Today I just want to talk about the idea behind
Gizhiigin
In February the White Earth Tribe offered me the
position of the Incubator coordinator. This was a unique experience as I've
never had the opportunity to lead a project like this and the White Earth
Nation has never taken on a project like this. Both my boss and I were well
aware that the learning curve of this project was very high.
To start, a business incubator is an enterprise that
welcomes and assists entrepreneurs in their journey on establishing a business.
They are specifically designed to accelerate the growth and success of
companies by offering support resources and services.
I am going to sidetrack a little but I promise it
relates back. When you open a business you can either say “I am going to
opening up a business that fits a need in the community currently not being met
(A Sporting Goods store for example) or you have an idea that has a specific
target audience that can deliver a good that isn’t needed, but wanted (a coffee
shop in a mall or a downtown shopping district). When I was brought on this is
something we talked about and something that ended up causing some issues. The
problem with the city we were putting incubator in was that it was failing. Not
just from a business perspective but people were actively leaving the city to
spend money. So we had to ask ourselves what we could do to fix this problem.
After discussing with city officials, research and a lot of coffee sessions my
boss came up with an idea: instead of building a business incubator, we should
build an art accelerator—and I agreed. Art is something that can revitalize
small and large communities alike. The problem we faced was that our proposal
for our grant was for a Business Incubator. So we talked and researched and I
got in contact with a very intelligent lady, who I won’t name right now, but
will hopefully be a guest blogger for me, mentioned the concept of an Art
Venture. This kind of idea meant we would focus more on the cultural legacy of
the art related to our accelerator while finding a way to develop sustainable
business practices. She made a great point on why this model is best: You don’t
grow a tree by focusing on the leaf, you focus on the root. Likewise, we take
away the end result of what an accelerator or incubator does and focus on the
clients IN that incubator. This prevents the creative class from leaving and
allows us to focus on community inspired ideas. In return these ideas will
revitalize our local community and economy causing a win-win for everyone.
This movement from a Traditional Business Incubator to
a Cultural Art Venture Accelerator is how the Gizhiigin Art Place was born. This
is what really inspired me to create this blog.
At the end of the day we are all part of the same
social-political economy. Some of us might have an easier time recruiting clients,
some of us a harder time. Hopefully this entire thought experiment will help
everyone involved. What I care about is the process. I care about the community
of thinkers, entrepreneurs and believers that know that these kinds of programs
can bring back entire communities. We are going to be the ones who redefine
this entire era of incubation.
