In Michigan

Art Helps Revitalize Grand Rapids This is a video clip of how Grand Rapids revitalized its city by renovating old buildings into modern lofts and offices. It also shows how the creation of these spaces attracted other "trendy" businesses to this district.

Detroit Opera House This is a video clip of how one man's vision and passion to restore this opera house was a "catalyst for a blossoming theatre and entertainment district".

Festival of the Senses is "a multitude of artistic, athletic, culinary and cultural events that give visitors a range of choices from symphony concerts, art exhibitions and gourmet meals to bicycle races and historical reenactments." Putting all these different events into the festival allows for tourist to customize the festival to their personal interests and allows Traverse City to offer package tours.

"Hamtramck Rocks Out" This article is about the annual Hamtramck Blowout which is a three to four day music festival that spreads throughout Hamtramck's bars, clubs, and social halls. "The Blowout attracts thousands of fans to a city perfectly situated for commuting music fans." This article also mentions the estimated economic impact that this event brings in to the local stores and bars. Another positive feature of this event is that it allows local Michigan bands to be heard by the masses like The Hard Lessons "Detroit's next big rock and roll thing" and Saturday Looks Good to Me of Ann Arbor just to name a few.

"KIA Exhibition ‘Millet to Matisse' Brings $1.9 Million" This is an article provided by sgallery.net that talks about the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts exhibition of ‘Millet to Matisse' and how that brought $1.9 million into the community. With $600,000 going to KIA itself, and $1.3 million going to local businesses.

"Michigan's Great Outdoors Culture Tour: A Niche in the North Woods" This article is about Michigan's Upper Great Lakes region, and how the rural communities' economies didn't really support cultural efforts. So, in 1997 the Michigan Humanities Council decided to take cultural programming to the people instead of letting the people come to the cultural programming. Basically this article tells what they did to make the most of their opportunities and then the success they had with the Great Outdoors Culture Tour.

Around the Country

"Eatonville, Florida's Zora Neale Hurston Festival: Home- grown Festival Stops Highway Construction" This article is about the small town of Eatonville, Florida, and how a 5-lane thoroughfare threatened to upset the community's small town environment. But, in 1987 The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community, Inc. or (P.E.C) was born and they decided to create this festival honoring their community's most notable resident, Zora Neale Hurston. This article tells how with a little creativity this community created a program that focuses on education, the cultural arts, and humanities.

"Handmade in America: Shaping Craft Heritage Trails in Western North Carolina" "Using your community's history and arts to attract visitors is sound economic strategy. Moving tourists to and between sites via driving tours is a tried-and- true method. But where did this concept of tying together the odds and ends of an area's heritage and marketing them as a unit come from? One of the first programs in the nation to recognize and tap into an inherent industry-the past and its rituals-originated in the mountains of North Carolina. Handmade in America, which more or less forged the original heritage trail, is now the grandma of all heritage-driving tours. Here, a mature heritage tourism program shares its story."

Inventing Civic Solutions a how-to guide on launching and sustaining successful community programs.  Pew Partnership for Civic Change provided seed capital and technical assistance to help develop Handmade in America through the Solutions for America Initiative.  One of the results of that initiative was the Inventing Civic Solutions publication that shows how to develop a program along the lines of what Handmade in America accomplished as well as others. 

Manchester Craftsmen's Guild "is a multi-discipline, minority directed, center for arts and learning that employs the visual and performing arts to foster a sense of accomplishment and hope in the urban community. Its mission is to: Educate and inspire urban youth through the arts and mentored training in life skills; Preserve, present and promote jazz and visual arts to stimulate intercultural understanding, appreciation and enhancement of the quality of life for our audiences; and, Equip and educate leaders to further demonstrate entrepreneurial potential."

"A Cultural Mosaic: Chicago's Neighborhood Tours" "Downtown Chicago is a tourist Mecca. But, beyond its renowned center city, Chicago boasts a mélange of ethnic neighborhoods that can link a person to their homeland or awaken wanderlust in armchair travelers. Like the world it represents, Chicago is a very big, sometimes intimidating place. What the city needs is a way to show off its diversity by extending warm welcomes to its lesser-known areas while helping distribute the economic benefits of tourism." This article is about how they set out to accomplish this.

