Culture and creative industries

Growing an inclusive and sustainable creative economy across Yorkshire and the Humber

The UK government recognises the crucial part a thriving cultural sector can play in the prosperity and wellbeing of businesses and communities in the UK. Culture is a priority in both The Plan for Change and identified in the Industrial Strategy. The Creative Industries Sector Plan commits £380 million to support growth in the creative sector, create high quality jobs and stimulate private investment. A £100 million investment will be made to support new creative clusters and research and development.

Across the north Civic Leaders, academics and leaders across key sectors in the creative economy – film and TV, Video Games, Textiles and Fashion, Live Music and Digital/CreaTech – have come together under the banner of ‘One Creative North’ to collaborate on growing the creative economy. In turn the emerging local growth plans for the Combined Authorities of York and North Yorkshire, Hull and East Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire include a commitment to invest in the growth of their respective creative businesses.

There is much commitment to and potential for growth. Yorkshire has significant cultural assets across priority sectors and in its heritage. But significant structural barriers and inequalities in the cultural ecosystem remain which constrain the potential for growth viz: an average cut of 48% on spending per person in culture by local authorities since 2009, a sharp decline in the funding of and enrolment in arts and humanities subjects at secondary, FE and HE levels, a predominance of insecure and low paid employment, and an insufficient or appropriate business support offer for the creative sector.

We lack adequate methods of valuing arts and culture – particularly if we were to work with the UNESCO definition of culture which includes the spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional dimensions alongside arts, lifestyle, human rights and value systems and beliefs. Consequently, the cultural activity of certain communities goes unrecognised or invested in, and our cultural sector still struggles to represent the peoples and cultures of marginalised groups.

How we Work

The group working on this agenda as part of YPIP includes academics, experts by profession who are working in cultural organisations, or leading strategy and policy work in local and combined authorities and experts by experience i.e. people working on cultural agendas within communities. We have taken the Bradford District Cultural Sector as our case study. This is because in its year as the UK City of Culture, and as part of a ten year journey to grow the cultural sector encapsulated in the strategy ‘Culture is Our Plan’ this is a system which has put culture at the heart of its strategy for growth and prosperity. We believe we can derive insights from a place which is working to create a thriving ecosystem which could inform policy and strategy development and innovation within other local authorities, Combined Authorities and potentially influence national policy. We have co designed the focus and approach to the research we are undertaking. We are delighted also to be working alongside the community led research projects funded through the Communities Innovating Yorkshire Fund.

Our Priorities

1. Community led participation in culture and hyper-local community leadership – exploring participation in the arts and culture by marginalised communities and innovative approaches and policy that might build community agency in the arts.
2. Business support models for the creative sector – researching the specific support needs of small and medium sized creative organisations and sustainable business models for a sector which often struggles to break out of cycles of precarity and offers insecure employment.
3. Education, employment and skills pathways – researching the careers advice and guidance available to 14-19 year olds in relation to both the diverse employment opportunities in growing creative clusters and the positive connection between academic qualifications in the arts and humanities and future employment prospects.