USA Today Article - Population drop-off vexes Maine residents

By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news
October 31, 2010

CAMDEN, Maine — Trendy Brevetto Kitchen & Wine Bar is bustling on a recent Thursday, but not with a typical happy hour crowd. Less rowdy and mostly professional, the men and women wearing name tags are not here to hook up but link up.

They're members of Midcoast Magnet, one of several regional groups working to halt a population slide in one of the USA's most picturesque states.

Maine was one of three states whose population declined from 2008 to 2009 (Michigan and Rhode Island were the others). For the first time in 209 years, neighboring New Hampshire has more people than Maine, according to Census estimates.

The drop in Maine stems mostly from young people leaving for school and jobs and the birth rate dropping as those left behind age. Maine's median age (half are younger, half are older) is 42.2 — oldest in the USA.

YOUTH POPULATIONS DROP: Down in Northeast, Midwest
CENSUS: Slow growth in states

Maine traditionally has been divided between natives — "Mainers" — and those "from away," but this time, both are reaching out to bridge the gap.

Young and old at the mixer pause for small-group exercises. That night: How can you use your skills and connections to help someone else in the group?

The networking is keenly significant for hundreds of small Maine towns struggling to hang on to people and stave off declines in the tax base, the labor force and investment.

"Midcoast Magnet's mission is to attract, connect and retain talented people," says Amber Heffner, a "from away" who now heads the mostly volunteer organization. Heffner, 42, moved from Chicago, married a lobsterman and founded Little Harbor Technology, a Web design and database company in nearby Rockland.

Skip Bates, the former head, is a Mainer. The Bangor Savings Bank officer rattles off efforts to attract people and business: an initiative to bring high-speed Internet to rural Maine, a venture capital fund, grants to help new technology ventures and a "Juice 2.0 Conference" "powering the creative economy."

An aging state

People flock to Maine's spectacular coastline, steeped in tradition and dependent on lobstering, shipbuilding and tourism. Many out-of-staters who stay are retired and older. Maine, 95% white, has drawn few immigrants.

"We project that in 20 years, a quarter of our population will be of retirement age or higher," says state economist Michael LeVert. "We have to make sure that when folks in Boston or New Jersey think about starting a family or starting a business, they think of Maine," LeVert says.

Two-thirds of the state's 1.3 million people live in the lower third. The timber and paper mill industries that supported rural northern counties near Canada consolidated, and thousands of jobs disappeared.

"Clearly, the place has been grappling for 25 years with massive restructuring," says Mark Muro, director of policy for the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program.

Maine's self-reliance and local autonomy, rooted in New England's tradition of direct democracy and town hall meetings, may have stymied efforts for statewide and regional cooperation, but resistance wanes as the state shrinks and ages.

"The sheer impact of the Great Recession took some very comfortable communities and made them rethink their future," says Dan Bookham, who runs the Camden-Rockport-Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce.

'Let's all get out of here'

Frank Pavalkis, 24, who grew up near here, describes a common refrain of Maine's high school seniors: "Let's all get out of here."

He did and went to Boston's Northeastern University but eventually returned. He studies medical technology at the University College at Rockland and hopes to be hired by Pen Bay Healthcare, the large medical system in the area.

Among current efforts to revitalize Maine:

•The Council on Quality of Place works at turning the state's assets — natural and man-made — into jobs, products and services.

•The Ocean Energy Institute in Rockland is researching offshore wind energy research.

•Old paper mill equipment now makes molds for handbags and soccer cleats manufactured in China.

Young people "love the lifestyle ... the quality of place ... the scale of the community," says Laurie Lachance, president of the Maine Development Foundation. "We can shine the light on those things."

Youth is sprouting in the state Legislature. At 34, Hannah Pingree is the youngest woman in the USA to be a state House speaker. When she was first elected at 25, there were seven legislators age 40 or younger. Now there are 25.

Bettina Doulton was a hard-driving mutual funds manager at Fidelity in Boston — until she bought the Cellardoor Vineyard in Lincolnville. She says she has found the change of life she was seeking. "This area is a petri dish for entrepreneurs," she says.

Creative Economy - An article from 2000

This article is fr0m August 28th, 2000. Predictions for the Creative Economy. Interesting to see how it's progressed as predicted or not in 10 years.

The Creative Economy
Which companies will thrive in the coming years? Those that value ideas above all else

Adam Smith, the arch-capitalist, didn't like corporations. He wrote in 1776 in The Wealth of Nations that they breed ''negligence and profusion'' and ''scarce ever fail to do more harm than good.'' In his day, governments handed out corporate charters rarely and grudgingly. But a century later, as the required scale of enterprise grew, corporations came to the fore. They built railroads, steel mills, refineries, and other businesses of unprecedented size. In so doing, they played an indispensable role in what University of California at Berkeley economist J. Bradford DeLong calls the ''central fact'' in 20th century economic history: the greatest increase in material wealth ever.

Now the Industrial Economy is giving way to the Creative Economy, and corporations are at another crossroads. Attributes that made them ideal for the 20th century could cripple them in the 21st. So they will have to change, dramatically. The Darwinian struggle of daily business will be won by the people--and the organizations-- that adapt most successfully to the new world that is unfolding.

This Special Double Issue is an attempt to peer into the future to describe the look and feel of 21st century corporations. We draw on the insights of CEOs, venture capitalists, academics, consultants, and, of course, the cubicle dwellers who do the work. We look at management via the Web, the workplace of the future, the battle for talent, the ecosystem in which corporations will exist, job titles of the future, and much more. Our aim is to provide readers with insights that could help their own companies thrive in the decades ahead.

VIRTUAL VALUE. Let's start with the most important force of all: the growing power of ideas. In Adam Smith's time, most people worked on farms. Later, industry was ascendant. But the advanced economies have gotten so efficient at producing food and physical goods that most of the workforce has been freed up to provide services or to produce abstract goods: data, software, news, entertainment, advertising, and the like. You can see it in the statistics. The share of U.S. capital spending devoted to information technology has more than tripled since 1960, to 35% from 10% (chart). Fields such as biotechnology are booming. The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office hands out 70% more patents--about 170,000 last year--than it did just a decade ago.

People are cranking out computer programs and inventions, while lightly staffed factories churn out the sofas, the breakfast cereals, the cell phones. The physical content of the gross domestic product seems to be vanishing like Lewis Carroll's Cheshire cat. Although the U.S. is still often called an industrial economy, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that by 2005, the percentage of workers employed in industry will fall below 20%, the lowest level since 1850. And the long lull in productivity growth seems behind us. If productivity increases 3% a year--below its recent rate--the average output per hour of work will double in 25 years. That will translate directly into higher living standards.

The turn of the millennium is a turn from hamburgers to software. Software is an idea; hamburger is a cow. There will still be hamburger makers in the 21st century, of course, but the power, prestige, and money will flow to the companies with indispensable intellectual property. You can see it already. At the end of last year, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), with just 31,000 employees, had a market capitalization of $600 billion. McDonald's Corp. (MCD), with 10 times as many employees, had one-tenth the market cap. Or take Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO)--a virtual place in a virtual medium, the Internet. Although far below its peak price, Yahoo trades at more than 40 times book value. If USX Corp.'s U.S. Steel Group (X) traded at the same multiple to book as Yahoo, its market capitalization would be nearly $90 billion, instead of less than $2 billion.

