Reaching out from the creative silo

Our latest policy briefing (Reaching out from the creative silo: the arts, creativity and innovation) calls for an updated policy debate on the creative industries. As a mature sector, these industries must face up to the challenges of their low productivity growth and of ensuring that the benefits reach out from the creative silo and influence wider creative contributions in the UK's economy and society.

Research in this area must treat the arts and creative industries with the same degree of rigour as traditional industries. By applying existing models of innovation that are known to work in more traditional sectors, policymakers can develop a richer set of interventions than public funding alone. In our view, supporting creative enterprises as they identify and adopt new technologies, helping them think through the IP implications and supporting collaborative networks are high priorities.

We'd welcome your thoughts...

• NESTA Policy Briefings
• NESTA Creative Pioneer Programme

Comments

[Charles Lovatt]

Though there much to commend in your policy briefing paper “Reaching out from the creative silo”, especially the idea that creative businesses lack necessary management skills – I disagree with the frame within which the paper is placed:

"Research in this area must treat the arts and creative industries with the same degree of rigour as traditional industries."

Traditional, well established industries are 'on the radar' and follow a fairly predictable pattern. Industry traditionally employed a lot of people, in fixed locations with significant fixed capital investment. The traditional industries have been well studied both vertically and horizontally.

In contrast, creative businesses are often project based, short term enterprises that coalesce around an entrepreneur and do their innovation thing over a short intense period. Team members move on to their next project before their initial project gets on to the radar of DTI or academics. Not on radar, without a long term fixed capital base means there are no studies. Academics find no evidence because it has been and gone before they realise their study.

There are a number of hugely talented people in what are denigrated as “life style” businesses or micro-enterprises who are genuine innovators but can not be compared to traditional industries. Musicians, impresarios, writers and philosophers as well as people like Malcolm McLaren, J K Rowling and Vivienne Westward. In economic terms their GVA is certainly over £1Bn, but will not be classified as such by statisticians.

Innovation and creativity are two sides of the same coin – that coin is IA – an intellectual asset. Increasing investment in intellectual assets is what Britain has been doing since the mid 1960s. The Open University is one of the innovations that in turn became a creator of IA.

I believe research must recognise that creativity is often an individual personal endeavour. Thinking in terms of traditional industrial analysis is “thinking inside the box”. The traditional view of innovation as a series of better mousetraps fails to account for discontinuous breakthroughs.

Breaking out of the creative silo is an excellent topic.

Charles Lovatt

[Hasan Bakhshi]

Many thanks for your comment, Charles. I agree with your distinction between creative and traditional industries in this sense. Our point is more that researchers have developed rigorous and quantitative understandings of innovation in other Knowledge Economy sectors where work is also project-based and led by teams which work for short and intense bursts before dissolving and moving on. I think there is an urgent need for such research in the arts and creative industries. I also agree that understanding the role of individual creative talent in the ecology of innovation is critical too.

Hasan

[Lisa]

I think the way that creative companies are more fluid in their operations means they are more often walking unchartered terrain with their businesses. It would seem therefore that they would need even more support in terms of identifying/developing new technologies and with IP. There are valuable organisations that assist in providing this support such as Knowledge Rich(www.knowledgerich.com). There is no doubt that both traditional and creative enterprises can benefit from this kind of assistance.