A talk show hosted by John Sibi Okumu where renowned business personalities, artists and public funders from government and donor world, had an interactive discussion on the opportunities and challenges encountered by investors and creators in the arts and culture field, in attempting "to do business together". For the talk show, business moguls and well known industrialists such as Manu Chandaria and Pete Ondeng engaged with comedians - Churchill and Nyambane; great musicians - Joseph Kamaru, Nameless; and public funders - the Director of Culture in the Ministry of Heritage and Culture and the Swedish Institute, in lively debate, in front of a live audience.
The talk show was followed by a two-day workshop where selected private and public investors and people in the creative industry engage, in-depth exploration to identify practical common tools and strategies between them, for mutual business benefit. A first in the country, the Economy of Creativity initiative was extremely well received; the next steps of the same programme are being plotted :- to hold a separate workshop for the Kenyan business & investment sector; to introduce them to the idea of bridging business and creators and to learn from them where they see the gaps are in forging this relationship and possible solutions; and to continue to develop materials and tools to help ready artists to engage more knowledgeably with the economy.
The Money and Meaning workshop provided 15 participants with tools, techniques and structured reflection that would assist creative individuals in developing their ideas, projects and businesses. The facilitators for this were from N�tverkstan in Sweden, who shared the tools based on experiences made at the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts' Creative Pioneer Programme in the UK. The participants who attended this workshop were mainly visual artists from The GoDown arts studios as well as independent contemporary dancers and writers.
From: http://www.thegodownartscentre.com/recent-progs/e-creativity.html
