Ithaca College

THEA 29600 01 3 credits Tues & Thurs 9:25-10:40 Sophomore standing

Creative Economy #43774        Instructor: Susan Monagan

Course Attributes:     Liberal Arts, (ICC) - Social Sciences, Theme: Identities

Course description

What does where you choose to live say about who you are? This course invites students to see individual creative practice as part of a broader economic system that causes communities to change and reshape their identities over time. Through specific course assignments, the student investigates his/her own sense of place and explores the complex challenges of creative enterprises and the symbiotic relationships they have with their communities. Readings and class visits put students in touch with thinkers from a wide-range of fields -- including sociology, economics, and fine and performing arts -- all of who are considering the ways in which culture predicts, drives and responds to economic change. As a final project, the student synthesizes the themes of the class by writing an interview-based case study that uncovers the place-based decisions of creative enterprises.

Course objectives

Students will:

· understand the creative economy concept and identify themselves as participants in creative economies;

· understand the relationship between economic health and collective identity;

· read/view and analyze the work of influential participants and observers of creative economies and specific activities within those economies;

· experience, first-hand, how groups come together to define and maintain a shared identity;

· understand the complexity of the creative economy through building an in-depth analysis of a creative economy participant.