I started this blog on New Year’s Eve 2010 to give voice to some ideas that had been percolating about art, creativity, policy, entrepreneurship, and (occasionally) cooking. In this fifth year, Creative Infrastructure sustained a growth trajectory, with about 22,000 visitors, three times the number of two years ago. Last year’s 184,000+ unique visitors were an anomaly thanks to the viral popularity of “Just Say NO!,” my advice to creative industries workers asked to “do it for the exposure.” While this remained my single most popular post in 2015, international interest in developing infrastructure support for fledgling arts enterprises may be the reason that 2013’s “What is an ‘Arts Incubator’?” was the second most popular post on the site, two years after publication.

Who knows what 2016 will bring? My research is moving away from arts incubators to the related topics of training infrastructure for individual artists, artist networking, and the relationship between art, money, and entrepreneurship — so expect to see more on these topics. We are launching a new Master of Arts degree in Creative Enterprise and Cultural Leadership at ASU, the preparation for which will likely lead to several posts about creativity and intellectual property (as I spend this period between semesters reading a literal pile of books on these topics). Cooking — and the experiential learning environment of the kitchen — will, I hope, remain a central metaphor for creative activities of all kinds. I will continue to provide summaries of the (too many) conferences I attend; travel, both domestic and international, will no doubt lead to observations to share here. The future is bright.

Happy New Year!