Developing sustainable urban creative clusters

BUILDING CREATIVE PARTNERSHIPS

Oli MouldtaCity.co.uk@olimould

Cities breed collaboration…

Cit ies

Creative Industries

Clusters

Cardiff

Future Growth?

Shanghai from the air

“Economic development is a process of continually improvising in a context that makes injecting improvisations

into everyday life feasible… Cities provide not only new problems to be solved, but also the best environment to solve

them” (J. Jacobs)

The Creative Industries thrive when innovation, creativity and inspiration are allowed to flourish

Cities facilitate:CollaborationInspirationExchange of tacit knowledge or ‘buzz’

Cit ies

Creative Industries

Clusters

Cardiff

Future Growth?

In 1998, the creative industries consisted of 13 sub-sectors

In 2011, ‘siloization’ of creative industry activity

is unsustainable

Cross-pollination and inter-disciplinary

practice is commonplace

Cit ies

Creative Industries

Clusters

Cardiff

Future Growth?

Cities + Creative Industry activity (± political intervention) = clusters

‘Creative clusters’ can either be organic or

planned

Cit ies

Creative Industries

Clusters

Cardiff

Future Growth?

Cit ies

Creative Industries

Clusters

Cardiff

Future Growth?

Creative Industry growth is often serendipitous and evolves from unconventional (and illicit) collaborations

Cit ies

Creative Industries

Clusters

Cardiff

Future Growth?

NESTA report last year looked at Cardiff’s TV and Digital Media cluster…

TV firms protective over IP issues

Informal networking low in TV, high in Digital Media

Collaborative Digital Media industry facilitates flow of information

Cit ies

Creative Industries

Clusters

Cardiff

Future Growth?

Academic reports (Clifton, 2007) suggest that Cardiff has a high LQ in the UK, thereby ideally placed to attract ‘The Creative Class’

However, important to stress unique and distinctive

urbanity, avoid the ‘generica’ creative

development

Cit ies

Creative Industries

Clusters

Cardiff

Future Growth?

What can be done to encourage further growth?

Institutional Inertia is crucial – diffi cult to start from scratch

Encourage inter-disciplinary links with (free) events with broad remit

Connections with Higher Education crucial to future creativity/development

Allow for failure

Cit ies

Creative Industries

Clusters

Cardiff

Future Growth?

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better”

Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho (1983)