Cultivating Connectedness among Creatives

Our team has had the pleasure of working with the Creative Communities Team of Vision Shared, under the leadership of Jeff James and Elizabeth Damewood Gaucher. Our goal has been to help Jeff and his team create a place on the Web for creative folks in West Virginia to link up, share big ideas and to engage in conversations. We hope that their newly launched Web site helps those creative folks do just that. We're using some really cool new Web tools, like Google maps (via the Community Walk app), Two Brains (shared learning), an online merchandise mart (via Cafe Press) and a companion blog. We're working on integrating a Facebook group, as well. Have a look - check it out!

Jeff has created a companion blog to support CreateWV. In his usual inclusive and generous fashion, he mentioned us and recognized our work on this great project.

We are happy to announce the updated createwv.com web site, full of useful links for anyone interested in learning about or developing the Creative Community in West Virginia. Thanks again to Maple Creative for their hard work on this site.

Here are a few things you'll find:

Big Ideas - A listing of existing suggestions on how West Virginia can break through to become one of the most innovative, prosperous states in the U.S. - and a form for you to submit your own ideas.

Action Resources - A long list of interesting organizations and resources that can help inform and empower you locally to drive improvement in education, technology, arts and culture and more.

Create WV gear - You knew the bumper sticker was coming, didn't you? Stickers, shirts and more with the Create WV logo available for purchase. All proceeds go towards the Create WV Conference and local workshop expenses.

Featured Creatives and Places - This list will grow, but we love telling the stories of innovative people and places in West Virginia.

Don't forget we still have the statewide CommunityWalk map that needs your input! Please add any interesting New Economy or Creative Community location in your community - anything from small business development centers to museums to wireless hot spots. To add your locations, just click on the "Build This Map" link near the top of the page.