References to the arts or the arts sector in this report intend to signify a broad range of actors and organisations who would identify themselves as belonging to that sector. Creative industries are seen to be a part of this sector, but not synonymous with the arts which extends beyond those who could be considered purely industry members with business interests. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) define creative industries as to which one or other of the following applies: they are distinguished by some form of symbolic meaning; they are produced using some form of creativity; their consumers assign cultural value to it, exercising aesthetic taste or discrimination; and/or they are alienated through some form of Intellectual Property.[1]
Richard Florida has created a concept called the Creative Class which encompasses an even broader definition of what it means to be creative than might commonly be supposed. He suggests that while every person has some level of creativity, those who can said to belong to a Creative Class are those who are involved in creating ‘meaningful new forms’.[2] This class includes scientists, engineers, researchers and analysts on top of what might be the more commonly accepted creative, artistic occupations. Florida also identified a subset of this class, the bohemians [3], who fit the conception of an artist more closely. Florida has chosen to focus on people and their occupations as measures of a city’s creativity, as he thinks that measuring the producers of creative assets is a better predictor of creativity than measuring the assets themselves.[4] This report will more often refer to the latter type of creatives, but will not divorce the links between the subset and its connection to the wider Creative Class.
Meric Gertler speaks more generally about creative cities and creative activities. He acknowledges the importance of non-profit creative organisations in the creative economy, in addition to creative industries and the creative capital or talented people that Florida discusses. Sir Peter Hall connects the concept of a creative city with the presence of a ‘creative milieu’. The term was originally coined by Gunmar Törnqvist and explains how and why a city can be considered creative, as the mere presence of creative industries does not make it so.[5] Törnqvist establishes four key features which signify a creative milieu: 1) information transmitted among people; 2) knowledge, consisting in the storage of this information in real or artificial memories; 3) competence in certain relevant activities, defined in terms of the demands of an external environment; and 4) creativity, the creation of something new out of the synergy of all these three activities.[6]
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[1] Alan Freeman. (2008). London: a Cultural Audit. London, Munich Personal RePEc Archive.p. 5
[2] Richard Florida (2005) Cities and the Creative Class, New York, Routledge. p. 34
[3] Ibid., p. 118. Bohemians include: authors, designers, musicians and composers, actors and directors, craft artists, painters, sculptors, printmakers, photographers, dancers, and artists, performers and related workers.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Sir Peter Hall (2000) ‘Creative Cities and Economic Development’, Urban Studies, 37(4), 639-49. p. 644
[6] Ibid., p. 644