In an economy based on ideas rather than physical capital, the potential for breakaway successes like Yahoo is far greater. That's because ideas, like germs, are infectious. They can spread to a huge population seemingly overnight. And once the idea--say, a computer program--has been developed, the cost of making copies is close to zero and the potential profits enormous.

With the possibility of gargantuan returns, it's no wonder that idea-based corporations have easy access to capital. The pool of investable money has been swollen by the rising tide of wealth around the world, coupled with a new culture of investing. U.S. companies received nearly $50 billion in venture capital last year, 25 times as much as in 1990. The amount of money raised in U.S. initial public offerings last year, nearly $70 billion, was 15 times the amount in 1990. Both records are certain to be broken this year.

The sheer abundance of capital could be bad for the capitalists themselves, including ordinary investors in the stock market. That's because the commodity they supply--money--is no longer scarce. What's scarce are the good ideas. Thus, shareholders are likely to lose some power in the 21st century, while entrepreneurs and idea-generating employees gain it. Huge bonuses and option grants to key employees are early evidence of the trend. Raghuram Rajan, an economist at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, says it may be time to rethink the conventional wisdom that shareholders are entitled to all the profits of a corporation. Charles Handy, the British author of The Age of Unreason, even suggests that some corporations might become more like voluntary associations, run for the benefit of their working ''members.''

''FIGHTING ISSUE.'' The rising importance of ideas creates all kinds of difficulties for corporations. Books, music, and software are devilishly difficult to create--and diabolically easy to copy. China, for instance, is a counterfeiting machine. And now so is the Internet, thanks to services that enable people to download music, movies, and software for free. The legal battle over the biggest of the music piracy havens, Napster Inc., is a sign of things to come.

Theft of intellectual property is lethal to innovation. Yet overly strict enforcement of intellectual-property protections can dampen innovation as well by letting the property owners get lazy. Chuck D, the lead rapper for Public Enemy and a supporter of Napster, complains that record companies often buy rights to songs and then let them languish. To keep the Creative Economy growing, governments will have to strike a delicate balance: enforce patents, copyrights, trademarks, and noncompete clauses to preserve incentives to create, but not so much that it suppresses competition. ''Intellectual property is going to be the big fighting issue'' of the coming decades, predicts Lester C. Thurow, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist.

In the Creative Economy, the most important intellectual property isn't software or music or movies. It's the stuff inside employees' heads. When assets were physical things like coal mines, shareholders truly owned them. But when the vital assets are people, there can be no true ownership. The best that corporations can do is to create an environment that makes the best people want to stay.

Of course, not everyone will benefit equally from the shift to an information-based economy. High school grads' median weekly earnings are 43% less than those of college grads, far worse than the 28% gap in 1979. And education is likely to become even more essential to prosperity in the future. The five fastest-growing occupations in the U.S. are all computer-related, according to projections of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Corporations faced with a shortage of skilled help are likely to respond through a combination of training, exporting work offshore, and looking for ways to ''de-skill'' certain jobs. Fast-food cashiers, for instance, punch buttons for food items rather than keying in prices.

A NEW MIX. A chronic shortage of skilled help will be accompanied by a change in the mix of people in the workforce. The long-term trend toward earlier retirement has recently been reversed, with more older people looking to stay at work or return. Overall, a record 67% of the adult population is employed or looking for work, mainly because female participation in the labor force has jumped to 60% from about 50% two decades ago. And the ethnic mix of the workforce is changing, partly because the great American jobs machine is sucking in immigrants. The Census Bureau projects that by 2050, 53% of the U.S. population will be non-Hispanic whites, down from 74% in 1995.

The corporations that thrive will be the ones that embrace the new demographic trends instead of fighting them. That will mean even more women and minorities in the workforce--and in the boardrooms as well. Ted Childs, who runs IBM's (IBM) global diversity program, claims there are 350,000 unfilled jobs in the U.S. information-technology industry. ''I believe we're in a war for talent,'' he says, ticking off various IBM projects to develop talent among women, blacks, Asians, homosexuals, and other groups. ''None of this is charitable.''

The 21st century may see the emergence of a kind of ''welfare capitalism,'' in which corporations try to recruit and retain employees by providing services that in another era were provided by government agencies or families: assistance with child care and elder care, valet services, and so on. Their employees will handle more personal matters at work, and more work matters at home: The man in the gray flannel suit is becoming the man in the gray flannel shirt. Even floor plans are going New Age at places like SEI Investments Co. in Oaks, Pa. Computer linkups drop from the ceiling, and employees move from place to place as their assignments change.

While some freelance workers will jump from job to job like hired guns, companies like IBM and Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW) want to have a core of careerists to provide continuity. ''Enduring relations with employees become an enormous asset, because those employees are what connects the company to its partners,'' says James N. Baron, a professor at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.

And just as companies want to hang onto a core of permanent employees, they'll want to retain some key business functions in-house as well. Forget the vision of the entirely ''virtual'' corporation in which nearly everything is outsourced. Clayton M. Christensen, author of The Innovator's Dilemma, points out in an essay written for this issue (page 180) that outsourcing won't work for cutting-edge products whose specifications are in flux.

Still, corporations in the 21st century will evolve new forms of close interaction. Silicon Valley is the exemplar of a new kind of interdependence: Skilled engineers jump between companies as easily as switching desks, and as they do, they spread ideas. ''In some ways, Silicon Valley performs as a large decentralized corporation,'' Philip Evans and Thomas S. Wurster of Boston Consulting Group Inc. write in their new book, Blown to Bits.

THE REAL ASSET: IDEAS. In the same way that the economy is losing weight--software instead of steel--corporations are getting lighter, too. They're able to generate lots of revenue and profit off a small base of assets and employees. Despite the merger wave of the 1990s, the most valuable companies in America aren't bigger by employment than the most valuable companies of a decade earlier. Comparing the 100 U.S. companies by market cap in 1989 with the corresponding group in 1999, the number of employees fell 3%, while the collective market cap rose 500%, according to data supplied by The McGraw-Hill Companies' Standard & Poor's.

Some of these trimmed-down businesses may emerge as more powerful than any corporations ever have been. In the industrial past, there were natural limits to the power of a strategically placed corporation. A corporation was restricted in how many businesses, or customers, or suppliers it could draw into its sphere of influence because there were natural limits on how many could be granted access to its crucial asset--say, a railroad terminal.

But in the Creative Economy, the power to exert influence is nearly unlimited because there's no ceiling on how many people can be made to depend on idea-based assets, notes the University of Chicago's Rajan. An example: America Online Inc.'s instant-messaging system. Companies will exercise power by sharing--or withholding--crucial intellectual property.

Global corporations will try to take advantage of their transnational status to operate beyond the control of national governments. They can play governments off one another through their decisions about where to locate factories or research labs. And many use unrealistic transfer prices to shift income from high-tax jurisdictions to low-tax ones. Last year, a General Accounting Office study reported that from 1989 to 1995, an outright majority of corporations, both U.S.- and foreign-controlled, paid zero U.S. income taxes.

