Response to Creative Industries Sector Deal
Following the publication of the Government’s creative industries sector deal, the Association for Art History is pleased to see a restating of the commitment within the Industrial Strategy White Paper to making the most of the UK’s strengths.
We welcome the acknowledgement that the arts, and visual and material culture, are undoubted strengths of the country’s economy, and like many other subject associations and membership bodies we see the deal as an important first step in ensuring the future vitality and resilience of the creative and cultural industries.
We particularly welcome the commitment to supporting a strong and sustainable talent pipeline, and will work with colleagues from across the arts and humanities to advocate that cultural education forms an essential part of that commitment. As an organisation we remain committed to the principles of inspiring new thinking and advancing research; we see the ideas that develop through a rounded and challenging arts and humanities education as key drivers for the innovation and growth of the creative and cultural industries in this country.
The announcement of a new creative careers programme and national advertising campaign should provide a welcome new opportunity for our sector to highlight the value of our increasingly expanding field. This complements our own work with Higher Education Institutions and cultural and education partners across the UK to develop the next generation of creative and critical thinkers, and to reach out to new and more diverse constituencies; as was made explicit in the February issue of Art History, our flagship journal, ‘if we are to continue to broaden the appeal of our discipline, and to encourage greater representation for its potential future audiences, then there remains a lot more work to be done.’
About the Creative Industries Sector Deal
The Sector Deal will invest more than £150 million across the lifecycle of creative businesses, including:
Places of the future – by funding leading creative clusters to compete globally
Technologies and content of the future – via research into augmented reality and virtual reality
Creative skills of the future – via a careers programme that will open up creative jobs to people of every background