Urban and rural areas are inextricably linked, and therefore, the health of Texas's overarching economy depends on the success of even its smallest rural communities.
There is great potential in Texas's rural economies: places like Marfa and Brenham, Texas are thriving—each has found ways to tap their creative potential and today, have thriving creative economies. The challenge has become helping other rural communities, which often have fewer resources and champions, realize the same success.
Fortunately, there are recent examples of potential paths forward. Tim Wojan and his colleagues at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Services have shown that rural communities can attract and build innovative ecosystems with the necessary support programs and initiatives. Moreover Richard Florida and his colleagues at the University of Toronto have documented how rural communities can also experience population, wage and business formation increases by developing innovation ecosystems around entrepreneurship and creative industries such as tech, design, architecture, and arts and culture.