At the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship we envision a world in which cultural entrepreneurship creates cultural value and economic wealth, self-determination, and cultural diversity in communities across the globe. Toward this vision, we are creating the globe's first networked community of cultural entrepreneurs, cultural investors, and cultural entrepreneurship educators.

Cultural industries, an essential element of successful economies, develop only when talented cultural entrepreneurs gain access to the resources needed to successfully meet growing market demand; the gap in support services for cultural entrepreneurs must be met to fully capture the opportunities cultural enterprises offer as tools to alleviate poverty, sustain cultural value, and promote diversity in the global marketplace.

Tom Aageson, Executive Director

(United States) Tom is the Executive Director GCCE. Tom previously served as the Executive Director of the Museum of New Mexico foundation where he successfully led a $25million capital campaign. Since coming to Santa Fe, Tom has developed New Mexico Creates (www.newmexicocreates.org), an economic development initiative creating market links for New Mexico artists and artisans. He is the co-founder of the International Folk Art Market. Before coming to Santa Fe Tom was director of Aid to Artisans, an international artisan enterprise development NGO. Previous to that he was at the Mystic Seaport Museum where he created the Mystic Maritime Gallery, which led to opening new markets for maritime artists and eventually spawned six for-profit gallery enterprises across the US. The market for maritime art grew by several times as did the prices for maritime artists work. He started a graphics enterprise, Mystic Maritime Graphics, publishing prints, posters and books. Tom created New England clambakes as a catering business as Mystic Seaport Museum. He holds a MBA from Columbia University and BFT from the Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird). Contact: tom(AT)culturalentrepreneur(DOT)org