With the East enjoying an unprecedented focus of arts attention, Arts Hub’s Alison Howarth investigates the region, finding, at times, the supporters of creative enterprise outweigh the supportees.
For centuries London has been the undisputed cultural capital and creative epicentre of England. That’s not to deny the achievements and contributions of the wider country of course, but the metropolis has always been where it’s at…arts-wise.
Londoners attend more arts events than people in other regions, racking up 22 million visits to performances of music, theatre and dance each year. With an estimated 500,000 people currently employed in the arts, it represents London’s third largest employment sector and is expected to be the fastest-growing sector as London’s economy expands up to 2016.
The advent of lottery funding coupled with the government’s high profile advocacy of cultural policies has led to a very buoyant period in arts funding and there is a proliferation of publicly funded agencies and consultants vying to provide all manner of ‘support’ for creative industries throughout the UK.
One of the principal focal points for much of this funding and support has been, and will continue to be, London’s East End and the so-called Thames Gateway London region, (TGL). In July of 2004, Arts Hub reported on the role that the creative industries were going to play in this exciting and controversial regeneration project by examining the government’s policy of Culture at the Heart of Regeneration.
The creative industries are expected to account for a major portion of the projected economic growth. In addition it is anticipated that they will be employing large numbers of local people and producing artistic products that are sufficiently exciting and vibrant as to make the region an attractive place for the non-arty, dynamic, high earning types to live. It’s a tall order for a region that presently has a lower than average, (for London) density of creative sector businesses. So what is the current state of play for creative organisations in East London and what is being done to ensure that the region and its populace meet the government’s expectations of them over the next decade?
Alan Freeman of GLA Economics has estimated that there are at the moment about 48,700 creative sector jobs in TGL. Some of the successful and established organisations in the region include the world famous Theatre Royal, Stratford East – famous not only for its theatre works but for its multi cultural, working class audience, Artsadmin – now housed in the Toynbee Studios and this year celebrating 20 years of supporting artists as producer, administrator, facilitator and promoter and the Laban dance centre – with its new RIBA award-winning building is a centre of dance excellence boasting Matthew Bourne among its alumni. Of no less importance to the cultural future of the region is the Millennium Dome at Greenwich where work is about to commence on the construction of a 20,000 capacity arena for sports and entertainment within, due to open in 2007 and already a key attribute in London’s Olympic bid.
Research data shows that there are very few ‘corporate’ creative sector businesses of the type and size that would employ large numbers. There are instead ‘clusters’ of micro businesses, employing up to 10 people in Tower Hamlets and Hackney, Lewisham, Greenwich, and Newham, particularly Stratford. In ‘The Competitive Advantage of Nations’ Michael Porter defines a business cluster as: “…geographic concentrations of interconnected companies, specialised suppliers, service providers, firms in related industries, and associated institutions (for example, universities, standards agencies, and trade associations) in particular fields that compete but also co-operate.” (www.creativeclusters.com)
These clusters are also reflected in the London Development Agency’s (LDA) establishment of Creative Hubs of which there are 4 in the TGL region: The Deptford/West Greenwich hub and the City Fringe hub both of which are building on already well established achievements. Also in Stratford and the Lower Lea, building upon the achievements of the Stratford Circus partnership and the cluster of film industries at Three Mills and finally the Malthouse in Barking town centre and the adjacent Broadway Theatre. Together they will act as centres for business development and support, skills development and growth:
” …they provide a space for work, participation and consumption. This includes the help to nurture emerging talent and to link it to broader networks, a first-stop for businesses support and access to finance, and promotion of local talent and local businesses…”. (TGCSP Legacy Report)
The LDA has been explicit in its desire to see the hubs remove layers of bureaucracy, maximise resources at a local level and build strong local partnerships and they will undoubtedly be a vital component of the creative sector economy of the TGL region.
“In an area dominated by self employment and small companies, support structures for small businesses and to nurture new talent need to be established.” (London Cultural Capital-highlights of the Mayor’s cultural strategy)
At the moment it’s hard to know how these micro businesses are faring in this apparent climate of support. SkIN – Skills Intelligence Network in East London – has been conducting research with East London creative practitioners, in order to ascertain how they perceive their own creative and business development. A research summary is apparently available on request from their website but mine hasn’t yet been forthcoming; one tiny and tantalizing morsel of a result from this research is: “80% of creative businesses would rather have access to informal business support including networking and one-to-one “dates” with experts, only 20% want formal business support.” (SkIN). I wish I could comment further.
One of the recurring concerns of both support agencies and creative practitioners is the perceived disconnected and sprawling nature of the creative sector and hence the need to promote cooperation and communication. In my own (very) informal poll of creatives in East London, one respondent expressed his confusion about the differentiation of ‘Thames Gateway’ and ‘East End’ and was worried that funding would not filter through to those who really needed it in order to reach their potential.
Clearly, the support agencies not only have to provide the actual support but ensure that everyone knows it is available. Addressing these concerns was the Thames Gateway Creative Skills Partnership (TGCSP), a project that ran from November 2003 until the end of December 2004 and was funded through ESF (European Social Fund). It had a broad and not always successful remit, but principally was successful in fostering useful partnerships between key players in the sector and delivering support to new and existing creative sector businesses. It was able to award grants and facilitate training and together with organisations like CIDA (Creative Industries Development Agency), TGCSP has enabled many creative businesses in the region to improve their skills, increase their success and to share their knowledge and information.
TGCSP also worked hard with education and training providers in identifying the creative industry’s future skills needs. Strong provision is developing, notably the NewVic COVE and centre for performing arts training at Stratford Circus, and its NESTA funded programme that provides progression into Higher Education; Greenwich Community College’s Crafts Foundation, its music studio programme and the London Leisure College for tourism and the Barking College School of Performing Arts based at the redeveloped Broadway Theatre.
TGSCP established strong partnerships with a number of organisations, not least of which is with CIDA who’s Creative Links expo:04 that was reported last year by ArtsHub, attracted about 1000 small creative businesses in TGL.
CIDA is one of the major players in providing free of charge or discounted services to the numerous small creative businesses. They have a wide remit ranging from advocacy issues; supporting policy and planning to business consultancy and ensuring accessibility to and promotion of the arts. They support new start up companies as well as the more established and often prioritise ethnic and minority communities. They recently announced the appointment of two new additions to their team of experts. Lucy Kyle will be the new Creative Industries Start Up advisor, delivering specially designed programmes of support, tailored to the needs of the individual company. Andy Townsend is the new Digital Creative Consultant and he will be working with established enterprises in Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham. Andy will help businesses to integrate digital technology and innovation into their work and help them to capitalise on new opportunities provided by digital technology.
At times is feels like there are more support organisations, trade bodies and standards agencies in East London than actual creative enterprises. Everyone involved at a strategic and organisational level is frantically trying to provide business training to up and coming companies and whipping the local populace into shape with education and training so that they are ready to supply the employer demand adequately when the time comes.
Can you really force creative excellence and success through regeneration policy? Time will tell. The funding is available and it’s being widely distributed, and whether the East End and Thames Gateway region becomes an artistic hothouse over the next decade remains to be seen. What seems certain is that the locals will be the most business savvy, well-trained individuals in the South East.
For sources, references and further information please see:
Thames Gateway Creative Skills Partnership www.tgcsp.org.uk
Creative Industries Development Agency www.cida.co.uk
Skill Intelligence Network www.londonskin.com
Creative Clusters www.creativeclusters.com
London Development Agency www.london.gov.uk
