Mission Statement
The Entertainment and Media iRDA cluster at ºÚÁÏÍø, a top-tier R1 research university located in the heart of the world's entertainment capital, is dedicated to advancing bold, interdisciplinary approaches to the arts, sciences, and business of entertainment and media. By integrating expertise across business practices, cultural impact, and creative communities, this initiative brings together a multidisciplinary team to explore and innovate at the intersection of creativity and commerce. Our mission is to position Las Vegas as a global leader in creative technologies and media production, while cultivating knowledge and driving meaningful change in the rapidly evolving creative and cultural industries.
For more information on the Entertainment and Media iRDA cluster, contact: entertainment@unlv.edu.
Members
- Marla Royne Stafford, Ph.D.
Liaison
Lee Business School
marla.stafford@unlv.edu
Focal Areas
- Establish a multidisciplinary think tank to connect workforce stakeholders with the creative workforce.
- Support and expand access to creative outlets and expression.
- Create pathways into the creative industries by exploring the role of creativity in the economy and community.
Project Highlights
Logistically, there are few spaces in Las Vegas for talent to work on their craft among their peers. Without space built to sustain the technology to showcase artistic expression, musicians, singers, poets, dancers, and other creatives have no place to work on their craft to elevate them to a professional level. There also appears to be a lack of qualified promoters, to use the spaces we do have to bring talented people together. Hence, this project looks to grow the talent here to build a community among creatives as a breeding ground for economic growth on a local level, build the infrastructure and resources to support local talent, and develop a community that attracts the attention of the industries, gatekeepers, and sponsors that are based in larger cities. We then want to educate the creative community on proper monetization of their creative craft.
Project Leader: Mo Hobbs
Collaborators: Sarah O’Connell, Marla Stafford
Community development, thought leadership, cultural policy, and creative economy research are essential for Nevada to lead and for diverse humanity from across the economic spectrum to thrive. The creative industries are defined by skills that combine human imagination, expression, and craft. In the era of AI and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the creative economy contributed more to the Nevada GDP than mining, while leading the tourism and trade show industries. The Las Vegas ecosystem provides a valuable environment for creating and sharing knowledge about the creative industries, with ºÚÁÏÍø serving as a leading resource for both the community and industry leaders.
The key goal of this project is to establish an archive of creative industries research focused on overlapping areas of artistic practice, workforce development, creative entrepreneurship, social impact, economics, community development, creative science, arts education, cultural policy, technology, and cultural tourism.
Project Leader: Sarah O’Connell
Collaborators: Marla Stafford, Mo Hobbs, Adam Paul