London Press Service Informs

How Being Artistic Can Create Big Business

Described recently as “the dazzling jewel in the treasure chest”, one country’s creative industries are a key economic driver, the fastest growing sector as well as making a significant contribution to the nation’s wealth.
In short, creativity has become a major money-spinner in the United Kingdom. Together, these industries – including design, music, books, art, films, games and innovation – are contributing 8.2 per cent of gross domestic product annually and providing jobs for about two million people.
Such businesses are located right across the country but London took the crown in a recent top 20 list of the most creative cities and towns in the UK.
Named as the “creative melting pot of the country” – and “arguably the creative capital of the world” – London’s economy benefits from 21 billion pounds from those industries.
The list was announced following a survey, carried out by a consumer think tank, The Future Laboratory, on behalf of pen manufacturer Sharpie.
It revealed that 625,000 people are employed in London’s creative companies and organisations. These include 205 theatres, 2,650 music businesses, 125 dance companies, 1,500 theatre companies, 19 national museums and five orchestras. It is also home to 70 per cent of the UK’s recording studios and 30 per cent of the UK’s visual artists and photographers.
It is the place chosen by many talented people from other countries to start a career in an encouraging environment. And they, in turn, help to fuel London’s creative “vibe”.
Many other hidden factors are thought to add to London’s strength, including non-mainstream elements such as the “new rave” subculture in south London, the “indie” music scene, markets such as Camden Lock, where art and craft are big sellers, as well as festivals and fairs.
The capital has more wi-fi zones than New York, with 7,130 wireless networks, as well as more clubs, pubs, bars, vintage shops and boutiques than anywhere else in the UK.
A change in attitude by consumers is partly the reason for the boom, it seems. Art is on display everywhere, including in shop windows and on the walls of the London Underground.
Long gone are the days when art galleries, for example, were thought to be the haunts solely of the middle-aged and the elite. Today, young people, older citizens and family groups make up the huge visitor numbers.
One of the clearest examples of this is Tate Modern. In 2006 4.2 million people went to view its eclectic collection – more than went to venues featuring the nation’s favourite sport, football, according to the study.

Waves of culture: Liverpool’s Albert Dock, once busy with shipping, is now alive with people out to enjoy art and design. An award-winning location, it houses many attractions including Tate Liverpool and The Beatles Story.

So successful is Tate Modern that an ultra contemporary, 11-floor glass extension is to be built, hopefully in time for the 2012 London Olympics. Facilities for young people are to be “central to the new development, and learning and visitor engagement will be at its heart,” said a Tate spokesman.
Manchester, sometimes known as “the capital of the north”, is the UK’s second most creative city, according to the Sharpie index. Known for its contribution to the music scene in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, Manchester’s creativity has grown so much that almost 60,000 people work in various aspects of it.
Its international festival with dance, drama, opera, art and music of all kinds attracts artists and visitors from across the world. The 2007 festival, for example, featured Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta, US singing legends Lou Reed and Smokey Robinson, modern hip-hop star Kanye West, and the UK’s own award-winning singer-songwriter, P J Harvey.
Plans are in hand for the next Manchester International Festival in 2009. In that city, too, art is readily accessible to all. One recent example is the digital public displays, including LED, LCD, plasma screens and large-scale projections, placed around the city showing works by creative residents.
Close on Manchester’s heels comes neighbouring Liverpool, 2008’s European City of Culture.
The study reveals that since it was selected for that role in 2003 (said then to be possibly “the greatest day in Liverpool’s recent history”), the city has been undergoing a massive regeneration programme to make it into a world-class city again. “More Arts Council money is being invested in Liverpool that anywhere else in the UK,” states the report.
For the first time, the prestigious and controversial art competition the Turner Prize went outside London for 2007. Tate Liverpool was the host for the exhibition by short-listed entrants and for the prize presentation event.
That gallery is one of many such establishments in Liverpool; it has more museums than any other city, apart from London.
Already well known around the globe for maritime, heritage, architecture, music, literature, the arts and sport, Liverpool has prepared itself to receive nearly two million extra visitors for its year in the cultural spotlight.
Other large cities such as Glasgow (a former European City of Culture), Edinburgh, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol, Newcastle, Nottingham, Huddersfield, Cardiff, Oxford, Cambridge, Plymouth and Norwich, are also listed.
Smaller places such as Brighton (recognised now as a new-media centre), tiny St. Ives, in Cornwall, in the south-west corner of England, and the Kentish seaside resort of Margate completed the roll.
Of these, St. Ives, and indeed the entire county of Cornwall – well known for decades as home to some of the UK’s most revered painters, sculptors, glassmakers, ceramicists and others – has been pin-pointed as one of the “ones to watch” in future indexes.
Cardiff, in Wales, is another of these, as well as the northern city of Huddersfield, and Southend in the Thames estuary.
The creative industries are growing twice as fast as other sectors, said UK Trade & Investment, the leading government body that supports home-based businesses and helps overseas companies to locate in the UK. They will have an increasingly important role in the lives of UK citizens.
The next step, says the Future Laboratory/Sharpie report, is for creativity to meet “bigger social challenges, such as climate change”. This is already happening to some extent.