McAllen Creative Incubator

Read about this by way of Las Comadres:

McAllen Announces Grand Opening

The McAllen Chamber of Commerce has completed renovations of the McAllen Creative Incubator at the old downtown STC building. With help from the city, the McAllen Chamber has created 12 low cost artist studio and office spaces for expanding artists and art organizations. McAllen plans to house artists and art organizations of different art disciplines. All interested artists had to complete an application and submit it along with a resume and a portfolio featuring samples of their work to the McAllen Chamber of Commerce. A panel of qualified art members decided on the artists that have become the new tenants of McAllen.

"We wanted to provide low cost studios or office spaces for start-up artists and organizations. This is the first time that a program like this has been offered to artists and start-up organizations in the Valley," said Tita Moreno, Cultural Arts Coordinator for the McAllen Chamber of Commerce. "We are also planning on involving the community in many planned activities and marketing the facility in order to give the tenants plenty of exposure through community events and making it a tourist must-see." Tenants of the incubator will be required to attend business management workshops throughout their one-year contract. Some of those workshops include business basics for entrepreneurs, financial reporting, marketing, legal issues such as contracts and copyright laws, and incorporation for individual artists or groups. McAllen will also service the tenants with technical and legal assistance, and provide a venue for their exhibitions, performances, and classes.

The new tenants include Kris Karr a graphic designer and painter, James Rodriguez a furniture designer, Wendy Impola-Lopez with WCI Entertainment and the RGV Center of Fine Arts, Bert Hernandez and Jason Rodriguez with McAllen Children's Theatre, Joe Taylor a drawing specialist, Ivan Ramirez a photographer, Tony Casas a script writer, Guadalupe Ramirez with ARM Productions, David Burbois a film maker, Miriam Alcala a photographer, Sergio Villareal a graphic designer, and Jessica Monroe a painter.

The goal of McAllen Incubator is to support the continued professional growth of artists and enhance the cultural and economic vitality of our local community. The facility will have a grand opening for the community on Wednesday, July 20, 2005. The McAllen Creative Incubator is located at 1001 S. 16th St. Join us for some art, music, and a chance to meet the new tenants of McAllen Creative Incubator. For more information contact the McAllen Chamber of Commerce at 682-2871.

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This is awesome! McAllen has the right idea by investing in the arts and thus in the quality of life of their community. Incubators are examples of methods large cities take to progress their economy and quality of life. These cities, like Austin and Seattle, have the some of the highest per capita income rates in the nation. Read about it here at Richard Florida's Rise of the Creative Class! Brownsville still has a ways go to catch up. That's why this blog exists, to inform people and get them thinking about art and thus demanding more of it from their community. What baffles me though is that Richard Florida placed the Brownsville metro area higher on his creative class index than the McAllen metro area. This interests me because after my short stay in McAllen, I found Hidlago County to be more active in the arts. What does Richard Florida know that we don't and how can we take advantage of that?