By Ashley St. Michel
Staff Writer
    The town of Kennebunk could be seeing more creative development on the streets and in its businesses in the near future. Kennebunk Economic Development Committee heard a presentation from the Maine Center for Creativity Thursday, Nov. 8, as Jean Maginnis, the center’s executive director, used a PowerPoint slide show to point out the benefits of a creative economy in southern Maine. The push is part of a statewide project that is headed by the center to “think big about putting Maine on the map,” Maginnis said.
    “The first thing we did in thinking big is think about what it takes to help Maine get on an economic path that is much more productive than it has been,” Maginnis said. “The creative class of people are an important element to how our future economy is developing, and Maine has a lot of assets as a place to live.”
    The Maine Center for Creativity is a private, nonprofit organization that creates projects and programs that contribute to Maine’s creative economy. The organization works on creating high visibility projects, which capture the imagination and the art of the reality, shinning a spotlight on the innovations and creativity that abound in Maine and stimulating commercial industries through regional and international partnerships and educational initiatives, according to Maginnis.
    Maginnis used a project the center has already begun to show the committee what the center would be looking to do in Kennebunk.             She said the center visited the site of Sprague storage tanks in South Portland after she got an idea to have the tanks painted. She said since the tanks are one of the first things people see when they fly into Maine, it seemed like a good idea to paint them so people could recognize Maine’s creative industry. Maginnis said the center visited the company and asked if they would be opposed to holding a nationwide competition for the project. She said the competition is still in progress.
    “I wanted to do it in a way that didn’t disrupt the community, but rather brought together the community,” she said. “So we decided that we wanted to collaborate with the community and find out what the community wanted to do.”
    Maginnis said she received several different opinions of what should be painted on the tanks, including a request for an Angela Adams painting. Adams is an artist who grew up 12 miles off the coast of Maine and is best known for her hand bags and rugs.
    Maginnis said the center thinks there are a number of benefits for painting the  thanks with landscapes of Maine. She said a few reasons include generating the media and getting the attention needed in Maine to serve as a prominent reminder of how important imagination is.
    “It’s an idea that is still somewhat new,” Maginnis said. “It’s really part of the 21st century global economy. It’s where an individual becomes as important as the business unit.”
    She said creative talent is important to how businesses grow in an area.
    According to the State of Maine Web site, New England and Maine have a higher concentration of creative workers than other parts of the country and its communities thrive economically when arts are part of community life.
    Robert Georgitis, development committee chairman, said he and the committee are interested in organizing an art walk and want  to include more art related activities in Kennebunk.
    “I would say that (the committee) thinks that there’s an opportunity for involving more of the creative economy in downtown,” Georgitis said in a phone interview. “The problem is we don’t have anybody in town acting as a representative for a more creative economy.”
    Georgitis said before he was the chairman of the development board in Kennebunk he was working on a similar board in Brunswick. He said when Brunswick began its creative development, larger businesses from Portland moved into vacant buildings and added significantly to its economy.
    Maginnis said it would be at the development committee’s discretion as to where the center would fit in Kennebunk. She said the center is there to help the committee put together a plan to help nurture the creative industries. She said a big part of the center’s philosophy includes working together as a state to bring an awareness of Maine’s businesses in the larger market.
    “The next step would be a focus group process,” Maginnis said. “What is important is pulling groups together to gain insight and knowledge about what a good plan could be.”
    She said the center would begin working with smaller businesses in Kennebunk in an effort to outline their individual needs. From there the center would help provide support and infrastructure including organizing Web sites for many of the art galleries in the town.
    “A lot of art galleries could use the support of Web site developers and marketers to get the word out to buyers nationally,” said Maginnis. “If you begin to organize and structure you start to get some interesting results.”
    Maginnis said the project would require the town to organize creative clusters, which she said can be defined as any creative business. These clusters could include a small art gallery or a nationwide business that thrives as a creative industry. She said it is important for the creative businesses in Kennebunk to join together as a cluster for southern Maine.
    “The first idea was just to hear the presentation and realize that this option is available to us,” Georgitis said. “The toughest part now will be getting the right people involved.”
    Town Manager Barry Tibbetts said he is enthusiastic about the possibility of the center working with Kennebunk, especially if it would generate funding for a more visible creative economy.
    “If people get behind the clusters and start backing creative economy that could really have an effect on the town,” he said.
    “People who are good at their field find each other,” Maginnis said, adding that if the right number of people find each other, it would make building a creative economy in Kennebunk an easy task.