For all the talk of a brave new world, nation-states aren't going away in the 21st century. So it's a good bet that there will be repeated clashes between corporations and the countries--and people--that play host to them. In response to the globalization of business, governments may coordinate their efforts to regulate corporations on issues ranging from taxation to pollution.

Of course, corporations have always been easy to hate. In 1612, British jurist Sir Edward Coke complained that they ''have no soul.'' In the 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. warned of the alienation produced by ''gargantuan industry and government, woven into an intricate computerized mechanism.'' The past year's outcries against globalization spell trouble for transnationals ranging from Coca-Cola Co. (KO) to Exxon Mobil Corp. (XON), and there's no sign they're diminishing.

Still, corporations have a way of flourishing under changing circumstances. While some will go down with the dinosaurs, the corporate form itself has a good deal of flexibility. Many corporations have already begun to adjust to the new realities of the Creative Economy--by allowing power to tilt from the sources of capital toward the sources of ideas, by embedding themselves in fertile corporate ecosystems, and by adopting codes of social responsibility to win the trust of a wary public. Legally, a corporation is a person--a person who is potentially immortal. Let's see how these ageless characters handle the next 100 years.

By PETER COY

To read a letter to the editor about this story, click here.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Creative economy the target of new marketing effort

By Robert M. Cook
Mainebiz Staff Reporter
www.mainebiz.biz - 5/11/10

Andrew Graham has always known that Portland is a great place to live and work, especially for people who consider themselves members of the creative economy.

Graham, president of the Creative Portland Corp., hopes that now that the group has launched its new website, www.liveworkportland.org, and marketing campaign, the Greater Portland region will attract even more creative economy businesses and professionals.

One of the biggest challenges the nonprofit organization's 11-member board of directors has faced since it was formed by the Portland City Council in August 2009 is how to properly define the creative economy, says Graham, who has owned and operated Portland Color since 1977 after coming to Portland as a college student in 1974.

Graham says the creative economy is also the innovative economy that is comprised of people with intellectual capital. He says that includes a broad range of businesses and individuals who already call Portland home -- like chef Rob Evans and Nancy Pugh, co-owners of Hugo's restaurant, clothing designer Brook Delorme, and pattern and furniture designers Angela Adams and Sherwood Hamill, all of whom are featured on the group's website with their stories on why they chose to live and work here.

According to 2002 research from the University of Southern Maine, more than 63,000 people in Maine were employed in the creative economy, making up about 10% of the state's wage and salary employment. Cumberland County is home to the largest chunk of those people, or 42%.
Graham says the corporation wants to carry the message that Portland offers one of the most welcoming and supportive communities for creative economy professionals who want to live and work in a place that features great restaurants, cultural diversity, a vibrant arts scene and many other like-minded individuals.

Graham says examples of businesses in Portland that embody the spirit of the creative economy include Idexx Laboratories, a biotechnology firm in Westbrook, the Maine Medical Center Research Institute and his company, Portland Color, that produces marketing materials for area businesses and groups to promote their events and products. Artists, software developers, website designers and anyone who creates a basic product and infuses it with creativity and intellectual capital falls into this growing economy, he says.

Creative economy businesses that make products in Portland and then export them to customers outside of the state are also importers of money back into the city, Graham says.
"The city of Portland has a personality that recognizes and thrives on creativity. This initiative of Live/Work Portland will bring this personality to life through graphic communication and a comprehensive website that will serve as a portal to the essence of life in Portland both for the creatives who live here and those interested in joining this community," Graham says.
Companies such as Fairchild Semiconductor in South Portland, L.L.Bean in Freeport and the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce have sponsored the corporation's new marketing efforts, Graham says.

The corporation was formed as a 501(c) 3 organization to encourage more creative businesses to locate in Portland. It receives $30,000 per year for its budget from the tax increment financing district established in 2009 in the downtown arts district. The group also does fundraising and pursues grants to carry out its mission. Greg Mitchell, Portland's economic development director, and City Councilor David Marshall serve as ex-officio members on the corporation.

Eli's World

Written By Skip Bates

That’s another great thing about Maine. It’s not that life imitates art; it’s that art really illustrates life. Maine is the way life should be. The Wyeth’s lived in Cushing. You might recognize Christina’s World, by Andrew Wyeth, shown to the left.

Christina’s world is the Olson House, which is located in Cushing. The building is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, is open to the public and is part of the Farnsworth complex. But it is also just down the road from my friend Eli’s farm. Eli might just have the Wyeth’s topped. While the Wyeth’s are on their third generation, Eli is the fifth generation of Ellis family to live on the family homestead, known as Brookfield Farm.

Same peninsula, same early 19th century architecture, same values. Inspired by Maine’s beauty like the Wyeth’s, Eli became an artist, crafting beautiful woodwork to make a living, and creating a beautiful life in which to live. Eli still remembers the words of one of his high school teachers, who said, “Before you pick a profession, you have to pick a lifestyle.” Eli picked his early on, deciding to live close to the land.

He and his wife, Aura, were married under an oak tree on their property by the shore of Muscongus Bay. They raise most of their own vegetables, sell fresh eggs, and occasionally raise a pig or two (the last pair, named “Tender” and “Roaster” were particularly well fed). Eli’s grandmother lives in one half of the house. Aura’s grandmother, mother, sisters, cousins, nieces and nephew all live nearby. The families are connected to the earth and connected to each other. Eli’s world is a good one. .

Some people come to Maine as tourists, hungry for culture, taking in museums and concerts. Other people come to Maine as artists, making a living by illustrating the world for others’ consumption. But when they are finally ready, the people who live in Maine are a breed apart. Mainers are those who have chosen to make their life their art.

Giants in the Sky

Written by Skip Bates, Midcoast Magnet Board Member

Maine is famous for its natural beauty and its cultural heritage. Sometimes we experience culture by going to a museum and studying paintings by famous artists. If it’s a rainy day, what better place to take in some culture than in Rockland, home to the nationally renowned Farnsworth Art Museum? The Farnsworth is famous for its collection of three generations of the Wyeth family, including N.C., Andrew, and Jamie, whose works are all on display. I particularly love N.C. Wyeth’s heroic illustrations for early 20^th century novels including Last of the Mohicans, Treasure Island, and Robinson Crusoe, since they perfectly capture my still naïve young adult imagination.

I just love The Giant. If you ever visit Sand Beach in Acadia, Lucia Beach in Owls Head, or one of Maine’s other great (but virtually secret) sand beaches, you can practically relive the moment depicted in the painting by building castles with your own kids. Here’s a quick clip of some youngsters doing just that…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOg_HRjb3xM&feature=related

Or, for a slightly different perspective on Maine beaches, check out these skim boarders. Why don’t more people do this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wViAYFrgrtk&feature=related

Grant Opportunity for Artists

Supporting Professional Development Workshops for Artists

The purpose of Creative Capital: Workshop Subsidy Grants is to help artists to manage the business side of their art with greater efficiency and results. Organizations can apply for grants to partner with Creative Capital to offer these workshops to artists for a significantly reduced fee, thereby increasing the diversity of participating artists. Subsidies ranging from $3,000 to $10,000 are available for workshops in planning, internet, and verbal communications to be held in 2011 and 2012. Apply by June 30, 2010.

http://creative-capital.org/pdp/subsidy

Wanna Social Network...In Real Life?

