As we approach the end of our first full year as a twin-hub centre, led by Newcastle University, with a Policy Unit at RSA House in London, it’s a good moment to take stock of the highlights from the last year. The Creative PEC is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and exists to provide robust data and policy advice to support growth in the UK’s creative industries.
A message from Hasan
“New Labour in 1997 introduced the concept of the Creative Industries to national policymakers in the UK. Almost three decades on, we’re back with a Labour government and the Creative Industries are no longer the new kids on the block. With State of the Nations published this year in each of our priority areas for regular reporting (Internationalisation; R&D, Innovation and Clusters; Creative Education, Skills & Talent, and the Arts, Culture and Heritage Sectors), and a raft of exciting in-house and commissioned research papers in the pipeline, we’re laying the foundations for the Sector Plan that will underpin the future Industrial Strategy for the UK’s Creative Industries.”
Professor Hasan Bakhshi, Director, Creative PEC
Policy Highlights
• Professor Hasan Bakhshi, Creative PEC Director, joined a new Government taskforce co-chaired by Baroness Shriti Vadera and Sir Peter Bazalgette. It will work towards the development of an ambitious and targeted Creative Industries Sector Plan, helping to provide growth as part of the Government’s Plan for Change.
• Our Head of Policy, Bernard Hay, kicked off 2024 by setting out how our embedded policy centre makes sure our research links directly into live policy issues. Read all about it in January’s Arts Professional.
• Putting evidence into action, we published four policy briefings on trade, the potential for a northern creative corridor, arts, culture and heritage workforces and foreign direct investment.
• Our policy unit contributed evidence to major consultations including the Curriculum Review, the Industrial Strategy Green Paper, the Spending Review and the Scaling up AI and creative tech inquiry.
• Local authorities across England and Wales are now able to access granular detail on the arts, culture and heritage workforce in their areas thanks to two interactive dashboards we launched alongside our Arts, Culture and Heritage State of the Nations report.
• Creative PEC research was highlighted in Labour’s Plan for the Creative Industries which noted the importance of cluster activity.
• Together with RSA and Arts Council England we launched a report on Creative Corridors exploring the potential to connect neighbouring creative clusters so they can benefit from scale economies that a supercluster like London enjoys. The report was launched at The Lowry in Salford, with regional mayors Tracy Brabin and Andy Burnham in attendance. Read more in The Guardian.
• We continued to deliver on the commitments set out in the previous UK Government’s Sector Vision for the Creative Industries including partnering with DCMS on a review of specialist creative education conducted by Ipsos Mori – look out for the report in 2025. We’re now working directly with DCMS and the Creative Industries Council on a skills audit for the sector. The invitation to tender for this business survey is open until 13 January.
• The Government set out its Industrial Strategy Green Paper citing Creative PEC’s report ‘UK Trade in a Global Creative Economy’ and the Creative Clusters research. The paper highlighted the creative industries as one of eight priority sectors and our Policy and Research teams provided a comprehensive response to the consultation.
Research Highlights
• We cemented our flagship State of the Nations series by delivering five new reports in 2024 – Creative Education and Arts, Culture and Heritage: Audiences and Workforces featuring in Channel 4 News exclusives. Daniel Thomas, Global Media Editor for the Financial Times joined us for the launch of our latest report on ‘Foreign Direct Investment’ and you can learn more about the report authors’ thoughts in The Conversation.
• A landmark new project by Creative PEC and CoSTAR Foresight Lab, in partnership with the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and supported by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), is set to be the biggest longitudinal survey of its kind; delving into the behaviours, performances, and experiences of technology, within creative businesses. We’re working with Verian to deliver the Creative Business Panel which aims to uncover what really drives growth in the sector and how the government can support it.
• Research into measuring the value of digital culture, with an emphasis on the free-to-access services of Art UK, has been published by Creative PEC’s Professor Hasan Bakhshi and Dr Rodrigo Michel, and Matthew Bezzano of DCMS.
• We launched our Research Fellows Network to facilitate knowledge exchange and consider future pathways for early career researchers working on the creative industries. Over 60 leading creative economy experts from across the globe will provide their valuable insights.
• Missed our new creative economy seminar series? Don’t worry you can binge all the recordings now. Before the Christmas brain rot sets in, save yourself with topics as diverse as digital innovation in museums to the cost of Brexit in the UK’s textile industry.
• Creativity can transcend language barriers and now our landmark ‘State of Creativity’ report does too. Reflecting on ten years of UK creative industries policy, the report has been translated into eight languages and distributed by the British Council to support policymaking internationally.
• The Creative PEC’s senior leadership team spoke at high-profile, international conferences over the year including Professor Hasan Bakhshi at the Creativity World Forum in Bilbao and Professor Giorgio Fazio at the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva on new trade dynamics and realising inclusive trade gains.
Industry
• A collective of more than 50 experienced practitioners will help inform our policy and research priorities as part of our relaunched Industry Champions Network.
• We hosted two Industry Champion roundtables: an introductory session and a conversation on lifelong learning – the challenges and opportunities are summarised here.
• We partnered with British Council on a ten-day study visit to central Asia for our Global Creative Economy Council which brings together researchers, investors and practitioners from five continents.
