The Wall St. Journal reported on the recent Census study. While not showing completely up-beat results, much of which stemmed from the impact of the recession, what it did show was cities, like Charleston, SC were retaining and gaining well-educated residents.

In fact, Charleston, SC was ranked as the #1 metro area with the biggest growth in the percentage of adults with college degrees.  ”Of the largest 100 metropolitan areas, those with the highest percentage of college graduates in 2000 outpaced in education gains areas with lower percentages of college grads. For instance, the 10 cities with the highest share of their population holding a bachelor’s degree or higher saw that share jump by an average of 4.6 percentage points over the decade, while the bottom 10 saw their share grow 3.1 percentage points.”

This brain gain is in part to local contributions geared towards retaining and attracting this talent. One of which comes from a recruitment effort for raw computer scientist talent from the other 49 states to the Computing in the Arts program at the College of Charleston  and 84% of those in the program stay in South Carolina after graduation.

To read the full article, go to the WSJ.

A recent article by The Atlantic titled, ”The Recession’s Surprise Survivor: The Arts,” points out what opportunities lie ahead for the creative community - even in a recession. Or more importantly because of it.

And it’s not just the arts in the traditional sense. Graphic designers and computer engineers are part of those opportunities. Cloud computing, social media, smart phone apps, all have designers and engineers behind them.

On a local level, the computer science department at the College of Charleston has been doing practice-oriented education since 1980, as it has a technical department embedded in a liberal arts experience. The College has offers a BA degree, Computing in the Arts, housed in Computer Science. This degree program infuses creativity, practice and business notions where creative human expression and design is embodied in new computational media forms.

Where usually the creative jobs are the ones cut first, this push for creative thinking and demand for it gives those in the creative industries a positive outlook for for holding a 9-5 (well, probably not 9-5 exactly but you get the point).

There is an important matter that needs to be brought to your attention. There is a chance that arts funding will be completely cut from South Carolina schools. The folks at Charleston Stage lay out the issue really well; the following is an excerpt from their letter to the public.

“Governor Haley is expected to follow-thru on her promise to veto ALL funding for the arts in the next few days-funds that mainly go to arts education programs all over South Carolina.  Unless this veto is overturned by a 2/3 vote of the legislature, South Carolina will not only become the ONLY state in the union without state arts funding, but South Carolina will also lose close to a million dollars in matching funds from the National Endowment from the Arts, a federal agency-funds that will then go to other states.”
 
To read the full letter, please click here. 

So speak up! Contact your State Senator and Representative TODAY and urge them to override Gov. Haley’s veto to keep state funding for the arts.

To send an email message on a Legislator’s web form:
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/html-pages/houseemail.html
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/html-pages/senateemail.html
 
Legislators’ Bios – can email from here too:
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/html-pages/senatebios.html
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/html-pages/housebios.html
 
Home and Columbia phone and addresses for Legislators:
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/html-pages/housemembers.html
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/html-pages/senatemembers.html
 
Don’t know your Legislator – find him/her using your zip code:
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/cgi-bin/zipcodesearch.exe
 
You can find the contact list for the entire S.C. General Assembly at:
http://www.scartsalliance.net

Charleston. Right? Well some people may beg to differ. Outside magazine is conducting a poll on which town in America is the best outside town. And it is up to America to vote and decide.

Charleston is one of the 10 locations in the final round. What equates to being the Best Outside Town in America?  Apparently it’s: a balance of great culture, perfect scenery, stress-free and a reasonable cost of living, and easy access to the outdoors. Seems like a no-brainer here folks.

Charleston may be called the Holy City because of the abundance of places of worship, but has anyone ever calculated the total amount of outdoor recreational space we have available to us just outside our doorstep? 90 miles of coastline, Marion Forest, islands upon islands, keelboat regatta, Best Tennis Town in America and have you seen the amount of people that bike or jog around here? You don’t have to look or go very far to get in on the Outside action.

Parliament’s own Robert Prioleau sums it up well; “Charleston offers a chance to live and work in a vibrant city where you’re minutes away from outdoor adventure. You can chase entrepreneurial opportunities and embrace the wild on any given day. I leave my office on a bike and am instantly riding over bridges to barrier islands, where I can jump on a paddleboard and still make it home in time for dinner.”

The three-week competition, held via Facebook, is accessible via the “Best Town” link on facebook.com/outsidemagazine. The winning town will be featured on the October 2011 magazine cover, outsideonline.com and an exclusive segment on Outside Television.

