News

Cultural Entrepreneurship finalists selected

Harvard recently announced the finalists in the inaugural Deans’ Cultural Entrepreneurship Challenge, and GSD teams are well represented with an array of innovative ideas. The Challenge was created to support students’ exploration of entrepreneurship that sustains the arts and enhances their cultural impact, and the project proposals demonstrate an impressive range of student interests, imagination and understanding of cultural challenges.

Hamdasti (meaning partnership in Persian) is a non-profit organization based in India that builds partnerships between government, artists, and designers to create civic engagement in governance, led by Sumona Chakravarty (MDesS ’13).

MUSEY, led by Judy Fulton (MArch I), is an online platform and mobile app solution using geo-technology to enable users to find, learn about and support art outside museum walls.

SOAP Fair, led by Maria Soledad Cano (MDesS ’14), is a cross-disciplinary auction for art, design, and technology objects produced by graduate students and alumni from top universities.

Urban Canvas turns open space into a virtual museum of street art using an interactive map system for online and mobile apps, led by Christopher Buccino (MLAUD ’13).

Submissions from HBS and HC include:

CreativeSPACES, which makes it easy for emerging artists to find and book venues

Hearing Things, re-imagining the unstable public radio model and supporting the museum community

Indigois, uniting cultural institutions, artisans, and cultural enthusiasts

Midas Touch, using 3D printing technology to render paintings accessible to the visually impaired

Music+1, a mobile app for musicians that provides real instrumental accompaniment to fit the soloist’s style in real time

Ripple, a community marketplace connecting musical artists and rave fans for private concerts in unique places.

Read the full story in the Harvard Gazette

Photo by Stephanie Mitchell