The more CreativeGround is used and shared, the more valuable it is as a tool to bring resources to the New England Creative Economy Network. We need your help training your peers!
This toolkit is to support anyone training others to use CreativeGround. This might be by hosting a CreativeGround workshop – either independently for your network, or with a staff person from NEFA/CreativeGround.
Please email creativeground@nefa.org as you discover new ways to share this information or have questions about how to maximize use of the current tools; the CreativeGround team can share these innovations with other CreativeGrounders to continually enhance how we celebrate the New England Creative Economy Network.
Come join the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) and learn how to use CreativeGround, a free online directory of New England arts and cultural arts and culture assets like [insert list of targeted audience entity types].
In this presentation you will learn how you can use CreativeGround to:
Are you a performing artist or nonprofit organization? This presentation will also cover information about NEFA’s New England performing arts grant programs including the New England States Touring (NEST) program.
This presentation by the New England Foundation for the Arts will provide an overview of CreativeGround, NEFA’s free online directory made up of profiles for New England cultural nonprofits like theaters and community centers, artists of all disciplines, and creative businesses like design and marketing firms. A demonstration will guide individuals and organizations through the process of creating and updating a comprehensive profile maximizing the profile’s searchability. The workshop will also demonstrate the detailed search options and the best ways to locate organizations, artists, and creative businesses engaging in specific disciplines, activities and services directed to certain populations and geographic regions.
So you want to send an email inviting your mailing list to get listed on CreativeGround and represent your amazing community on the official New England creative directory… where do you start?
Hello (Name),
I wanted to let you know about CreativeGround. Dig into the dynamic directory that celebrates New England’s artists, creatives, culture bearers, arts and culture organizations and creative businesses. This free service is a project of the New England Foundation for the Arts. This platform is a great resource for artists, organizations, and creative businesses to promote their work and to connect with potential collaborators.
The official cultural directory for the six New England states, I recommend you create a free user account and build a profile with a description, images, video, and information about who you are and what you do so that you are represented as an important part of the New England creative economy.
CreativeGround supports the creative community – and anyone invested in its health – to connect with each other, share expertise, collaborate on a project, exchange resources, or even map their local cultural assets and discover new neighbors. The more the site is used and promoted, the better the data reflect the creative ecosystem, making CreativeGround a powerful tool for understanding and strengthening our ever-evolving creative sector. And of course, the directory is searchable by everyone, anywhere – so Get Found on CreativeGround!
Visit CreativeGround to see examples of robust profiles in the Spotlight carousels on the homepage. Contact NEFA at creativeground@nefa.org if you need personalized support in using the site.
See you online!
Hello (Name),
I’m contacting you to let you know that you have a profile on CreativeGround that needs to be updated. As you may know, CreativeGround is the dynamic directory that celebrates New England’s artists, creatives, culture bearers, arts and culture organizations and creative businesses. A free platform, CreativeGround is a project of the New England Foundation for the Arts.
(Name) has a profile on CreativeGround that is unowned, or out of date.
Embodying “Connect with Creative New England,” CreativeGround is a great resource for members of the regional creative economy to promote their work, to find and contact potential collaborators, and to join conversations about the vital creative work being done.
As the official arts and cultural directory for the six New England states – I recommend you update the profile with a description, images, video, and information about who you are and what you do so that you are adequately represented as an important part of the New England creative economy.
You can update this profile by creating a user account and claiming management of your profile. Here are some instructions on how to do this:
- Go to http://www.creativeground.org/user
- Click on Sign Up to make a user account.
- Once logged in, go to the profile page you would like to manage (in this case: URL).
- Click the yellow “Claim this Profile” button
- Once the CreativeGround team has approved you as profile manager, you will now see your profile listed under the “Manage My Public Profiles” tab of your Dashboard.
- Click “Edit” to the right of the profile to make your updates.
If you need any assistance creating a user account and managing your profile, contact the CreativeGround team at creativeground@nefa.org.
