PBN: What is it that startup design- and arts-related businesses need from this region?

[RISD President ROGER] MANDLE: They could benefit from the same kind of tax advantages that would suit small businesses of any kind. … They also could benefit from greater attention from RISD... We need to come up with regional tax incentives.

MANDLE: The economy in New England is extremely fragile. We are still draining away the leavings of the manufacturing businesses that were the backbone of this place. … What are we doing to replace it?

MANDLE: I think the Center for Design and Business has had a lot of success in certain, narrow ways. It certainly did help raise the visibility of design as an asset of business. And it also has had success, along with our continuing education program, training artists to be better business people. … And now during the creativity revolution or … the conceptual age, we are arriving at a new place where the arts and design are even more important than they were then.