Creative Industries and the Recession

info from creative industries.
It's the Creative Economy, Stupid!

I wish we'd thought up this slogan for our Summer School, but Nova Scotia's economic development people got there first.

Creative industries agencies and pundits around the world are positioning them as a solution to the economic crisis, and not part of the bubble.

After predicting that the creative industries will be a key driver for the UK's recovery (32,000 new businesses by 2013), NESTA now calls on government to end their attachment to the 'London Model' of financial services and property development, and base their plans developing local strengths and clusters.

Over at Creative & Cultural Skills, an impressive team of commentators characterise the creative industries as 'a paradigm for a new networked future in which quality rather than quantity will become the ultimate arbiter of success in a world whose population is growing but whose resources are diminishing'.

Arts Council staff wondering if they are among the 24% being made redundant can take heart that thousands of new jobs will be created in the music industry, thanks to Culture Secretary Andy Burnham's £26m injection. Not that the games industry or childrens' television are happy about this.

Perhaps the most telling sign of the times in the UK is that Greg Dyke, who fell out with New Labour after being ousted from the BBC's top job, has teamed up with Elisabeth Murdoch to lead the Conservative party's review of the creative industries. Will they agree with London Mayor Boris Johnson, that 'there has never been a better time to support London’s thriving creative industries'? Or with the Daily Mail's call to abolish not only the Regional Development Agencies but the 'Orwellian' Department for Culture Media and Sport as well?

But there is comfort in the USA, where CNBC Business reports that 'creative clusters are the new economic drivers of Europe', and creativity guru Richard Florida is predicting 'the crash will reshape America'. Creative economy initiatives are spreading across the USA faster than swine flu. Take a look at Maine, Montana, Piedmont, Savannah, Charleston, Vermont, Fairfax, New England, Iowa and Minnesota. (Thanks to EDProWeblog for these links).