Mainebiz

V O L . X X I V N O. X V J U LY 2 3 , 2 0 1 8 30 F reid's leadership experience before e Silkroad Project included serving as executive vice president for public aff airs and university relations at Brown University and as chief com- munications offi cer at Harvard. At the time of her appointment, Freid cited MECA and Portland as "an exciting American center for the arts, culture and entrepreneurship." A year in, Mainebiz caught up with Freid to learn more about her vision of art and entrepreneurship and how that's playing out under her tenure. An edited transcript follows. Mainebiz: Your career with Silkroad sounds exciting, days traveling glob- ally with world-class musicians and artists. What brought you to MECA? Laura Freid: I've always been com- mitted to cultural entrepreneurship. I wanted to work with artists and connect them with entrepreneurs, particularly at the beginning of their careers. e artists we worked with through Silkroad were at the top of their career. I wanted to work with artists at a younger age. One of the Silkroad musicians told me about MECA's core values — artis- tic excellence, civic engagement and creative entrepreneurship. I said, "Wow, that's what I'm about." MB: You've talked about cultural entrepreneurship in pursuit of sustainable careers. What does "cultural entrepreneurship" mean? LF: You're asking that 'what if ' question. "What if we had trucks with food in them? Could that be a new way of hav- ing a restaurant?" at's strictly entrepre- neurship. But creative or cultural entre- preneurship is entrepreneurship in the creative realm. Silkroad is a great exam- ple. You have musicians working at the highest level, but wanting to reach new audiences. So we created a new organi- zation. We had the idea, but we needed the entrepreneurial pillars — fi nancing and branding and audience-building — all those things that strictly would be called business tools. It's encourag- ing artists to think in a broader way. At MECA, we help students understand they have the talent but also need the skills to translate their aspirations into a business practice. at's relatively new. MB: Example? LF: Say a student is an illustrator. In the past, an illustrator would do great art and be hired by someone to do illustra- tions for a book. We teach our students — maybe they want to start a company or publish their own books. You take your artistic skill and turn it into an enterprise. Websites like Etsy and Rent the Runway allow artists to present their work in new ways that we didn't have before. You don't need an agent anymore. If you know how to create a website, you can promote yourself. We've had stu- dents do Instagram campaigns for their printmaking. And with writing, it used to be you had to work for a publication. Now you can create a blog and you're writing and publishing and circulating as a cultural entrepreneur. MB: Do these ideas change the MECA curriculum in any way? LF: We've been doing more to help students present their work. In foun- dation classes, students learn how to talk about their work. Everyone learns how to present their résumé. We have an artist-at-work program, where students are interning, so when they graduate, they've been in the profes- sional world. e notion of the "starv- ing artist" will change. MB: What are your priorities for MECA? LF: Forging community connections. I've talked with hundreds of community members, students, faculty, government leaders, donors — asking them where MECA should be going. e core of our work is the BFA degree, but I think there's potential for MECA to off er pro- fessional certifi cates — programs that might not be the traditional four-year degree. I think we'll be off ering more master programs. And we also need to plan for more housing. P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Laura Freid became the 18th president of Portland's Maine College of Art in July 2017. Previously CEO and executive director of The Silkroad Project, a global cultural arts organization founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, her interest in the intersection of art and business was highlighted when she initiated Silkroad's affi liation with Harvard, established a fi ve-year partnership with the Rhode Island School of Design and created the first joint venture with the Harvard Business School. B Y L A U R I E S C H R E I B E R O N T H E R E C O R D Progressive • Creative • Forward Thinking • Resourceful Progressive • Creative • Forward Thinking • Resourceful BREWERMAINE.GOV/BIZ Contact D'arcy Main-Boyington Economic Development Director dmain-boyington@brewermaine.gov | 207-989-7500 Laura Freid, MECA president, in the fashion and textile design studio at MECA in Portland

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