Three major institutions, including Arts Council England and the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) have announced a joint agreement to work together to determine the skills, policies and investment required to achieve sustained growth in the creative sector.
image: RSA website
…the partnership will prototype a creative corridor model in the North of England…
RSA writes:
Arts Council England, the Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre (Creative PEC) and the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) will work together to set out ways that the UK’s creative industries could achieve the government’s target to contribute £50bn and a million new jobs to the UK economy by 2030.
The ‘Connecting Creative Corridors’ enquiry will bring together national and regional players and draw on evidence and international case studies for the first time. It will report back in March 2024.
Andy Haldane, Chief Executive of the RSA said: “There is a huge amount of energy in the clusters of creative communities spread across all four corners of the UK. This exciting new collaboration between the RSA, Creative PEC and Arts Council England seeks to unlock that potential, growing jobs and economies; skills and wellbeing; communities and regions. This collaborative approach will explore in detail how the UK’s vibrant and enriching creative corridors can significantly support people, communities, and local economies for the long term.”
The RSA, Creative PEC and Arts Council England want to explore the benefits of connecting people and businesses already contributing to the UK’s creative industries in one location, with similar activity clustered elsewhere. This approach creates a network that is sometimes called a ‘creative corridor’.
Our enquiry will explore themes around skills, innovation, finance and arts, culture, and heritage to demonstrate how creative corridors can provide the greatest benefits to every part of the network.
Professor Hasan Bakhshi, Director of the Creative PEC said: “Our previous research has shown that the creative industries are amongst the most geographically unequal sectors in the UK economy. But we have also found that individual clusters and micro clusters of creative activity can be found right across the nation. This raises the question of how these fragmented, creative clusters can join-up to create an economic force that can compete with the world’s great creative cities.”
Darren Henley, Chief Executive, Arts Council England said: “There’s growing evidence to show that the presence of organisations and individuals who work across the creative and cultural industries sparks new life into towns and cities; building skills, creating new jobs, growing local economies, and improving the lives of the people who live, work and study in these places. This new programme will build on what we’ve learned so far and identify ways of speeding up that growth and reaping the economic benefits.”
The PEC and RSA element of the partnership will prototype a creative corridor model in the North of England. Over the next nine months, this will function as a model to learn from, test assumptions, and build practical knowledge that will further demonstrate the potential of the approach to national and regional stakeholders and policy makers. Further announcements on the scope of this project will be announced in the coming weeks.
