Where Will Government Funding for Creative Industries & Events Go?

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15.7 Billion smackeroonies. But where does Government Funding for Creative Industries go and how do we keep the creativity alive?

 

The Billion Dollar Question

The announcement from the movement to fund the arts and events to the sum of 1.57 billion is welcome news. Looking back to the decimation of arts funding in 2010, it is good to see this package brought through. Now, this money is fantastic but the real question is – where will Government Funding for Creative Industries actually go?

Should it be poured into the West End, for crowds of tourists to buy tickets for musicals and elitist theatre? Or is there an opportunity to invest in the art form of theatre and see creativity flourish?

This year, graduates from performing arts courses are worried that there will be no work heading their way. This may be true but it has not stopped many from using these skills within the creative industries.

 

True Creativity

There are two types of creative: the ones with the hands and the ones with the head. Theatre skillsets lean to the head and our industry needs these people, as Jerzy Grotowski said:

 ‘’ Art is a ripening, an evolution, an uplifting which enables us to emerge from darkness into a blaze of light.’’ 

The creative process differs with the art form but spending 3 years creating, devising new ideas and taking direction and constructive criticism are skills that keep the engine of creative agencies moving.

There is an opportunity for some of this money to go back to the process. These skill sets are valuable in businesses regardless of what the school system told their students!

Places like the Contact Theatre are experts at driving creativity through enterprise and have had great success in doing so.

 

The Big Questions

The more we can fund creative avenues, highlight the skill sets needed in business and open the door to more creatives the better we can become. And as an economy, we should invest in the fringe, smaller productions and arts centres as these places breed entrepreneurship and creative confidence.

As creative agencies, we can learn to harness these skills, take the best bits and add them to our creative teams.

So ask yourself – what can you do to keep creativity alive?