News

May 19, 2016

Creative Freelancers Event Spotlights Growing Sector of Regional Economy

Capital Region creative freelancers are invited to a networking event hosted by the Upstate Alliance for the Creative Economy (ACE).

The event will take place Wednesday, May 25, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at WMHT Educational Telecommunications, 4 Global View in Troy (located in the Rensselaer Tech Park). This event is free, but registration is required. To register, visit upstatecreative.org/events/.

The Creative Freelancer Networking event, which is being produced by Spring Street Gallery and Corey Aldrich of 2440 Design Studio, will include a backstage tour of the WMHT studios, music by jazz trio Le Rubb, light snacks, and wine by Heather LaVine and the 22 2nd Street Wine Co. WMHT’s ‘AHA! – A House for Arts’ production team will also interview attendees for an upcoming segment on the ‘Gig Economy.’

“A vibrant and talented freelance community is crucial to our success,” said Robert Altman, President & CEO of WMHT. “We hire writers, producers, videographers, actors, musicians, editors and more, and our engagement of freelance staff is growing. It’s an exciting time, with new voices and talent constantly entering the conversation.” The setting – WMHT’s studios – was purposefully chosen because the telecommunications company is one of many arts organizations and businesses in the region increasingly utilizing freelance talent.

The freelance (or “gig economy”) trend is national in scope. In a report published in March 2016, labor economists Lawrence F. Katz of Harvard and Alan B. Krueger of Princeton found that the percentage of workers in “alternative work arrangements” — including temporary workers, independent contractors, and on-call — increased by 9.4 million workers from 2005 to 2015 (15.8 percent of the workforce in the fall of 2015, as compared to 10.1 percent a decade earlier.) ACE’s 2014 Captivate: Leveraging Regional Assets for a Vibrant Future report quantified the Capital Region’s creative freelance workforce growing at more than 20% over a similar period. In the 2014 report, ACE estimated that freelancers account for over 50% of the Capital Region creative economy workforce, quantifying their ranks at over 13,000. (The Captivate report is available online at upstatecreative.org.)

ACE, which is devoted to developing and supporting growth in the Capital Region’s creative economy, has made development and support of the freelance workforce one of its central platforms. Ed Murphy, Director of the Workforce Development Institute, believes freelancers are the backbone of our region’s creative economy. “We must strengthen the ability of freelancers to share their skills and earn a living. Networking events help us get to know each other, the talent available, hire our neighbors and foster our creative community.”

ACE thanks the Nordlys Foundation for their support of this event, and WMHT for hosting the event.