The art of facilitation

Jason Schupbach takes on the state's creative economy

Jason Schupbach (right, with Dave Waller at Brickyard VFX in Boston) is Massachusetts' creative economy industry director. (pat greenhouse/globe staff)

Politicians often talk about the importance of arts and culture. But this summer, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick took an important step in creating a special position in the state's Office of Business Development to focus on cultural issues.

The Patrick administration appointed Jason Schupbach as creative economy industry director. Schupbach, 32, has a master's in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and most recently worked as the director of ArtistLink, a program meant to encourage the building of creative spaces in the state. Schupbach recently stopped at the Globe for an interview about his new position and the arts in general.

Q. You were talking about your interest in music. I'm just wondering if there's an album or play or a movie that really changed you.

A. Let's see. Do I want to seem like a snob? I'm going to sound like a snob. I really loved [James Joyce's] "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" when I was in high school. I don't think I'm truly an artist as far as being that creative person but that book really taught me how an artist really thinks.

Q. Did you for a short time decide you would be an artist?

A. I think it showed me that's not who I was. I was jealous of that. I think in life, one of my personal goals is to make sure the people who are [artists] are getting all the help they can to have the space to be able to produce what they can produce.

Q. You're a member of the Institute of Contemporary Art. What did you like most about the Anish Kapoor show?

A. The bump coming out from the wall because I didn't notice it at first.

Q. How about music?

A. The best show I saw last year was the Arcade Fire show. It was amazing. It was the best rock show I've ever been to. It was like a religious experience.

Q. It seems like your job is a really interesting challenge to bridge - you're supposed to advocate for these real professional people like designers and architects, but then also artists. Tell me how you view that balancing act or if it's not a balancing act.

A. I'm an industry director. There are other industry directors for technology, energy, defense, biotech and our job is to really work with the for-profit industries in the state and to provide the other set of resources we have that are existing, like tax credits for manufacturers, help with relocating businesses, and help with workers' training. I think one of the first parts of my job which I'm really excited to do is to find those creative companies out there that have no idea that these resources exist.

Q. There's a perception that your job is compared with the kind of grass-rootsy jobs that are probably being done by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and Ann McQueen at the Boston Foundation, for example.

A. As far as nonprofits go, we have an agency that does that. That's the MCC and I don't need to replicate all the work they do. What we see ourselves going forward doing is really working in partnerships with those agencies. Obviously when you take the fuller, broader creative community you have to look at nonprofits, you have to look at artists. We have agencies who do all of that. My job is to make sure we're all partnering and working together but that the for-profit side is really included in all those conversations.

Q. Can you just sketch the scope of how many businesses would count as the for-profit creative economy?

A. There are four industries we're really going to focus on starting off with: film, design - very broadly defined - advertising, and video games. Because that's really our four strongest assets we see in the for-profit creative industries. That's a lot of work to even start with. Each of them has their own distinct, interesting needs. We're going to be partnering closely with the Massachusetts Film Office.

Q. With film, why is it necessary? Even though things are going a lot better, we still pale in comparison to other parts of the country. Why is that such an important part of this creative economy?

A. It's a growth industry. If you looked at the numbers that came up recently, we have more jobs than we thought we had - 700 more jobs in the construction industry. There's real jobs there. The three goals of the Massachusetts Office of Business Development are job retention, job creation, and private investment. And film has got all three of those. That's really the goals I'm going to be working with.

Q. How will your success be measured? Are there certain benchmarks you're trying to reach?

A. The Office of Business Development measures itself by job creation and job retention and private investment. Those are really my benchmarks. We're going to be measured just like the technology industry. Measuring jobs might be a little tricky because for something like the film industry, those jobs come and go. They're temporary. Someone might be employed for the entire year as a carpenter and making a great salary all year long and getting benefits and it's a full-time job because he worked on three different movies. It kind of looks like three different jobs so we need to figure out how to measure the data.

Q. You talk about the upside of building a film studio in this area. What happens if you don't have the same number of films coming in, or a growing industry, and you have this wonderful facility but nobody uses it?

A. Well, it's not just Hollywood films that are going to fill studios, we'd like to get TV shows. There are lots of local commercials that film here, lots of local film companies that need space to film in. I don't think anybody wants to see us overbuild but I think we need some.

Q. In your interactions with the governor, how do you know he understands the creative economy?

A. This is a governor who understands how to grow businesses. He went out to LA and . . . every single film studio was in the room and got a chance to meet and interact with him personally. This wasn't just a let's-go-walk-around-the-movie-sets visit. This was a business visit to really talk about what we can do to encourage their business in the state because we know it brings jobs. Not every governor does that.

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com.