Constructions for Humanity

Have you heard about Constructions for Humanity happening in conjunction with the Maine Home and Design Show?

Sponsored in part by Cellardoor Winery, this very special project was a challenge for nine Maine artists who do assemblage or constructed pieces.

http://www.constructionsforhumanity.com

The Assignment: Take the contents of a box of random materials donated by exhibitors at the Midcoast Homeshow and create a piece of original art to be auctioned off to benefit the Midcoast Habitat for Humanity Chapter. Each piece had to be no larger than 3' x 3' and as many materials as possible had to be used, each artist was able add materials of their own. The box contained bricks, stones, granite pieces, copper pipe pieces, fabric, used paint brushes, plates, pottery shards, boards, wire mesh, paint sample and a number of other odds and ends.

The Art: It is truly amazing to see this project come to life, each of the contributing artists put their imprint on this project and we are grateful for their time and creativity.

The Auction: You can bid on the art by clicking here. Each piece has a minimum bid and a buy it now price. If you want a piece and don't want to worry about being out-bid then click and submit the Buy it Now and it's all yours. If a piece does not hit the buy now price in this online auction it will be auctioned off in person at the Midcoast Show Gala slated for Saturday June 5th from 5 to 8PM. Tickets are $25 per person and available by calling 207.772.3373. All art will be available to the winning bidders after the Midcoast Show.

100% of the proceeds of these original donated pieces goes directly to the Midcoast Habitat for Humanity.

This fantastic endeavor is happening in part with the Maine Home+Design Midcoast at Point Lookout, June 5-6

June 5-6, 2010
Sat. 10-5, Sun. 10-4
Point Lookout, Lincolnville

Grand Prize - Presented by Camden National Bank, Hancock Lumber and Landmarcs
Brand New Vespa

Come out in support of Maine's creative economy! Architects, builders, landscape designers, interior designers, kitchen suppliers, artists, food purveyors,, and more will be represented in over 100 booths. This show is a must for people interested in any aspect of building, remodeling, and enjoying their homes.

Adults $10, Children under 12 Free

The Maine Home+Design Midcoast Show is sponsored by J.C. Stone, Inc; A.E. Sampson & Son; Cellardoor Vineyard; Solaris; Breakwater Design & Build; Landmarcs; Katahdin Cedar Log Homes; Camden National Bank; Hancock Lumber, Landmarcs The CRL Chamber of Commerce; The Maine Contractors & Builders Alliance; and the Union Area Chamber of Commerce

The Artists:

They gave their time and talent to bring people home. We are can’t express our gratitude to these talented Mainers enough. They gave of themselves to help us with this incredible cause. Please support them and their work.

	Michael Branca
	Michael Branca has received fellowships at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Vermont Studio Center and the Carina House on Monhegan, as well as a grant from the Maine Arts Commission. He graduated from Colby College, attended Temple University Rome and is currently working on his MFA at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He teaches drawing at Southern Maine Community College and has shown his work throughout New England at such venues as the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Whitney Artworks and Stadler Gallery. To learn more about the artist and their work, please visit MikeBranca.com
	Jill Dalton
	Jill is a mixed-media sculptor and jewelry maker with a relentless need to collect rusted bit of metal. She uses found objects in her work to explore meaning, history, and humor. She earned her BFA in Sculpture in 1999 from Maine College of Art, where currently she is currently employed as Alumni Relations Coordinator. She and her husband, glassblower Ernest Paterno co-own Filament Gallery in Portland, Maine. They live in the East Bayside neighborhood of Portland with five formerly stray cats and expanding organic gardens. To learn more about the artist and their work, please visit FilamentGallery.com
	Dan Dowd
	Dan has been collecting found objects for most of is life and assembling them for over ten years. His most recent works are examples of what is created when some of those objects are united and interact. Any story that may be in his head as he creates the piece, or any story that he may write after the piece is completed, is different from the stories which a viewer may create. No one story is correct. This aspect of his work, and art in general, intrigues and amazes him.
	Eva Deveau
	My name is Eva Deveau. I am 7 1/2 years old. I am in the second grade. I like to go shopping with my mommy and I like to do art. I think about my art before I make it and I always try my best. I have had art shows at AVA Gallery and Chellie Pingree's Congressional Headquarters and showed some of my work at the Maine Home + Design Midcoast Show in 2009.
	Nathan Deveau
	Nathan relocated to Maine from Vermont to attend and graduate from the Maine College of Art. My latest work focuses on environmental responsibility through the use of natural materials many would consider waste, such as spent coffee grounds, grass clippings, tree branches, sawdust and more. I transform these materials into sculptures, mirrors, jewelry boxes, cutting boards, tables, sinks, countertops, flooring, tiles and more. To learn more about the artist and their work, please visit www.deveaugallery.com
	Mark Kelly
	Mark earned his BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art. He is a founding partner of Aarhus Gallery in Belfast, was the 2009 Earth Week Artist-in-Residence at Waterfall Arts, and was recently a group leader at Unity College's Art of Sustainability Conference. His work was included in Maine Home+Design's Art of Assemblage feature in the Jan/Feb 2009 issue. Exhibitions include the 18th Annual Drawing Show at the Boston Center for the Arts/Mills Gallery; the Out of Bounds altered book show, Rockport, ME; Art from Intuition – Northampton Center for the Arts, Northampton, MA; The Crossing of Time and Environment: Micro Installation – Tianan County, Taiwan (group collaboration); and First Traces at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME. He lives in Belfast with his wife and thee daughters. To learn more about the artist and their work, please visit AarhusGallery.com
	Mike Libby
	Mike is a multi-disciplinary artist who makes highly detailed sculptures, models, collages and drawings. Through diverse materials and methodologies, I explore themes of science, nature, fantasy, history and autobiography; highlighting illogical and acute correspondences between the real and unreal. To learn more about the artist and their work, please visit InsectLabStudio.com
	Edward Mackenzie
	Edward works mainly with 'found' objects – old and new manufactured objects, to create unique sculptural art. His work has a strong design element with references to humor, allegory, or history. Chosen material often evolves into a series of artwork, for example: PIANOWORKS using piano parts; OARACLE using sculling oars; PYROTECHNICAL using matches and matchboxes. Photo by Ric Prindle. To learn more about the artist and their work, please visit EdwardMackenzie.com
	Louise Philbrick
	The subject matter of Louise's work typically involves memory in one way or another. She seeks out found objects (doomed instrument parts, rusty street detritus, surf-worn stones) that readily demonstrate the rigors of their respective histories and re-contextualize them in a way that features those peculiarities. She makes a deliberate effort not to conceal the impositions of her own process (or the imperfections of the human touch) on them. To learn more about the artist and their work, please visit LouisePhilbrick.com
	Anastasia S. Weigle
	Anastasia received her B.A. in natural science illustration with a minor in museum studies from SUNY Empire State College and an M.S.L.I.S. (Library & Information Science) in archives management. Her professional work as an archivist influenced her work as an artist. Through discarded objects and ephemera—these small, insignificant pieces of nostalgic history—she found her true voice. Weigle is creating a magical history all her own. The inner child—who still believes that dreams do come true—is the master and teacher. Her works of art are created by forgotten bits and pieces of bric-à-brac in this world of discarded dreams. To learn more about the artist and their work, please visit http://anastasiaweigle.artspan.com/

¢ Sense for Life ¢

Written By: Skip Bates - Former Midcoast Magnet President

Midcoast Magnet’s goal is to attract, connect, and retain talented people in Maine. We foster projects that promote livability, sustainability, and economic vitality. Maine is a fabulous place to live, if you have a sense for good living. It can also be a great place to do business, if you have a sense for value. Making money and living well are not mutually exclusive ends.

