Look what we were making at the Lincolnshire Technology Hub launch in Mablethorpe on Tuesday #mabohub.
Here’s a roundup of things that have caught my eye of the past few weeks:
#musesocial: What’s the point of social media for museums? Held on April 23, 2013, this is the roundup of a museum technology community chat in the States to discuss connecting their social media efforts to broader strategies and goals. The chat was hosted by @danamuses, @sluggernova with help from @erinblasco. Some great insights and anecdotes on social media usage for cultural instutitions.
Not unrelated to this, here’s some stats on digital engagement with museums this side of the pond, and check out Ideas for Museums, a project about the history of museum computerization, collecting interviews with museum professionals who were/are working on implementing digital technologies in everyday museum practice.
European arts funding: why don’t more UK cultural organisations apply? Yvette Vaughan Jones, Chief executive of @VisitingArts makes some really pertinent points on why we don’t go for more applications and challenges some of the preconceptions versus the reality of going for EU funding (partnering, R&D, applications, bureaucracy). Given the political chat regarding the future of EU membership over the past few weeks, I think this piece is a stark reminder of the important role that EU funding has played in the UK’s creative economy.
artsmart. Held in London from Monday 17th June until Friday 5th July 2013, this three week long summer festival of events and activities for students and graduates from UAL looks cool and has some good speakers. It invites you “to get smart and make it happen in the creative industries.” Follow on twitter.
Birmingham Made Me: held in June, run by Idea Birmingham, Birmingham’s two-week design expo is crammed full of content – names, brands, ideas and hot stuff that’s worth going to see – go explore!
Grants for the Arts changes: the Arts Council are making changes to the G4A programme. This is the roundup!
Trade in creative products reached new peak in 2011. The UNCTAD Global Database on the Creative Economy demonstrates the growth in creative goods and services between 2002-2011, this is despite a dip in 2008 as a result global economic downturn in 2008. Now it appears that the global creative economy is on the rise again year on year.
And as a bit of humour and maybe a few home truths ….
Artspeak. Filling the space between fact and fiction (!), this amusing piece in the Guardian rounds up some of the bizarre examples of art lingo … what to say and what to say. Some home truths for many of us working in the arts 
.
If you like artspeak, be sure to check out artybollocks and 500 letters!
It has been a very busy time for bloggers, commentators and experts across the Creative Industries over the past few weeks. In fact, it has been a fascinating time to see some of the industry’s most considered voices fly the flag for what the Creative Industries actually ‘are’!
No sooner had ‘that’ speech from Maria Miller leaked that it provoked a lot of passionate and insightful follow up (handily rounded up by BOP here) that the DCMS definition of the Creative Industries is open to change.
…. And the definition may no longer include Crafts!
The DCMS started a consultation paper, unexcitingly (but still importantly) called Classifying and Measuring the Creative Industries.
The paper states: “We recognise that high-end craft occupations contain a creative element, but the view is that in the main, these roles are more concerned with the manufacturing process, rather than the creative process,” says the paper.
Arts and antiques will also be dropped from the list of recognised creative industries, while other categories will be merged into “broad creative industry groups”.
The report also goes onto acknowledge the increasingly important role of IT, software and digital software.
Before I go on, it has been announced as a consultation! So, in the spirit of a consultation, the decisions are not yet set in stone! So it means we can have our say … allegedly!
The government is entitled to reflect the developing nature of what the creative industries encompass. For those reasons, I’m not about to the belittle the integration and important role of digital into the definition, that is providing that we are also strictly adhering to the CI definition being about ownership of the IP (etc, etc,).
Yet I think the proposed removal of crafts raises quite fundamental questions about the definition, what it is to be a creative and the nature of IP in all of this? However you describe people working in crafts, whether designer makers and craftspeople, they are creative. I, like many of them, take real issue with the ‘manufacturing’ tag, which simply does not apply to so many makers out there who don’t manufacture or mass produce goods!
In light of Maria Miller’s speech, it is quite easy to arrive at a conclusion that the Crafts definition is not being removed from the CI definition, for anything other than re-aligning of the definition to justify the Creative Industries in terms of GVA and other financial measurements!