A Position Paper on CULTURAL & HERITAGE TOURISM IN THE UNITED STATES This is a position paper, which was developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities for the 2005 U.S. Cultural & Heritage Tourism Summit. Basically it describes what communities need to do to become a best practice in the field of Cultural & Heritage Tourism.

"Best Practices in Cultural Economic Development: A Report for Creative Santa Fe" This is a report submitted by McCollam Consulting LLC about "Creative Santa Fe, which is now engaged in designing new ways to highlight the city's wealth of arts and cultural riches and to shine light on hidden gems that can enhance its cultural life and grow its economy." Some of the categories in which best practice examples appear in this report are: Beehive of creativity to center arts and cultural development; Arts incubators to nurture and grow small arts businesses and assist artists in learning more about the business of art; Workforce development to prepare a cultural workforce for the future; Marketing to creative awareness and promote participation in the arts; Advocacy to create networks to work together in campaigns for the arts; Cultural tourism to attract more visitors to the city's arts and cultural offerings; clustering critical masses of arts activity and developing arts districts to produce synergy among arts, business and economic development interests; and Spaces within and outside of districts for the artists to live and work, exhibit and perform.

"Beyond the Grand Canyon: Arizona's Statewide Heritage Tourism Program" "Arizona evokes images of deserts and the Grand Canyon. But the Arizona Humanities Council (AHC) staff knew the state was much more- it offered distinct geographic regions, each with a unique culture and heritage. The AHC decided to find ways to help develop the "product" - sites, stories and traditions - that could tell Arizona's story to visitors. They approached the project from the perspective that cultural heritage tourism is not only preservation, it is economic development." This article tells what the AHC did to make this vision come true.

"Building Creative Economies: The Arts, Entrepreneurship, and Sustainable Development" This is a monograph which "provides an overview of the conference proceedings and the economic impact of the arts and culture, recommended steps for developing a local creative economy, issues that should be taken into consideration, case studies of successful community development strategies utilizing available creative resources, and follow-up activities including state action planning and other initiatives."

"Commerce and Canals: The Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor" "As with most settlements, this area of Pennsylvania grew up in the early 19th century around transportation routes. In this case, it was the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers and the series of canals that were developed to transport coal from the mines to other cities. By the 1930s, this mode of transportation became obsolete, and in the years to come, communities and businesses dried up. Was there something that could be done to save this part of the area's history." This article goes on to tell the success of this community, after they formed the Friends Delaware Canal in 1982, and what they did to bring money pouring into their communities.

"Cultural Tourism: Bridging America Through Partnerships in Arts, Tourism and Economic Development" This is a monograph that discusses how "cultural tourism programs are the catalyst for new audiences and dollars." It also discusses the keys to cultural tourism collaboration and provides partnership models for arts and tourism managers.

"From Furs to Factories to Tourism: The Tennessee Overhill Heritage Association" "From Furs to Factories to Tourism: The Tennessee Overhill Heritage Association" "The three counties in this region of Southeast Tennessee that make up the Tennessee Overhill (so named for the 18th century Cherokee towns located over the mountains from the Carolina colonies) were as economically distressed as any could be - once thriving company towns and farms were quietly fading. But the remnants remained - from Cherokee fur-trading days to the coming of gold and copper mines and the railroad. The area was already drawing tourists for recreation. Could the region's heritage be appealing to visitors as well?" This article tells how the TOHA organizationally, met and exceeded its goals that it had set for itself.

"History Goes Hollywood" This article touches on how museums and historical sites are combating diminishing crowds and declined absorption durations by Americans today with special effects. This solution can be controversial, but basically it is "become one of the increasing number of museums and historical sites that are redesigning their collections with high-tech interfaces, action-packed short films and theme-park aesthetics." Four examples talked about in this article are: The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum, The Marine Corps museum, Colonial Williamsburg, and Mount Vernon.

