| The FAME Digital Media Center is a regional economic development initiative for North Louisiana. It is the catalyst project in the comprehensive plan for Shreveport’s Historic Music Village (Louisiana APA 2003 Awards for plan of the year). The Digital Media Center is an important part of a strategy to lever approximately $200 million in private investment in redeveloping the 300-acre area around and including Shreveport’s Historic Municipal Auditorium, home of the Louisiana Hayride. Project funding assembles the land and advances of the Digital Media Center as an important part of the Southern American Music Museum (SAMM).
The Digital Media Center will serve as a business incubator and business accelerator for new and emerging digital media companies. The Digital Media Center and museum complex is
an integral part of building a music industry cluster in Shreveport and the North Louisiana region. A partnership of the Consortium for Education Research and Technology (CERT) and The Foundation for Arts Music and Entertainment (FAME) is planned to operate the Digital Media Center.
The 60,000 sq. ft. Digital Media Center will include development labs, production areas, and offices for rent to start-up companies. Collaboration spaces will be part of shared areas for bringing together various disciplines to innovate and create new digital products. These teams of artists, media producers, animators, and researchers will collaborate in commercializing science and intellectual property (e.g., Louisiana Tech’s Micromanufacturing/Nanotechnology and CERT’s Bioinformatics Initiative) in addition to new music products, new packaging concepts, and new distribution methods. The Digital
Media Center will coordinate with CERT institutions to utilize existing higher education resources in developing business plans, building collaboration teams, and workforce training. The Digital Media Center will extend the abilities of North Louisiana’s higher education in contributing to future economic development and will not duplicate any current facilities or programs.
For more information, go to the FAME Plan website at www.mhsmarchitects.com.
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