Creativity Means Business
Creative workers, creative enterprises and creative communities are, collectively, big business in North Carolina. We’ve always known this, but today, Department of Cultural Resources Secretary Linda A. Carlisle unveiled the findings of new research which shows that the Creative Industry in North Carolina accounts for nearly 300,000 jobs, just over 5.5 percent of the state’s workforce, with a market value of $41.4 billion.
You can learn more about this research, read an overview and meet some of the workers that prove these findings on a daily basis by visiting our new creative economy site, www.ncarts.org/creative_economy. There you’ll find other creative economy and N.C. arts research as well as profiles and videos of some of the people behind the state’s creative workforce.
You can also watch our introductory video below. We’d love to hear how the arts are impacting you.
I applaud the “Creativity Means Business” report, and the beginning of the state’s efforts to recognize and encourage our creative workers and businesses. I find it interesting how conservative the report is; the creative economy could easily be expanded to include other kinds of work that are based on the creation of things – products, processes, services – that are new and valuable.
Peter Drucker said that temporary monopoly is the engine of innovation under capitalism, and there is no innovation without creativity.
I’m looking forward to what’s next – to how we apply creativity to this creative initiative.