Skip to main content
Skip to main content

About

CreativeGround is a project of the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA.) It is the dynamic regional directory that celebrates and reflects the vital work of New England's artists, creatives, culture bearers, creative organizations and businesses. It is the place for all to gain insight into the vibrant regional creative ecosystem.

CreativeGround is a community-generated and free tool that provides visibility, connection, and information to support a region-wide creative network. Spotlighting the stories, relationships, and data of the creative people and places at work in New England activates our creative community with more resources. CreativeGround invites everyone to explore and connect!

What is the New England Creative Economy Network and Who is Found on CreativeGround?

overlapping circles in CreativeGround's signature colors: teal, orange, and yellow. representing three stakeholder audiences of the platform: Artists/Creatives, Creative Businesses/Organizations, and Community Leaders/Data Partners

New England Creative Economy Network (the Network)

The Network is comprised of what we call the Creative Core (artists/creatives and creative entities that exist to produce, distribute, support, or train in creative work - like art studios, radio stations, and libraries); as well as Community Leaders from Creative-Related entities that are not creative in business mission but also distribute or otherwise support creative work (like Senior Centers, School Committees, and Foundations.)

Creative Core

The Creative Core of the Network is the Artists/Creatives, culture bearers, and the creative entities that directly support them. The Creative Core uses CreativeGround to gain visibility and access to learning, skill sharing, and capacity building with:

  • Free online profiles that are visually appealing, accessible, and user generated
  • A network of peers, supporters, and collaborators
  • Technical and professional assistance with talking about their work
  • Identification for grants or other professional opportunities

Community Leaders

Community leaders gain connection to infrastructure, tools, and community building with:

  • A map that makes the members of their creative community visible to those who would hire, support, and collaborate with them
  • An organized list of arts and culture assets for identifying artists and resources for grants and other opportunities
  • An existing infrastructure to offer their constituents and partners
  • A network of peers, supporters, and collaborators
  • Technical and professional assistance with quantifying and tracking the creative economy

Data Partners

Local, community, and national partner organizations help connect their region’s artists/creatives to a wider network and help maintain the accuracy of data on CreativeGround. They are empowered through access to real-time, centralized data about creative communities to strengthen the sector with resources and support.

Everyone, Anywhere

Anyone worldwide gains access to the region’s creative community – to find places to visit, people to hire, and creative products to buy.

Mission & Values

NEFA’s Creative Economy program’s vision for our region is a sustainable, inclusive, and connected New England creative economy that is valued by all New England communities. This means that creative people and places are recognized, supported, well-informed, and connected to each other and the broader ecosystem.  

In pursuit of that vision, we work to strengthen the creative community by supporting its visibility, connection, and knowledge building.

CreativeGround –– “Connect with Creative New England”

CreativeGround’s values are an extension of NEFA’s values and serve as practical guidance for the team executing CreativeGround’s mission. 

Visibility

We believe resources can only flow to what is visible / known. CreativeGround collects data on users via their profiles; these data drive visibility and categorizing these data increases that visibility users have into each other and into entities beyond the sector. Additionally, this visibility affords transparency; users can learn from each other if information is made transparent. 

Connection

CreativeGround supports the creative core – and anyone invested in its health – to connect with each other, share expertise, collaborate on a project, exchange resources, or even map their local cultural assets and discover new neighbors. The shared responsibility and focus on the New England Creative Economy Network allows everyone to build upon the resources already within the community.

Permaculture

CreativeGround's support of knowledge-sharing and connection leads to resiliency and agency for everyone to strengthen the capacity of the New England Creative Economy Network. Users can access information and resources without relying on NEFA as an authority.

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility 

The CreativeGround team proactively seeks out opportunities to support EDIA within the field by spotlighting a diverse group of creatives, supporting partners’ work serving historically excluded communities, and maintaining accessible site functionality to work toward a more just sector. We are aware that we use the colonial names for what is all Indigenous Land – the past, present, and future are all very “alive” in New England. We also acknowledge that an online platform automatically excludes those without reliable internet and technical skill. We mitigate this by providing technical assistance and in-person network-building. Our approach to EDIA is notably one of intersectionality.

Please read our Data Statement, Accessibility Statement, and Land Acknowledgement for further details of how we practically live out these values.