One of the best kept secrets in the State: Maine’s Seed Capital Tax Credit Program. Want to make a guaranteed 60% return on your investments? Try putting your money in a Maine business! Think I’m kidding? Check it out at www.famemaine.com. Investors can take advantage of tax credits equal to 40-60% of their investment by investing in Maine companies engaged in either 1) manufacturing; 2) sale of goods or services with 60% of revenue derived from outside the State; 3) advanced technologies; or 4) attraction of significant permanent capital into the State.

Why send your money to Wall Street when you could put it to use on a Maine street?

Connect, Collaborate, and COMMUNICATE!

A Midcoast Magnet Juice Box

Join Bob Keteyian, author of Do You Know What I Mean? and the MidCoast Magnet in an interactive Juice Box on “Communication and the Workplace”

April 27th
5:00 pm - 7:30/8:00
Atlantica - 1 Bayview Landing Camden
$10/Ticket
Only 30 Spots Available

RSVP Required: info@midcoastmagnet.com or call 207-522-8006

Discover how knowing your communication style can lead to better business:

• Hone your strengths and discover your roadblocks

• Improve teamwork

• Communicate better with colleagues and customers
Bob will lead us through a presentation and hands on practice from his Communication Styles Workbook. Bring your pen and come ready to work. Take the workbook home with you for further study.

Join us for networking, appetizers and an interactive group style communication workshop!

A Juice Box is full of the energy and expertise of a Juice Conference - just wrapped up in a smaller package. Created by the Midcoast Magnet, these events offer skills, networking opportunities and fun. Join us to promote the creative economy as we bring together the arts, business and technology in the Juice Box series.

Unleashing Innovation... An Article

Ten Tips and Twenty Questions for Unleashing Innovation

Mar 12, 2010 -
By: Matthew E. May Strategy, Innovation & Design (In Pursuit of Elegance)

If you search Amazon for "Innovation", you'll get over 39,000 book titles. I've read a tiny fraction of the total, but a much larger fraction of the true standouts. And I've written a couple books myself. Innovation is a huge topic, and you can slice and dice it in, well, tens of thousands of ways. Can such a large topic be boiled down to a few enduring principles and ten strategies in an 800-word column? Let's try.

The challenge begins with the definition of innovation. Most of the definitions I’ve seen are overly complicated, scholarly descriptions full of qualifications, and generally serve to exclude the everyman from innovating. IMHO, the best definition of innovation on the planet is the one given by David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue: “Innovation is trying to figure out a way to do something better than it’s ever been done before.” That echoes Thomas Edison’s mantra of “There’s a way to do it better—find it.”

So far, so good. That definition opens up innovation, and makes it accessible, regardless of your sphere of activity or function. Moving on, then, to the meta principles, and invoking the “Rule of Three” (we can remember three!) I come up with these:

• Ingenuity. Ingenuity is human creativity plus application, idea plus execution.

• Perfection. Imperfection is what drives innovation, because nothing’s perfect. Perfection is a pursuit, a journey, not a destination. The destination is a placed called “Better.”

• Fit. Any innovation has to fit. In other words, if you have a better mousetrap, there better be a serious rodent infestation.

I can’t think of a successful innovation without some element of each in it. The challenge is, of course, wrestling those principles to the ground, making them useful, putting them into practice, every day, by everyone. Here’s my list of top ten key practices that help do that. I’ve included a couple of questions for each to prompt your thinking. Each of these relates to one or more of the three principles above.

1. Let Learning Lead. Learning and innovation go hand in hand, but learning comes first. Learning is defined as the creation of new knowledge through experimentation. Harvard’s David Garvin, an expert on company learning, maintains that “learning will always remain something of an art, but even the best artists can improve their technique.”

   • To what degree is experimentation built into your core work processes?

   • What routines are in place to quickly pilot new ideas?

2. Learn to See. The most successful innovations often come from customers—get out more and live in their world. Observe them, infiltrate and become them, and involve them in the design. Wear three hats: detective, FBI profiler, and problem-solver.

   • How well do you understand the problem your customers face?

   • What part do customers play in solution design?

3. Design for Today. Focus on present needs, or your great ideas remain just ideas. Peter Drucker once wrote “Don’t try to innovate for the future. It’s not enough to be able to say ‘In 25 years there will be so many very old people that they will need this.’”

   • What is the great and pressing need your offering meets?

   • What market, societal or demographic shifts can be exploited?

4. Think in Pictures. Aristotle said it best: “The soul does not think without a picture.”So get visual with your idea: sketch it, storyboard it, diagram it, mindmap it, whiteboard it, butcher-paper the walls and go crazy. Paint a picture of the future, and show progress against your goals in a vivid, appealing, unboring way.

   • What opportunities exist to use images and visual references?

   • What does the idea solution actually look like?

5. Capture Intangible Value. The most compelling solutions are often perceptual and emotional. It’s the art of business. A Harley-Davidson exec once said “What we sell is fear: the ability for a 43-year old accountant to dress in all-black leather, ride through small towns, and have people be afraid of him.”

   • How do you connect emotionally with your customers?

   • What one word would customers use to describe your uniqueness?

6. Leverage the Limitations. Resource constraints can spur ingenuity more than a big budget. Things start in the garage for a reason: you have an idea you’re passionate about, it’ll change the world, and it’s the lack of space, manpower and money that drive your resourcefulness.

   • How do your goals stimulate new thinking?

   Are resource constraints blocking innovation, or enabling it?

7. Master Creative Tension. Don’t satisfice, don’t glom on to the obvious solution and then just sell the heck out it, or you’ll wake up an also-ran. Breakthrough thinking demands something to break through. Set goals high, and don’t back off, don’t compromise, don’t downgrade your thinking.

   • What tools do you use to frame problems and guide thinking?

   • What key mechanisms do you use to address complex challenges?

8. Run the Numbers. Think for yourself—temper instinct with insight, focus on facts, and do the math. Google was a math problem. So was Paypal. Nothing better than a little pattern science to fight conventional wisdom. Oakland A’s manager Billy Bean challenged convention by simply looking at statistics, and created a legacy of winning with the second smallest budget in baseball.

   • What patterns might be investigated to challenge convention?

   • What critical success factors in your market space are undervalued, and thus exploitable?

9. Make Kaizen Mandatory. Kaizen is the Japanese term for continuous improvement, taught to Japan by the U.S. Government following World War II. It’s the everyday practice of pursuing mastery and perfection. It has three steps: create a standard, follow it, and find a better way. Repeat again and again, because there is simply no limit on better.

   • How are new ideas encouraged in your company?

   • How do you sustain constant idea flow?

