About Creative Industries Incentive Network (CIIN)

The Creative Industries Incentive Network (CIIN) was a multi-year program (2015-2019) of the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI) with support from the Surdna Foundation. The goal was to incubate experimental projects that held the promise of catalyzing creative economies through investments in artists and arts workers in five distinct California communities: Los Angeles, Richmond, San Francisco, San José, and Santa Ana. On-the-ground partners were required to match CCI’s contributions 1:1 for the first two years of the multi-year commitment, with the final year funded entirely by each partner. As this effort was experimental and meant to be a learning opportunity for CCI, Surdna Foundation, the local partners of the five cities, as well as for the arts sector more broadly, this site contains the series of articles that documented the projects, what had been happening, the unexpected surprises, and the outcomes of these efforts. The writing was by Taya Mueller, with editing by CCI President & CEO, Angie Kim. Mueller had been contracted to conduct site visits and regular phone interviews to produce this documentation.

The series of articles describe the activities and progress of the five network partners from 2015-2019, with the following questions framing the inquiry:

• What is the project, and how does it evolve?
• What and who are these projects trying to serve, while being mindful of the political, demographic, and economic dynamics that may affect these projects?
• What inspired these projects and their design?
• What are the anticipated as well as surprising challenges and opportunities?
• What is the expected arc of activities for the projects, and what changed when actually implemented?
• What does success look like, and does this expectation evolve over the course of the experiment?
• What lessons are being learned by the network partners and CCI?
• What is the actual impact of these efforts (e.g., impact on beneficiaries, on the local partner, on collaborators, on the communities)?

We invite you to learn more about each CIIN partner: