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The Creative Economy
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  The arts has always been a source of revenue, whether it’s the small community theatre or the Music Hall in Portsmouth. Now new efforts are underway to harness the creative economy, especially in the North Country, a place looking for a boost with the closings of the area’s paper mills. We’ll look at what’s being done, where it’s being done right and where advocates hope it can be done better in the future. Guests
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Thanks so much for airing this conversation!
I'm the director of Mountain Top Music Center, a community music school now housed in a newly-renovated firehouse in Conway Village. I want to share our experience and make one point. We worked out a collaborative agreement with our town's historical society to preserve an old building while providing ourselves with a space in which to teach music. We needed the space because so much work had already been done building a community of musicians and listeners eager to learn. Our efforst and activities are not tourist-centered at all, but they really provide a tie to people living in our town and surrounding towns. Though we renovated our building knowing we could fill it, we have been absolutely astounded by the growth our organization has seen since moving in last April.
Part of what's great about our growth is that it keeps our community members here, doing what we love--making music-- and keeps us off the roads. Along with economic benefits for our village, that creates realistic change needed to protect our fragile environment.