Manchester Bidwell "are diverse entities, sharing common values and vision, which combine to create a national model for arts, education, training and hope that reshape the business of social change."

"Montana Reins in Wide Open Spaces: The Yellowstone Heritage Partnership" "The vast watershed of the Yellowstone River covers portions of Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming, as well as large areas of federally managed land, including Custer, Gallatin and Shoshone National Forests, and the Northern Cheyenne and crow Indian Reservations. It is a region flush with historic, cultural, and natural resources. Because of a depressed economy, sparse infrastructure, and expensive transportation costs due to long distances between attractions, the area is looking for ways to develop cultural tourism programs that will build on its unique features and attract some of Yellowstone national Park's 3 million annual visitors." This article tells of how they accomplished their goal.

"More than Lobsters, Lighthouses, and L.L. Bean: Maine's Statewide Cultural Tourism Program" "Although Maine is proud of being famous for lobsters, lighthouses, and L.L. Bean, citizens knew there was even more that could be shared with visitors. The Maine Arts Commission and The Maine Office of Tourism took the first step by organizing a workshop for representatives of arts organizations, museums, state agencies, chambers of commerce, historical societies and businesses to discuss cultural heritage tourism. Following the initial workshop, a Task Force was appointed to begin building partnerships and seeking ways to build cultural heritage tourism." This article goes on to tell the action steps taken by Maine decided on by the Task Force, and then the extraordinary results that occurred from the implementation of this program.

"Saving Puebloan Ruins in Sand Canyon: A Hands-on Colorado Vacation" "Sand Canyon's ancient Puebloan ruins are slowly being destroyed by insensitive visitors and centuries of weathering. Can this area in southwestern Colorado be preserved and still remain accessible to visitors? Experimental vacations, the kind that get visitors to roll up their sleeves and get involved in archeological preservation, are proving to be the saving grace of the remnants of early civilization in Sand Canyon." This article shares their story.

"Traveling with the Ghosts of Conflict Virginia Civil War Trails" This article discusses how Virginia was not quite ‘living up to its potential' and what they did in order to link their abundance of civil war sites together through collaboration with partners at the state and local levels in order to create a cultural destination for civil war tourists. Through these partnerships they helped preserve historical sites and they developed informative signs and maps that help guide tourists along the history-rich trails.

Around the World

"Culture is not a Luxury: Culture in Development and Cooperation" This article (brochure) "is intended to assist SDC's (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation) staff and their partner organizations in responding to challenges, which will be new to many of them. It presents the principles governing SDC's cultural policy in a broader context. It presents a whole range of cultural projects - not necessarily as models, which should be copied, but rather as inspiration. Above all, this brochure has one overarching aim: to provide ideas for cultural projects, and to encourage people to integrate culture more fully, embark on cultural projects, and find synergies with the programmes."

Federated States of Micronesia 2005 Economic Report: Toward a Self-Sustainable Economy The report focuses on the impact of the amended Compact of Free Association or Compact II. The need for major economic reforms is widely recognized in FSM, and the government prepared a Strategic Development Plan to facilitate the transformation of the economy. With the idea of a "World Park".

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 This article is about the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, which was "divided into two equal parts, to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank for their efforts to create economic and social development from below." Yunus in partnership with Grameen Bank "developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty."

"Take a Look at a Town That Wouldn't Lie Down and Die" This article is about the little Vancouver town of Chemainus, it's mill was closed and the community feared the worst until a local resident, Karl Schutz, who when vacationing in Europe came across outdoor frescoes on the walls of monasteries of northern Moldavia in Romania suggested the idea of sprucing up the town by way of their very own town frescoes. This article is about how one creative idea can turn a town set on economic ruin into an attractive cultural destination.

Updated 11/30/2006

Cultural Economic Development, Department of History, Arts and Libraries
Contact cculha@michigan.gov with your question or comment about this page.