The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s guest blogger is Brynn Grant, Vice President of Competitive Positioning at Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA). A conversation with Brynn always leaves one thinking bigger and further outside the sandbox….

This summer, after a six month process, the Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA)  completed a Competitive Positioning Analysis and Target Industry Study for Savannah. A key part of SEDA’s five-year strategic plan adopted by the Board of Directors in March, this study and the subsequent recommendations made by our consultants at SRI International will direct our proactive efforts to create, grow and attract jobs here for many years to come. The results were exciting, especially for those of us who have worked hard to achieve consensus on the best strategies for our job creation efforts.

The two existing target industries named were no surprise though one proposed a more expanded approach. They are Advanced Manufacturing to include aviation and aerospace, materials and resins, industrial machinery and food processing as well as Transportation and Logistics, only now including an emphasis on the higher value side of logistics and the related support activities, perhaps linking regional higher education assets in a more robust way.

The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. Today’s blog is from Elizabeth (Lizzie) Rushing, a talented writer living in Savannah. Lizzie has provided thoughts and opinions for a number of promient publications and previously served as the Arts Editor for South Magazine.

As Americans, we are the descendants of renegades and rebels. We are born of borrowed cultures on stolen lands. But wherein lies our honest identity? What does it mean to be a female American artist in these modern times?

Questioning a culture that is remixed and reformed, artist Kellie Walker initiates an exploration into Americana through her new collection, “Between Bones.” The exhibit, comprised of seven original works, lassos Walker’s childhood inspiration for the search.

A SCAD alumna and Savannah resident, Walker was born in Texas and raised in Kansas City. “My parents had their own Vet practice in the Texas hill country and my father specialized in large animal practice,” Walker says. “I grew up with a menagerie of critters running around the home.” Livestock, raccoons, squirrels, deer, cats and dogs, and “of course,” she says, “horses.” This cast of characters is metaphorically American: a mash-up of different breeds, mammals, from different walks of nature brought together for a chance at a better life. “My parents also always had these beautifully illustrated anatomical/ medical reference books laying around which fascinated me.”

The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s blog is from Jae Matthews, major cinephile and M.F.A. student at SCAD. Jae is interning at the Savannah Film Commission and anixously awaits this year’s Savannah Film Festival (October 29 – November 5)!

I like to make lists. It’s more like a compulsion, really. But I’m sure I like it.

I partake in the usual: the “To Do” quality, but often I’ll make option lists with ideas for adventure.  The film festival kinda puts my habit into perspective, and I think I will have to make one each day. Perhaps I will post them.  I’ve made one for you, for now. Here is a list of Exciting Options for the “Pre-Festival” period:

1.) John Akomfrah’s piece, “Mnemosyne,” is showing through November 18 at Pei-Ling Chan gallery on MLK! Akomfrah’s “Mnemosyne” is a condensed telling of his “The Nine Muses,” which looks at mass-migration and diaspora in the Midlands in England. The video, which runs 45 minutes, is quite epic and unusually beautiful combining archival footage and personal footage to create a fascinating diary piece. Akomfrah is also a very captivating creature, who rumors to return for the festival!

The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s blog is from Jae Matthews, major cinephile and M.F.A. student at SCAD.  Jae is interning at the Savannah Film Commission and anixously awaits this year’s Savannah Film Festival  (October 29 – November 5)!

It’s been raining for three days now, and I sit at my window like the proverbial wall-flower waiting for my hunk to get me out of here. But I wait for no man! No sir.

I wait for the 14th Annual Savannah Film Festival to begin, and I still have more than two weeks time to anticipate what the fest will be bringing into town.

To be honest, I’m a little nervous, because this will be my first ever all-inclusive festival experience. Already there seems to be too much for me to see, what with the films, the panels and so many honored guests! I remember seeing a lot of pictures from last year and biding my time as a volunteer, knowing that someday I could experience the splendor of festival extravagance. It seems too soon to have the opportunity to experience it one year later, no closer to the status that I figured I needed to acquire. I’m channeling this energy into nervous tension that, hopefully, will lift in two weeks time.