their own communities by the winners.

Conference registration is required to attend the Saturday conclave. The $45 fee provides:

• Friday evening gala reception and arts crawl along the Connective Corridor;
• Saturday morning conclave and workshop led by Sam Read;
• Saturday pop-up performances and interactive programming across the Corridor;
• performance art on free Connective Corridor cultural buses connecting venues;
• shows and exhibits at all Connective Corridor destinations; and
• admission to Saturday evening’s interactive “Happening” Concert with DJ Spooky.

“CNY Jazz is thrilled to partner with Syracuse University and the Syracuse CVB to celebrate one of our region’s greatest economic resources: the arts,” says Larry Luttinger, executive director of CNY Jazz. “CRAVE will not only reiterate the economic value of the arts, but also demonstrate how the arts revitalize communities; create new benchmarks for content relevancy; plan, create and demonstrate innovative new performance models; and develop audience engagement strategies that turn fans into subscribers and subscribers into donors.”

“CRAVE will continue the organic progression of the arts scene in Syracuse,” says Syracuse CVB President David Holder. “The events of the weekend will provide our residents and visitors an immersive environment of expression that will redefine their perceptions of the area.”

The two-day CRAVE program features three special guests who will participate in the festival and conclave: Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky), an experimental and electronic hip-hop musician, conceptual artist; Sam Read, founder of the month-long “Arts Crush” festival in Seattle; and Surale Phillips, president of Decision Support Partners, a national leader in collaborative community-based research supporting arts and cultural development.

Phillips is also a consultant to the IDEAS Collaborative, a local consortium of foundations and government that studies and supports audience-engagement initiatives. At CRAVE, Phillips will conduct a comprehensive economic and social-impact survey whose metrics, as well as its audiovisual records, will be published after the event.

CRAVE—Cultivating Resources in the Arts for Value in Our Economy—was funded through a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), administered by the Regional Economic Development Council (REDC). CRAVE is organized an presented by the Central New York Jazz Arts Foundation (CNY Jazz), in conjunction with the Connective Corridor, a program of Syracuse University’s Office of Community Engagement and Economic Development, SU’s Arts Engage, the Syracuse Convention & Visitors Bureau and IDEAS (Collaborative of the Gifford Foundation, Allyn Foundation, Central New York Community Foundation, Dorothy and Marshall M. Reisman Foundation, John Ben Snow Foundation and the Trust for Cultural Resources).

More information about CRAVE—including conclave registration, lodging, parking, a detailed schedule and artist bios—is available at http://www.CRAVEfest.org.