10. Keep it Lean. Complexity kills value—scale it back, make it simple, and let it flow. Take a page from Henry David Thoreau’s urge to “Simplify, simplify, simplify!” Combine it with the Michelangelo strategy: “I saw David through the stone, and I simply chipped away everything that was not David.” Target overload, inconsistency, and waste. Think: Google interface. In ’N Out Burger. Twitter.

    • How effortless is it for customers to pull value from you?

    • What would your customers love for you to eliminate, or stop doing?

Obviously, these are practical strategies, not nitty-gritty tactics. The questions should help prompt your own interpretation of the actual implementation of them.

Final thought: while innovation demands the pursuit of perfection, the best idea is often a brilliant imperfection. More on that to follow!

Matthew E. May is an innovation consultant and the author of In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing. He blogs here. You can follow him on Twitter here.

MMW Offers Scholarships

Check out this article from the Bangor Daily News... If you know any Maine high school students pass it on!

Media Workshops sets $10,000 scholarships

By BDN Staff
BDN Staff

ROCKPORT, Maine — Maine Media Workshops has launched a new scholarship fund for Maine high school students attending MMW’s Young Artists Program. Partnering with Camden National Bank, MMW has committed $10,000 for Maine Youth Scholarships in 2010.

The Young Artists Program, which takes place in June, July and August, provides opportunities for students ages 14-17 to study photography, filmmaking, multimedia and acting. More than 30 one- and two-week classes include introductory and advanced course work as well as specialized workshops in editing, screenwriting, animation and special effects.

Teens from across the country travel to Maine every summer to study with world-class faculty members and work with peers from a wide range of backgrounds.

Over the past three years, while 150-200 students have participated in the program, only 10 each year have been Maine residents. Community outreach has been a primary goal of the school since it transitioned to a nonprofit organization in 2007. The new scholarship fund will make it possible for more Maine teens to participate in the Young Artists Program.

“Camden National Bank’s commitment to opportunities for youth and cultural enrichment for the community make them an ideal partner for this program,” said MMW President Charles Altschul. “We’re grateful to [the bank] for providing critical support for the scholarship fund in its inaugural year.”

The experience of a workshop opens up for young people not only the chance to expand their knowledge of a favorite hobby, but also the opportunity to discover possible careers in creative industries. Many MMW high school alumni present examples of the work they produce in Rockport as part of their college applications or for employment.

“Sometimes all a student needs is an opportunity, a chance to express themselves and to be immersed in a creative environment,” said Greg Dufour, president and chief executive officer of Camden National Bank. “We’re pleased to partner with MMW to help Maine youth realize their dreams, which will help fuel the creative economy of Maine.”

Application is by letter of interest, evidence of financial need as demonstrated on the application form, accompanied by legal guardian’s most recent tax return, and three letters of recommendation. The deadline for submissions is 5 p.m. April 23. Awards will be announced the week of May 16.

Visit www.mainemedia.edu for complete course descriptions and details on registration and scholarships. Contact MMW directly by e-mail info@theworkshops.com or phone 236-8581.

Pecha Kucha Rockland - March 26th

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Pecha Kucha Night Travels to Lincoln Street Center for Arts and Edcuation

Midcoast Magnet and the Lincoln Street Center for Arts and Education (LSC) have teamed up to host the first 2010 Pecha Kucha Night in Midcoast Maine on Friday, March 26 at 7:15pm at Lincoln Street Center, located at 22 Lincoln Street in Rockland. Nine individuals have been chosen to show 20 images for 20 seconds each, a fast-paced and engaging program to be followed by discussion and socializing. Pecha Kucha Night is open to the public and doors open at 6:30pm. There is a $5.00 admission fee and light refreshments will be served. Seating is limited to 280 seats on a first-come, first-served basis.

The following nine individuals have been chosen to present at the March 26 event:

Jim Macdonald (marquetry/inlay artist and furniture maker); Kevin Johnson (photo archivist at the Penobscot Marine Museum); Cythia Motain McGuirl (printmaker and painter); Jesse Watson (permaculture designer); Mark Kelly (mixed media artist); Jim and Amy Grant (Good
Karma Farm and Spinning Co.); Brian Willson (font designer); Ben Potter (mixed media artist).

The MC for the March Pecha Kucha will be Joshua Woodman. Josh is a native to Rockland and a self-taught artist with a passion for creating.

Pecha Kucha (which is Japanese for chit chat) was conceived in Japan in 2003 as a place for young designers to meet, network and show their work in public. It has grown to include more than 180 cities worldwide, thus answering a global demand for a forum where creative work can be easily and informally shown. The unique format of 20 images discussed in 20 seconds each keeps presentations concise, the interest level up and gives more people the chance to show.

Founded in 2004, Midcoast Magnet (www.midcoastmagnet.com) brings people together to develop innovative projects that support creativity, livability and economic sustainability in Midcoast Maine. As a non-profit organization dedicated to vibrant culture, entrepreneurship, and making connections socially and professionally, Midcoast Magnet is a proud partner in Pecha Kucha Night.

"All of us who are part of the Lincoln Street Center community are pleased to welcome Pecha Kucha and the talented individuals who help to make the Mid-Coast community such a special place to live. There is a vibrant creative energy here at the center, one that begins with our
own studio artists and to that we're excited to be adding the truly unique creative energy that Pecha Kucha night provides,” says Dale Schierholt, President, Board of Trustees, Lincoln Street Center for Arts and Education. The Lincoln Street Center provides the arts for everyone, offering affordable classes, wide-ranging exhibitions, studio space to working artists and special art-related events and performances. Lincoln Street is a supportive environment where people
of all ages, backgrounds and abilities can study, create, and present all forms of art. Through educational programs, opportunity outreach and exhibitions, Lincoln Street Center brings people together and enhances community life.

For questions about the upcoming Pecha Kucha event, please send an email to rockland@pechakuchamaine.org or call Midcoast Magnet board member Mary Bumiller at 207-949-9155.

Midcoast Magnet... Who, What, Why, How

Midcoast Magnet develops leaders in support of innovative projects that foster creativity, livability and economic vitality.

We're a non-profit organization of people dedicated to vibrant culture, entrepreneurship, and socially and professional networking.

Juice Conference: The Juice Conference is bi-yearly conference held in Camden. Juice is a forum for the exchange of ideas, the sharing of success stories, and the development of strategies for Maine’s future. Juice connects leaders of the creative economy to foster growth and prosperity. By weaving together the arts, technology, and entrepreneurship, Juice inspires innovation by bringing talented people together from widely different backgrounds to build on Maine’s traditions. Juice 3.0 November 11-12, 2011 www.juiceconference.org

Pecha Kucha: Pecha Kucha Night is an internationally recognized event based on a unique presentation style in which artists, designers and other creative individuals share twenty images, or each image. Pecha Kucha Night Rockland spans the midcoast, from Thomaston to Belfast, and strengthens community by bringing people of all ages together to consider ideas and images presented by various creatives in our area.

Build Green Maine: Build Green Maine was originated by Midcoast Magnet with the intention of connecting practitioners in the various areas of green building and renewable energy with each other and with homeowners and other stakeholders in Maine’s. BGM is currently going through a transformation. To learn more about it contact George Callas.

