Place of Creativity

I love spots like these.

How can Memphis encourage, create, expose these spots?

Read the notes from last Thursday's fantastic Creative Conversation, Ideas that Work for some beautiful, mind-expanding answers.

Room With a View

I recently forewent free wine and networking so I could explore the terraces of Roy Harrover's Memphis College of Art.

I discovered that, like the studios, the bathrooms on the top floor opened directly to the outside terrace.

See?

Usually a bathroom that opens directly to the elements is a problem, of abuse and neglect.

But on the top floor of the MCA, open to nature but controlled access to the public, it's clean. And it's cool. At least I think it's cool.

Leaving the door open will probably get you expelled, but there is the view.

Magic: the Art Installation

Update: well this is a lot different than what I had assumed. I still love unexpected public art.

Go see the recently installed portals to the Overton Park greensward, I assume by an artist from the nearby Memphis College of Art.

Here I Rule . Com will take you to a website about the game Magic: The Gathering, of which I know nothing except that some friends play.

I had a puppy with me when I took the pictures so I didn't try to walk through the doorway, or look through the peepholes.

What would I see?

I love unexpected public art.

Memphis' Creative Conversation

Update: one of the panelists, entrepeneur Eric Mathews, has posted his answers to the Creative Conversation questions on his blog. As some of this great stuff didn't make it into the talk on Wednesday, it's a web extra, and a good example of the creativity of the discussion and the panelists.

Last Wednesday, Memphis held a fascinating Creative Conversation, Working Creatively, at the Memphis College of Art.

The panelists (and audience) discussed:

• empty buildings and creativity
• micro-finance
• muni wifi
• talent attraction vs talent growth
• creativity and poverty
• official Memphis' part in creativity (including a critical and balanced recap of that history by an audience member)
• models for best creative practices

It was a great mixture of the honest and the hopeful, the critical and the creative.

For your listening pleasure and our future creativity, here's the complete audio.

The entire conversation, including introduction.

Or if you want to take it a piece at a time, the conversation separated into 3 relatively equal pieces, plus the intro:

The conversation, part 1.

The conversation, part 2.

The conversation, part 3.

The conversation, introduction.