Create West Virginia

As the 2009 Create West Virginia Diversity Initiative Leader, I’m always on the lookout for creative economy information and conversations. Just today, I discussed Create West Virginia with a South African friend, now living in DC, who lived many years in Mountain State. From this conversation I was directed to look abroad, to South Africa.

In my search, I found the engaging article 2010 World Cup: Time to Launch Creative Economy in the African Executive. The article discusses how South Africa plans to use the 2010 World Cup to encourage the Creative Economy. In West Virginia we certainly don’t have the World Cup but we can follow the South African strategy and start capitalizing on statewide events to promote the creative economy.

South Africa and West Virginia face many of the same challenges in growing a Creative Economy. The article suggests that South Africans have ignored their creative economy by viewing African music, art, and design as waste of time and uncivilized. In West Virginia traditional Appalachian culture too is often ignored and this includes crediting the rich culture, history and influences of Native Americans, African Americans, Italians, Irish that have influences our unique West Virginia culture. What South Africa is asking is for its people to simply embrace and learn the culture that is.

 The article goes on to discuss how Africans struggle with a poverty mentality seeing themselves as poor, when, as the author states “we are wealthy". Certainly poverty is a reality in Africa much like West Virginia.. In fact, I face it everyday in my work at the Covenant House. The transition out of poverty starts in many forms and often first with a state of mind. I believe West Virginians “we are wealthy” too. We, like South Africa have simply failed to commercialize on what makes us unique.

The South African Creative Economy World Cup strategy is to simply challenge South Africans to stop looking for (minerals, culture, creative ideas) because they already have them. West Virginia too is rich in talented people, landscape and opportunities. The challenge for South Africa as it is in West Virginia is to study how developed societies have successfully transformed almost everything and that includes a diversity of resources and people to assume commercial value.

It was the great West Virginian Leon Sullivan who first made the West Virginia to South African connection. Certainly his early life in West Virginia was an influence in his international work to develop business and economic development programs. If Sullivan were alive today, I think the “Lion of Zion” would encourage both West Virginia and South Africa to embrace the Creative Economy.

Posted by Crystal Good, Create WV Diversity Initiative Leader