CreativeGround supports the creative community – and anyone invested in its health – to connect with each other, share expertise, collaborate on a project, exchange resources, or even map their local cultural assets and discover new neighbors. The more the site is used and promoted, the better the data reflect the creative ecosystem, making CreativeGround a powerful tool for understanding and strengthening our ever-evolving creative sector. And of course, the directory is searchable by everyone anywhere, so Get found on CreativeGround!
See you online!
The Profile Tips page is the best guide for helping users create or update profiles
The Dig In As...pages are also helpful for guiding specific user groups like Teaching Artists or Local Cultural Council leaders.
Please contact CreativeGround@nefa.org for sample demos of the site to use at events
Info Session Presentations – Staff give a PowerPoint presentation of general NEFA and New England programs, including Creative Economy. Staff then present a live demo of CreativeGround, highlighting its value as a promotional tool, search engine, and tie-ins with NEFA’s grant programs. Attendees are walked through the front and back end of a profile and given tips for ways to make their profile stand out. Length ranges between 45 minutes and 120 minutes. Pre-event registration strongly encouraged. We prioritize groups of 30-40 people but will not limit a session to this number. Additionally, we are open to (even prefer) to split the meeting time with other agenda items for our host organization so that the meeting attracts a broad audience.
Office hours – These events offer hands-on individual assistance with creating and updating profiles. Depending on event length, CreativeGround staff may begin with a PowerPoint presentation of a brief history and overview of the site before breaking out into dedicated time for updating profiles. Attendees register in advance to ensure adequate staffing for individual attention. Attendees sign up for a time slot of thirty minutes to an hour. Attendees are reminded to bring materials – such as images or descriptive text – on a flash drive or saved to cloud storage. CreativeGround/NEFA provides laptops, wireless hotspot (if needed), and up to three staff members per five attendees simultaneously for dedicated assistance in navigating user accounts and profiles. Generally, NEFA allows five Office Hour times per workshop day to permit time for set up, clean up, lunch, and a 15-minute reset between time slots.
Webinars – These online workshops are between 20 and 45 minutes long and focus on a specific feature of or approach to using the site (ex. as a specific kind of artist, etc.). Pre-registration is encouraged. The digital community members in attendance can be in contact with each other and with the CreativeGround host with questions, comments, and feedback. Webinars are recorded and saved for future user reference - a library of these will updated with the new CreativeGround interface over 2022. This live event is less reliant on a community partner or venue host, though CreativeGround is appreciative of cohort outreach and inspirations for webinar topics.
Panel presentations – members of CreativeGround staff are happy to share knowledge of CreativeGround, the creative economy, and NEFA’s research at relevant convenings.
Event exhibiting – CreativeGround staff register and table at relevant conferences and events. Staff provide information on CreativeGround as well as NEFA’s other programs, especially programs and grants that require CreativeGround profiles for applicants. Access to electricity is preferred as we like to feature a PC with the CreativeGround sited loaded to engage attendees at the conference to explore the directory. When possible, CreativeGround staff will incorporate live demo(s) of the site throughout the day or at breakout workshop sessions.
CreativeGround has product-based swag for most live events to promote the platform.
Instagram (virtual) Campaigns – CreativeGround staff will work with leaders to organize takeovers of the CreativeGround Instagram account to uplift voices from the New England creative community – by geographic location, by discipline, by shared needs (ex. Venue space, professional development, etc.). This is a great platform to engage in transparent back and forth conversation with CreativeGround/NEFA, the creative people and places of New England, and you!
CreativeGround Blog (virtual) Campaigns – The members of our creative community have expertise to share. The CreativeGround blog is dedicated to community-directed conversations, often written in first-person, that directly uplift the voices of creative New England. CreativeGround staff have some post templates (available upon request) and are receptive to additional ways of using this tool to serve the community.
The objective of CreativeGround office hours is to provide detailed instruction to a small group of CreativeGround users. The main focus is creating a Profile, with the aim of also showing a very brief demonstration of how to search CreativeGround to find others.
When CreativeGround manages registration, we use Eventbrite and create one event per timeslot. Information gathered is: