What are "Creative Scenes?"

Here's a cool, and fairly new, part of the art and music scene here in Winston-Salem, NC.  The Art Park.  Officially it's called Artivity on the Green.  What was an abandoned lot a couple years back is now a cool looking little park, with murals by local artists on the back wall.  There was a high school aged band playing in the green loops in the back last Friday.  The red towers are meant to harken back to Winston's industrial days, and they spout steam at night, like the smokestacks back in the day. 

In the last post I wrote about how "Creative Scenes" are not only cool things for a city to have, but actually a key part of any town, city, or region's economy in today's world.  Some of you are probably asking:

What's a Creative Scene?

A Creative Scene is two or more people who are into some type of creative work, and who talk, bounce ideas around, compete, collaborate, and ultimately push each other to improve.  People in Creative Scenes usually progress faster than creative people working alone.

A Creative Scene can be two kids in 3rd grade who try to draw comic book characters.  It can be a garage band.  It can be the kids in a skatepark skateboarding and riding bikes.  It can be the artists in a local indie gallery.  It can be a couple of entrepreneurs working on a new idea in the garage or spare bedroom.  It can be a big city's orchestra.  It can be the local theater company.  It can be a world touring band like Metallica playing sold out shows in different countries. 

What every town or city needs to encourage these days is a "scene of Creative Scenes" that interact and mingle with each other.  This is where new ideas, from a local park clean-up campaign, to a new song, to a multi-billion dollar tech company, often start.  Some of these ideas turn into businesses, and even entire new industries.  Other scenes provide a "Creative Ecosystem" that attract talented people from the region, state, or even around the world.