What’s changing in the cultural economy?
New research from the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC) explores how changes in local government spending on culture have played out unevenly across England. Local cultural provision is being restructured and repurposed towards new ends.
People from privileged backgrounds still dominate roles in the arts and creative industries according to a PEC report exploring social mobility in the creative economy. This report doesn’t include craft but an earlier 2020 PEC report showed persistent class imbalances across all the creative industries except in craft. Getting in and getting on: Class, participation and job quality in the UK Creative Industries found that about one-third of the craft sector is working class compared to 28% who are more privileged. People from working class origins comprise about a third of the UK's population, but just 16% of the creative industries' overall workforce.
Creative Majority, from the All Party Parliamentary Group for Creative Diversity, reports on the business case for what works to support, encourage and improve equity, diversity and inclusion in the creative sector. Recommendations build on the five As: ambition, allyship, accessibility, adaptability and accountability.
The Fashion Economy report looks at how well the industry is tackling change in response to Black Lives Matter and to sustainability challenges.
A High Street Renaissance found that almost 70% of people think cultural spaces make their local area a better place to live. Culture and creativity plays a role in attracting footfall to the high street, generating spend and creating civic pride.
The Mayor of London is investing nearly £3m to increase the number of Creative Enterprise Zones to support artists, creative businesses and local people by creating long-term affordable workspace, business support and skills development.
A new study from University College London finds the benefits of community cultural engagement are greater in England’s most deprived areas.
Mind the Understanding Gap: the Value of Creative Freelancers sets out how the varied workforce of creative freelancers contributes significantly to our economies, communities and culture. It proposes improvements in government support for self-employment and freelancing and a system of adult skills, lifelong learning designed to support individual contributions to the economy and appropriate and relevant business support and infrastructures.
A PEC Discussion Paper by the same authors considers how to recognise, embrace and supporting freelancers in a changing labour market; enact good freelancer employment and procurement charters; and the role of place-based policy and creative freelancers.
The Design Council’s Design Economy 2021 is a live research three-year programme that will share new data, evidence, stories and toolkits as a growing resource for policy makers, business leaders, public sector professionals, architects and designers.