Mississippi: Creative Mississippi Institute

The Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC) has taken its commitment to strengthening the state’s creative economy, places and communities to the next level with the recent launch of its Creative Mississippi Institute (CMI). Building off MAC’s 2011 Mississippi’s Creative Economy study, the new CMI is an on-line and broadcast-radio clearinghouse of technical assistance for creative economic development and creative place making, connecting people, organizations, institutions and businesses to research, policy information, partnership guidance and funding opportunities from a variety of sources. Its website features MAC tools for arts-based development, such as Framework for Building Mississippi’s Creative Economy and Place, Cre8tive Steps, and Threads: A Guide to Cataloging Creative Assets, as well as a related set of on-demand trainings. Through its weekly Arts Hour on Mississippi Public Broadcasting’s Think Radio, MAC is designating one show each month as the Creative Mississippi Edition, featuring interviews and discussions about communities leveraging their creative assets. Each episode will be coupled with information about best practices and other resources available on MAC’s website. MAC created CMI in partnership with a number of public, private, nonprofit and community collaborators, including the Mississippi Development Authority, the Mississippi Main Street Association and the John C. Stennis Institute of Government and Community Development at Mississippi State University. For more information, contact Creative Mississippi Institute Director Allison Winstead.