Program highlighting region’s creative economy premiering this September on WMHT

The creative economy is a unique intersection between culture, technology and the economy. It's an economic system driven by creative pursuits like design, the visual and performing arts, and media. Creative Capital: Shaping the Region’s Economyis a new, one-hour program from WMHT Public Media (PBS), premiering Monday, September 30 at 9pm, highlighting the history of the region’s creative economy, its current impact on the Capital Region, and what the future may hold.

A free screening of Creative Capital: Shaping the Region’s Economy will be held Wednesday, September 25th at 6pm at WMHT’s studios in Troy and will be followed by a conversation with program host Guha Bala, President, Velan Studios, Inc. and Maureen Sager, Executive Director, Upstate Alliance for the Creative Economy. This event is free and open to the public.

Creative industries are now the fourth largest employment sector in the region. Theyemploy more than 37,000 people. Together, they earn almost $1.5 billion, and produce $2.7 billion in creative goods and services. Fifty-six percent of the creative workers in the region are wage and salary earners, and 44 percent are freelancers.
A sampling of the creative institutions featured in Creative Capital include: Nine Pin Cider in Albany, PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century in Chatham, Branch VFX in Albany, Darn Good Yarn in Clifton Park, Ashley A Designs in Saratoga Springs, and the new Skywalk which connects Frederic Church’s Olana with the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in the Hudson Valley. 
Congressman Paul Tonko (D-Amsterdam) joins the program to discuss the creative workforce in the 20th District and his efforts in Congress to provide resources and support to help those workers flourish. 

While the eight counties that make up New York’s Capital Region are not traditionally thought of as a destination for creative types, Columbia County stands out with 25 percent of the region's population employed in creative positions. According to recent a study commissioned by the Upstate Alliance for the Creative Economy (ACE) and the Center for Economic Growth (CEG), the county is home to the third highest percentage of freelance artists in the nation, behind only Brooklyn and Taos, New Mexico.
Creative Capital: Shaping the Region’s Economy will premiere both on WMHT-TV and on WMHT’s Facebook page Monday, September 30th at 9pm.

Support for Creative Capital: Shaping the Region’s Economy is provided by The Bender Family Foundation and MVP Health Care.

WHAT: Premiere of Creative Capital: Shaping the Region’s Economy
WHERE: WMHT-TV and WMHT’s Facebook Page
WHEN: Monday, September 30th at 9pm

For more information, please visit https://www.wmht.org/creativecapitalor contact Mary Gribulis at mgribulis@wmht.org or 518-880-3523.