Investing In The Creative Community
On October 1st through 3rd, over 350 creatives converged on Memphis, TN for the second annual Creative Works conference inside the historic Central Station. Creative Works celebrates the often overlooked but essential role of creatives in every community. It’s a place for creatives to form and catalyze their own community, to learn from one another, have some fun, dream, and take action.
Access Ventures was proud to sponsor a conference that so intentionally celebrates, encourages and builds up the creative community. We believe that investing in the cultivation of smart, skilled, conceptually rich and beautiful art and design is important for the health and development of individuals and communities. This is why we invested in Creative Works.
This year there were 20 speakers from a variety of creative disciplines. Some of this year’s speakers included Viktoria Harrison, the Creative Director for Charity Water, professional photographer Jeremy Cowart, Demetre Arges, Executive Creative Director at Digital Kitchen, and designer Dan Cassaro. In addition, there were four hands-on creative workshops held for attendees to hone their skills alongside design leaders.“The most exciting thing for me is seeing attendees leave the conference with confidence in themselves and their abilities to contribute meaningfully in their careers and their communities,” said Josh Horton, the Creative Works organizer. “After last year’s event we had attendees quit their humdrum day job and pursue jobs with better opportunities for growth.”
Running in conjunction with the conference was the Creative Works Market which featured 18 vendors from across the country, including Louisville-based Growth Loan recipient Misc. Goods Co.
“The conference has changed the way people feel about this city. In years past, Memphis, like other post-industrial southern cities was being driven by old money and politics that value network and net-worth over youth and talent,” Horton said. “My hope is that it will also start to change the way people think about creative work in general and those same people who value network and net-worth will start employing and empowering young talented folks to help develop and grow their businesses and solve our city’s problems.”We have an investment philosophy that emphasizes the priority of a whole over its parts. We work to accurately identify the essentials needed to create holistic investments which deliver financial, social, and environmental returns. Creative arts plays a key role in our holistic strategy. To learn more about how Access Ventures is investing the creative arts click here.