The Alliance for Creative Rural Economies (ACRE Partners) brings creativity-driven economic development to communities across Western Pennsylvania and Northern West Virginia.
ACRE Partners supports creative entrepreneurs (makers, designers, artists, craftspeople, and small-batch manufacturers) committed to sustaining and scaling their businesses in ways that benefit their communities. In partnership with local and regional stakeholders, ACRE Partners also works to increase overall equitable economic opportunity in disinvested areas across a multistate region of Appalachia. ACRE Partners offers three main outcomes:
- Increase the visibility of a specific region, city, and/or town’s creative economy via ACRE Partners’ regional branding activities and local community engagements.
- Support entrepreneurial peer networks through intentional cohorts of creative businesses that learn, grow, and connect over the course of a year (and beyond).
- Deliver targeted, resonant, and high-touch business education programs for creative entrepreneurs aiming to achieve measurable and lasting progress.