Juice Boxes: We want to keep the conversation moving in the creative economy and between Juice conferences. In support of this effort we will be producing quarterly events, called “Juice Boxes”. Each Juice Box will be crafted with specific sectors of the creative economy in mind, at least two sectors, bringing them together, having speakers, panelists, a dialogue or theme to be continued from Juice, the ability to walk away with a new or improved skill, and ample time to network. The sectors focused on, but not limited to, are: the arts, entrepreneurship, investment, fundraising, networking, technology, and innovation.

Wanna Social Network… In Real Life?: We held some focus groups last year and it became apparent to us that the 20/30 demographic in Midcoast Maine wants to be more involved. We have designed some events to bring them together to socialize, network and tell them more about the events we have coming up. We had the kick off event in March at Billy’s Tavern and it was a great success! We will be having more. These events are not meant to exclude, but actually the opposite – they’re meant to include! Learn more on our website or facebook.

Monthly Networking Events: Midcoast Magnet will broadcast events happening within the community and invite interested parties to go to the event together. At least one of our board members will be there to welcome and network with you. The outings range from art walk nights, plays, techy gatherings, and more. Let us know if you have an event you would like to promote and we will add it to our calendar and put it in our newsletter.
c

Many Ways To Get Involved...

• Start coming to events! Email info@midcoastmagnet.com to get on the list. You will receive updates on upcoming MM events, as well as other happenings in the Midcoast and beyond.

• Stay tuned for the new www.midcoastmagnet.com - we will be announcing it soon.

• Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/midcoastmagnet

• Join our board: The Midcoast Magnet board is always expanding and always looking for people that want to contribute. We would love to meet with anyone interested! Email Amber Heffner and come to our next board meeting.

• Join a committee: We welcome volunteers for all of our programs! You don’t have to be a board member to join a committee. Contact the Committee Chair for more information.

Pecha Kucha: mary.bumiller@bangor.com

Build Green Maine: georgemcallas@msn.com
Juice Boxes: kimberlycallas@mac.com
Monthly Networking: jasiecostigan@yahoo.com
Juice 3.0: aheffner@littleharbortech.com
Fundraising: skip.bates@bangor.com
Social Networking: jasiecostigan@yahoo.com

What Is Beauty?

Donna McNeil, Director of the Maine Arts Commission graced us with her poise and perspective at the Built Energy Forum last January (2009) at the Augusta Civic Center. There she gave an address that is absolutely worth publishing again!

Written and Presented By Donna McNeil

Look around, everything outside the natural world is man made and all of it designed. We are at a global tipping point where the future has the possibility of being radically different from the past, a moment where design is activism. On the eve of the historic election of Barak Obama we were asked to help him remake the nation “block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand. Infrastructure is suddenly a buzzword, so alluring it could be the name of new cologne. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration so titillating it could be the latest gizmo from Steve jobs. Truth is, designers have been on the track of globally responsible design for at least a hundred years. Now is the moment…..
In the next few minutes I will re-present ideas gleaned from folks much brighter than I, reassembled and juxtaposed with the hope of providing stimulus for todays topic.

My presentation revolves around three axioms:
truth is beauty, form follows function and necessity if the mother of invention.

In 1919, Walter Gropius, a German architect, founded the Bauhaus school in Dessau. The aim of the Bauhaus was a "unity of art and technology" – beauty and truth if you will -- to give artistic direction to industry. The design philosophy behind Gropius’ architecture was to retain the importance of function and still remain aesthetically pleasing, form follows function. A respect for materials and a regard for being severely economic are ideas which set the standard for modern architecture.

Responding to events in Germany in the 1930’s including the repression of the work at the Bauhaus, Gropius moved to the United States and became Chair of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. In 1945 he founded The Architects' Collaborative, one of the most well-known and respected architectural firms in the world. Walter Gropius was a great theorist who brought art and engineering together exemplified by his functional and simple architectural style, His theories are still practiced and evidence themselves as particularly relevant and timely today.

Form follows function:

Buckminster Fuller, one of our world’s first futurists and global thinkers was born in 1895 in Milton, Massachusetts. By 1927, Buckminster Fuller pledged to work always and only for all humanity. This personal pledge led him to address the largest global problems of poverty, disease and homelessness. He realized early on that by examining global problems in the context of the whole system—the whole planet—he would have the best chance of identifying large-scale trends that would allow him to anticipate the critical needs of humanity. This “big-picture” approach evolved into a comprehensive assessment of humanity’s global situation—where we have been, where we are now, and where we are going.

Fuller called his approach to global problem-solving “Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science.” The central principle of this approach is “doing more with less,” that is, securing the maximum life-sustaining performance achievable per each pound of material. Simply put, by using the resources on Earth most effectively, we will have enough for everyone to enjoy a high standard of living. This is the principle Fuller dubbed “dymaxion.”

Fuller’s comprehensive research into our global situation led him to pronounce the Malthusian world-view of human overpopulation, resource depletion, and eventual self-destruction to be absolutely in error. Due to advances in technology that Malthus had no way of foreseeing, humanity, he believed, has developed the capability to provide adequate food, shelter, and energy for every man, woman, and child on Earth.

Great scientists and great artists are not only subjective and pure but also objective and responsible inventors. To Fuller’s mind some of the great artists of our time are Henry Ford and Albert Einstein. Because of a comprehensive outlook, their art reflects many disciplines, especially science. Fuller often stressed the importance of blurring the artist's and scientist's roles and envisioned that these two opposite sides of the cultural pendulum's swing would eventually come together. He was perfectly aware that this was not an entirely new thought, as he himself quoted Leonardo da Vinci, who he called a painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, inventor of the wheelbarrow and other useful instruments from the speaking tube to the mechanically gyp-proof whore-house, and who wrote: "the further art advances the closer it approaches science, the further science advances the closer it approaches art."

Beauty is truth

The problem of how one may navigate contradiction and complexity is central for those working in art and technology. Fuller provides a model that points to integrity as being key in the work one builds. Although he professed a lack of interest in how his projects looked, he believed that a project at completion was beautiful if it possessed integrity, which to him was the key to aesthetics. Again, form follows function, truth is beauty.

"The great aesthetic which will inaugurate the twenty-first century will be the utterly invisible quality of intellectual integrity; the integrity of the individual dealing with his scientific discoveries; the integrity of the individual in dealing with conceptual realization of the comprehensive interrelatedness of all events.

If everything that can be seen or imagined can be known and made, then everything one makes is worth contemplating. We live in an artificial environment we have collectively created and must collectively use. The appearance of the world as one has made it should be a source of spiritual and intellectual pride.
Look at our built environment with attention and clarity and a sense of its place in the economy of the whole. Gone are the days when craftspeople worked a lifetime on a project to be completed 400 years hence, completely satisfied that they were making an honorable contribution to their society and contentedly delivering to the future without hubris.

Necessity is the mother of invention

During the years of the Great Depression in America, modernist designers developed products and lifestyle concepts intended for middle-class—not elite—consumers. Modernism combined International Style, functional efficiency and sophistication with a respect for consumers’ desires for physical and psychological comfort -- ideas paralleling Gropius’s and Fuller’s architectural design concepts. New Englanders seem to be especially reluctant to embrace modernist design. Living with an abundant historic building inventory, when the opportunity presents itself to build new, they often opt for imitating the past. There exists a deep insecurity around major investment in untested design and enormous security in time honored methods. The predisposition to comfortably appropriating the past does not offer our communities the chance to define this century, this amazing moment. How does rooting ourselves steadfastly in the design concepts of our forefathers identify this age or move us forward with authentic response to the particulars of our age?

