The US Initiative

Creativity Shaping the Future in San Jose

Creativity is a condition now widely acknowledged in the business world as essential to economic success.  Quality of place is a key reason people choose to locate in one place vs. another, and aesthetics is one of the top three drivers of attachment to community.

So why is it still a struggle to make the case to fund beauty, in the form of art, good design and nature? 

That’s one of the questions raised in the launch of the US Initiative in San Jose last week during the 2010 01SJ Biennial.  Fifty government, business and civic leaders joined with artists to discuss the future of the city, including: Joel Slayton, Executive Director of ZER01, James MacGregor, publisher of the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, Councilmember Sam Liccardo and leaders from the Knight Foundation, MIT, UBS Investments and the Adobe Foundation.

The San Jose Brain Trust, convened by CEOs for Cities partners Kim Walesh, Chief Strategist for the City of San Jose, and 1stACT Silicon Valley CEO Connie Martinez, explored big ideas for making beauty always present for residents of San Jose and Silicon Valley.  Participants advanced 20 specific concepts for achieving the ambition.  Some of the ideas, including the top-ranked “Attract creative enterprises to the SOFA district,” have been a focus of 1st Act Silicon Valley and the City of San Jose.  Others were newly generated by Brain Trust participants.

Among our favorites were establishing artist residency programs in San Jose City Hall and in local businesses and nonprofits; San Jose Reimagined, a forum for artists, designers and architects to stimulate dialogue and debate on the city’s future and raise expectations for good design; a network of world-class parks to match San Jose’s world-class weather; and integrating random acts of culture into community gathering places.  (We joyfully experienced random acts of culture when we discovered volunteer musicians playing pianos on display in three downtown San Jose locations as part of the 01SJ Biennial.)

The ambition of making beauty, in the form of art, good design and nature, always present will be the subject of a three-day Livability Challenge scheduled for Indianapolis October 11-13. Hosted by the Central Indiana Community Foundation and Indianapolis Downtown Inc, the event will feature a superb team of national experts including Trust for Public Land President Will Rogers, NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Don Carter, Director of the Remaking Cities Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.

There are a limited number of slots for CEOs for Cities partners to participate in the Indy session.  If you are interested, contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) at 202-525-5627.