While writing this Charleston is currently ranked 4th. Boo. Tuscan, AZ is ranked #1. Double Boo. (No hard feelings Tuscan, we just prefer Charleston). Voting will take less time than reading this blog entry. So click through and vote!

College of Charleston teacher and alum (class of ’83) Chris Starr is profiled in this month’s College of Charleston Magazine.

Starr’s accomplishments are impressive – received a Ph.D. from USC, structured the program that is the foundation for today’s modern MRI machines, gave guidance to Charleston-area private school Porter-Gaud’s curriculum on how to make college computer learning fun at a high school–level, and oh yeah – was tapped by Google to share his teaching methods with high school teachers across the nation. No big deal.

To read the full article, see the College of Charleston Magazine.

Spark! Charleston is looking to give office space to some creative entrepreneurs. Interested? Get in touch at http://www.sparkchs.com

No TPS reports required to apply.

Charleston is featured in a new book called Graphic USA. The Charleston page, is designed by Charleston resident, Jay Fletcher!

Synopsis: Cicada Books presents Graphic USA, an alternative guidebook to 25 American cities written and illustrated by graphic designers. Graphic USA gives you an insider’s view of the best (and occasionally weird) restaurants, hotels, galleries, bars and coffee shops, all with quirky illustrations/graphics by the artists that live in each city. It’s quite like reading a friend’s notes on interesting places that you should see, with tidbits and paragraphs to help you along your way.

To read Jay’s version of the story, check this out.

Whitney Powers, founder and principal of Studio A Architecture - and a speaker at the first Charleston Pecha Kucha Night, served on the jury for the 2011 Custom Home Design Awards program, sponsored by Custom Home Magazine.

An experienced design awards juror, Powers is an award-winning architect and LEED AP professional whose own work includes a variety of historic restorations and modern, sustainable residences, including the Dewees Island vacation home that was featured on HGTV’s “Extreme Living” show. She was named one of Charleston’s “Most Influential Home & Design Professionals” by Charleston Home & Design magazine in 2010 and one of the 40 most outstanding U.S. architects under the age of 40 in 1995.

The Custom Home Design Awards program accepted entries in 10 different categories from custom home-builders, remodelers, architects, designers, and other industry professionals. The jurors also chose a Best Residential Project of the Year from among the Grand Award-winning built entries. The winning entries will be featured in the May 2011 edition of Custom Home and presented at an awards dinner held concurrent with the American Institute of Architects National Convention in New Orleans in May of 2011.

Joining Whitney Powers on the jury were John Murphey, AIA, of Meditch Murphey Architects, Chevy Chase, Maryland; Matt Risinger, of Risinger Homes, Austin, Texas; and Ken Vona, of Kenneth Vona Construction, Waltham, Massachusetts. The group met for a Hanley Wood-sponsored Judges Dinner at The Jefferson Hotel the night before the jury officially convened.

“It was a wonderful experience,” Powers said. “I really enjoyed the camaraderie of the jury and I believe the winners are really the best of the best in the custom-home category.”

• One guaranteed entry pass/ticket into every Pecha Kucha Night this year (4 to 5 events held annually)…no more buying individual tickets or worrying about sell-outs.
• A style-meets-function, custom t-shirt
• An upgraded member card stamped with your HOC status
• At least one more piece of hot-off-the-press swag (we’ll surprise you)
• Inherent cachet of being in the House

The premise that buying local not only supports local businesses, but that it gives back to the community at large by putting dollars back into the local economy is not a new idea in Charleston. It is more of a movement that has been in the Charleston conscious for a couple years now, but over the past year that message has been getting louder, is being talked about more and transmitted through conversations, bumper stickers and events. It seems that buying local is now an active choice to contribute to the success of the entrepreneurial Charleston community, rather than just a passing trend with good intentions.

According to 10PercentShift.org, “If the 800,000 households in the Lowcountry shifted 10% of their existing purchases from non-local businesses to Local Independents (locally owned and independent businesses) we would see thousands of new jobs created and millions of dollars of new economic activity in the Lowcountry. And all this can begin to happen as soon as people start shifting and without the use of one taxpayer dollar.” Sounds like a good idea, but will it catch on and be implemented by the community?

Charleston is already off to a good start as the city is currently in the middle of “Buy Local Month” (Nov.15th-Dec.15th) a campaign put on by LowCountry Local First, “an alliance that educates the public on the importance of supporting the local economy, and encourages businesses and consumers to be environmentally sustainable and socially responsible.” Local businesses that are a part of the program display a “Buy Local” decal on the shop or restaurant window. So keep an eye out, make a choice and help to make a difference in your hometown.