Small Businesses as Community Catalyts

For his senior college thesis at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, Rudy Arnold created a series of videos documenting 5 small businesses locatedin the same neighborhood.

The theme of the series is how the relationship between small businesses and their customers nurture local communities. The movies do a nice of job of capturing that relationship, and the day to day concerns and issues small business owners face.

I particularly like the story about Groundswell Coffee and how new, local owners and volunteers from the neighborhood are trying to make it going concern.

The movies, which are also available on YouTube, are well worth watching.