In flush economic times, consumers don’t covet the concerts you hear or the books you read, they covet your possessions and then they go and buy cooler versions. In the recent giddily hyper financed years, Michael Cannell writes in a January article in the New York Times, signature architects and designers came to be known by their first names –Rem, Phillipe, Zaha – and they were photographed as prolifically as Bono in new design hotbeds like Miami and Dubai. Brooklyn designers became the apotheosis of indie cool. Now, with those slick Miami condos sitting empty, designers are rethinking their priorities just as American designers took the depression as a call to arms. It was and is a chance to make good on the Modernist promise to make affordable intelligent design for a broad audience. In the scarcity of the 1940’s, Charles and Ray Eames, for example, produced furniture and other products of enduring appeal from cheap materials like plastic, resin and plywood and Italian design flowered in the aftermath of WWII. As with every facet of life, there will be less design, but better design. Design will be vetted for efficiency and usefulness. The economic condition will be the curator. Designers will shift their attention from consumer products to the more pressing needs of infrastructure, housing, city planning, transit and energy. Artists are coming up with new ways of looking at and solving complex problems and if the new administration delivers anything like a works progress administration (WPA) we “could be standing on the brink of the most productive periods of design ever. “

Modernism’s great ambition was to democratize design. Ikea and Target have shown that the battle for good cheap design can be won. The emphasis will shift to greater quality at affordable prices. Expect to hear a lot more about open source design and cradle to cradle, a concept developed by William McDonough and Michael Brangart that calls for cars, packaging and other everyday objects to be designed specifically for recycling so that their parts and materials are used and reused without waste.

So. YOU, voters, consumers, taxpayers, citizens, make your choice


I Died for Beauty Emily Dickenson

I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?
"For beauty," I replied.
"And I for truth - the two are one;
We brethren are," he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a-night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.


Now is the time to resurrect our responsibility to truth and beauty, to integrity and global sustainability.. Fear is neither reason nor philosophy. Avarice a destructive motivator.

We cannot not change the world


Michael Cannell writes in a January article in the New York Times,
Reed Kroloff, director the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

What Is The Creative Economy?

By: George Callas

The 2009 Juice 2.0 Conference: Building Maine’s Innovation Networks brought together a great cross section of Maine’s leadership under the banner of the Creative Economy. We at the Midcoast Magnet have been buzzing about the roles that creative types can play in developing our state’s future, ranging from gubernatorial candidates and legislators to artists, bankers to technologists, builders and preservationists to dancers, educators to social networkers and so on, The connections and hats worn vary and run the gamut.

The Creative Economy, like the weather, is something that everyone seems to have an opinion about. With vague notions about what it actually is, it is hard for individuals and organizations to coordinate activities and commit resources towards its advancement.

The first level attempt to define the creative economy is deciding who makes up the creative class; the economic agents of creativity. Right out of the gate, we tend to think of the artists, isn’t all of their work creative? But in the core, the artists are also joined by the scientists, engineers, architects, designers, and software developers, along with those in the entertainment, education and music fields. However, another tier to the creative class is the broader group of creative professionals in business and finance, law, government and healthcare. Anyone who has followed stories around hedge funds, Ponzi schemes or Enron has some idea just how creative people in these disciplines can be. Finally, the third tier to the creative class is one not typically associated with creativity at all; factory and service workers. We all can attest to circumstances and stories where people in these positions went above and beyond to create solutions to customer problems. Tapping the creativity of workers in repetitive task positions has helped many firms excel in productivity and profits.

While there are traditionally defined creative-types in the economy, virtually any person in any kind of job can help further the creative economy cause. The conclusion is that creativity is “the ultimate economic resource”, but it draws crucially on our ordinary abilities. In this light, perhaps the ubiquitous buzz from Juice was to be expected, everyone was excited in their own way about their own field.

The crucial point and question here is if Maine wants to redefine itself along the lines of the creative economy does that mean we have to create certain kinds of jobs? Well yes, and no. On the one hand, having more scientists doing more research certainly helps. On the other hand, cultivating the creative potential in people throughout Maine’s economy also helps. This is where the Juice Conference comes into play; if nothing else it keeps alive creativity by “frequent and random collisions of people and ideas.” But, it is more than that, during the Perfect Pitch competition at this year’s conference over 40 Maine start-ups connected with bankers and venture capitalists, while honing their presentation skills.

If the creative economy can be developed both by developing “creative” jobs and by actively cultivating the creative capacity of ordinary people, what then can help Maine distinguish itself? This gets to the heart of the Creative Economy question and the answer turns out to be a traditional one: Place. It turns out that creativity flourishes in socially stable environments that nonetheless provide opportunities for random inspiration and the display of quality work. While this tends to be more available in major metropolitan areas, where individuals can circulate through social circles and following veins of attraction or inspiration, many come to Maine because they want to be in Maine. It is harder here to move in quasi-anonymity, alone with inspirations, without running into several people you know.

From a classical Creative Economy perspective Maine may not be socially great for the creative type. But, this is where organizations like the Midcoast Magnet come into play. The Magnet brings together people in decidedly creative vocations around its core activities, we don’t just hang out, we do stuff. And the stuff we do! Pecha Kucha, that funky Japanese creative showcase has attracted over 1,000 participants thus far around the Midcoast region, introducing leading-edge creative economy practitioners in a wide array of fields. The Juice Conference provides a concentrated form of creative stimulation across many fields and regions, from both inside and outside of Maine. The Magnet’s Juice Box events represent a scaled down version of this function across specified vocational fields. And all these events inspire participants to more deeply plumb their creativity storehouse and actively cultivate that precious economic resource.

Perhaps here we practice a more mature brand of the creative economy. What we may lack in streetscape fluidity and anonymity, we make up for with landscape beauty and endurance of engagement among creatives. Perhaps being in relationship with people whose creativity is on the go and growing more than compensates for the chance to substitute friends and stimulations. While big investments to create decidedly creative jobs is a fine thing, growing indigenous creative networks will probably in the long run do more to remake the face of Maine’s future economy.

Submitted By: George Callas - Midcoast Magnet Treasurer and President of Build Green Maine

Community Supported Agriculture in Maine

With over 140 farms and 6,200 shares, Maine's CSA community is transforming relationships with food and farms. There is no formula to a CSA. Each is unique as the community supporting it. The bottom line is that people make commitments to farms, and in return farmers make commitments to produce for their members the freshest, most flavorful, highest quality food possible.

Just in Knox County alone there's 10 farms offering share programs. What's better than that? Fresh produce every week right off the farm!

Agricola Farms, Union
Brae Maple Farm, Union
Dandelion Spring Farm, Washington
Guini Ridge Farm, Union
Hatchet Cove Farm, Warren
Home Grown Farm, Washington
Hope's Edge Farm & CSA, Hope
Peaceful Harbor Farm, Vinalhaven
Sweet Willow Farm, Washington
Weskeag Farms, Thomaston

Every county in Maine has CSA's. To find one in your county go to www.mofga.org

Information courtesy of Mofga.org