If digital media is the lingua franca of the future, developing the region’s capabilities in that form of communication would seem to be an important part of any economic-development plan for the 21st century. Enter Digital City.
The initiative, the latest one to derive its seed funding from The Rhode Island Foundation’s Make It Happen Rhode Island program, aims to create a membership-driven workspace, an education component and a digital-media design and production center.
In the end, the founders hope that this combination will help the region retain much of talent that it sees leeching to Boston and New York, and as a result help build a new, dynamic community here.
Digital City proves once again that the creative economy is more than just an outlet for artistic endeavors. Its host is AS220, which has allowed the initiative to set up shop in its Mercantile Block on Washington Street in downtown Providence. And its driving forces are artists and educators, who know that the greatest economic-development tool is the human mind. •