ACRE pilot program for creative economy deemed a success, to be replicated in other towns

Apr. 29—Artist Andrew Thornton owns Allegory Gallery in the borough of Ligonier, and he paints and makes jewelry at his studio further from town, at a 100-year-old cottage with an outhouse.

Working in a rural community has its advantages over the nearly inaccessible art scene in New York, where Thornton and his husband, William Jones, lived prior to moving to western Pennsylvania.

However, it also has its drawbacks.

Last year, when Thornton applied for funds from the newly formed Alliance for Creative Rural Economies, all he wanted was an indoor toilet at the cottage, he said.

He ended up getting much more from the alliance, including 12 months of business coaching, workshops and a close-knit network of peers with the same goals for creative businesses.

Thornton has purchased a building in Johnstown's Moxham neighborhood for a third gallery location, which he plans to open by the summer, he said.

The Alliance for Creative Rural Economies, or ACRE, was formed last year by a collaboration of economic development nonprofits with the goal of building sustainable creative economies in rural Rust Belt towns.

The pilot year in Johnstown has proven successful. ACRE will be reproduced in New Kensington; Greensburg; Wheeling, West Virginia; and Morgantown, West Virginia.

Muralist Chris Towers is another success story of the program in Johnstown. He went from painting murals for free to landing sizable jobs, including a Marvel Comics-approved Spider-Man mural on Washington Street in downtown Johns-town honoring Steve Ditko.

Ditko, the late Marvel artist who helped create Spider-Man, was a native of Johnstown.

Karlie Kendig's Flood City Stitch business also leapt forward as she scaled out of her home, to 828 Diamond Blvd., and hired an employee to help her knit and crochet her products.

"The most beneficial part to me was I was able to sit down with a business coach and discuss my concerns, and then make sure everything is done appropriately," Kendig said.

Ten people in total experienced varying degrees of success over the course of ACRE Partners' pilot year, funded by a $100,000 grant from the Arts Equity Reimagined fund presented by a collaboration of 17 foundations from 14 counties and an anonymous donor in the Pittsburgh metro area.

Touchstone Center for Crafts in Fayette County was another pillar of the ACRE partnership, serving as a site for workshops and residencies over the 12-month period.

Kendig said she looks forward to the second year of ACRE in Johnstown, which will include continued support for the original cohort of 10 entrepreneurs, while adding 10 new people.

Applications for the second year of ACRE Johnstown, as well as New Kensington and Greensburg, are scheduled to open May 15. The ACRE website is being updated to include more information at www.acrepartners.org.

The program was the brainchild of Johnstown Area Regional Industries entrepreneur coach Blake Fleegle and Bridgeway Capital, a community development financial institution, looking over the bottom line of the program.

"Creative businesses are sometimes overlooked, but ACRE Partners proves you can provide a vibrant creative economy even in the smallest of areas," Fleegle said.

The partnership formed to apply for the AER grant of $100,000, and proved its ability to build sustainable creative economic development in old mill towns and largely rural areas.

And it paid off, Fleegle said.

Additional funding partners have joined ACRE to reproduce the program in New Kensington, Greensburg and Wheeling, starting in May.

Those programs will be supported by funding partners in those communities, said Katie Johnson, Bridgeway Capital's creative business accelerator director.

Johnstown's second ACRE cohort will be funded by the Richard King Mellon Foundation, Johnson said.

By winter, Morgantown and Uniontown will have ACRE programs, too, she said.

"This is a program that has been piloted in Johnstown, and it was very successful, and it has found support to reproduce it to some degree in other towns," Johnson said.