Indeed, the redefinition is focussed upon measuring the contribution to the economy of creative industries (e.g. employment, occupations, skills and of course GVA). Which ones do you think apply to the proposed removal of crafts?
The Creative Industries has always been a broad church! Some sub-sectors are more successful than others, and indeed within the crafts, this is very much the case!
Admittedly, many thousands of craftspeople turn over very small amounts of income making data collection difficult (see the Craft Council’s Craft in an Age of Change report). At the same time, I have worked alongside and with a number of phenomenal craftsmakers and designer makers who are amongst the most active, successful and well respected creatives that I know!
So, what would removing Crafts from the CI definition say about the 88,000 people in the crafts who contribute to the Creative economy? Like the arts, and to paraphrase Maria Miller, the crafts are being forced to “hammer home its economic value” and as Julia Bennett freely admits, “what doesn’t get counted, doesn’t count!”
It is little wonder that we should all totally support Graham Hitchin’s rallying cry for the high-profile experts (i.e. who have measured the Creative Industries and get it!) to get round the table and have a serious dialogue!
As a final passing comment, as many questions are being asked about how this definition works, we need to consider that many of us operative in portfolio careers, and thus we fit across multiple sectors, and not just sub-sectors within the arts and creative industries! Our broad creative (and in turn economic) impact extends far beyond the measures that DCMS uses. Check out, in particular, to Clare Hodgson‘s excellent piece on flexible working as a starter for 10.
Additional Links
Here’s a quick round up of some of the things that have taken my eye over the past week or so:
Next Generation Skills Birmingham Reworked Storify roundup: courtesy of Michael de Groot, this is the storify roundup of the event held in Birmingham on Monday 22nd April, with some great insights on how the city can best work alongside young people for their futures.
NESTA’s Manifesto for the Creative Economy: hot off the press this week, NESTA have launched a manifesto containing ten ideas to “bolster one of the UK’s fastest growing sectors”. Priorities include ensuring a truly open internet, enabling young people to learn creative digital skills as a priority of education and a focus on incentivising business ideas and innovation (tax reliefs, easier procurement processes).
Culturehive: as part of the Arts Council’s Audience Focus programme, and managed by the AMA, this free resource was launched last Tuesday and is an open platform to share knowledge and practice in cultural marketing. This is a brilliant initiative but will rely on people and organisations to get into the habit of sharing which I hope they do and married up with strong social media output, I think it could be a great resource.
Eventifier: for all you events people – this is a cool means of archiving all your event photos, videos, slides, tweets, conversations and much more from the entire Web.
Crowdgifting: an introductory piece by Help Me Project, if you want to buy a present for someone, well here’s a means collectively buy a present for someone by inviting people—usually friends—to make small donations online.
Social Reading is catching on as Dave Briggs demonstrates through three apps, Readmill, Subtext and Copia. Using the web to share, read together, comment, review, learn. From a book club to a business, or a school class to a lecture theatre, this could really catch on in my different contexts.
Hackschooling: Amy Martin‘s blog piece introduces Logan LaPlante, a 13 year-old who spoke at a TEDxUniversityofNevada event. Hackschooling Makes Me Happy’. As Amy says, hackschooling is ”about the autonomy of the young person to guide their own study and fill in the gaps for themselves.” This is reflective of a project I lead called A Colourful Crowd where young people take charge at New Art Gallery Walsall develop events, trips, workshops for young people and in turn develop life and professional skills.
There was plenty of excellent tech on display at the Making Revolution event in Boston last Thursday including this 3D Printer, the Makerbot Replicator 2, which was flown in from Portugal just for the event, courtesy of Robosavvy.
It was great to have this in action along with 3D scanners, the latest 3D television (no goggles required) with the ability to show 4k images, laser cutters and much more besides.
The event was a huge success and many of the businesses left feeling inspired and informed about the kinds of tech which will become more commonplace over the next few years.
It’s up on youtube … enjoy!
Chief Action Man and Coffee Drinker @ Creative Knowledge, flying flag for @indieloveuk. Founder of @coffeebrum, associate @kindofdigital, a serial digital node, chocolate eater, coffee drinker, Yelper, fan of gadgets pushing buttons, blogger at timmy666.com, geek par excellence, film nerd, active musician and all round drumming dude for @ubsmetal.
