Ansbro:
“… think about things
a little bit differently
…”
TOWN OF WALLKILL – The arts is an important part of the culture of an area, but they also translate into economic importance. That assessment came from Dawn Ansbro, executive director of the Orange County Arts Council, who spoke to the Orange County Chamber of Commerce on Thursday.
Ansbro and her copresenter, president of the Tuxedo based toy company
Gui Decraft, Gary Bilezikian, said sometimes people overlook contributions
of the county’s arts businesses.
“I really wanted to talk about the business of art here in Orange County,” said Ansbro. “There’s so many arts businesses that fly under the radar here in the county and I thought it was important to bring them to the attention of the chamber so that the rest of the business community understands that they’re here and they’re peers and they potentially have opportunities to work together.”
There are an estimated 702,711 arts related companies nationally and they constitute $151 billion of spending. In Orange County, there are 795 arts-related businesses and the county arts industry is responsible for $33.1 million in annual economic impact.
Bilezikian’s corporation is part of a network worth more than $200 million and is part of the county’s contributing arts related businesses. He said although Guidecraft is an international company, they hire new people from Orange County every year and keep their base in Tuxedo.
Guidepost makes toys for consumer and educational purposes and their markets range from domestic all the way to Asia. The global appeal of Guidepost products is one of the main reasons the company is doing so well, said Bilezikian. One of his strategies that was implemented to achieve this was hiring designers from Asia to work with U.S. designers on ways to merge Western and Eastern flavors into their products.
“We thought, wouldn’t it be great if we hired somebody with a design background that could bring their concepts of Asian design and Asian toys into the U.S. way of thinking, or Western way of thinking to start interspersing it and it worked out really well,” said Bilezikian. “Our goal is, each year, to add another continent to that design process.”
Innovative ideas like Bilezikian’s are what Ansbro hopes the Orange County business community will utilize from the local arts community.
“The artists and creative people tend to think about things a little bit differently and that, really,” she said. “think can be very helpful to business people who are trying to think about where to take their business in the future.”
Ansbro belives if the local arts industry and greater local business community have more opportunities like the breakfast to meet each other, they can achieve improved success within the county.
