Creative skills mate
Scotland has a reputation for nurturing new talent but some space to showcase it is necessary and will harness the many artistic as qualities on hand, says Sarah Price
Alongside scientific research and technical engineering, the creative industries will play an increasingly significant role in developing Scotland’s reputation for nurturing an innovative nation with new ideas to offer a global economy.
Creativity and innovation drive productivity and productivity drives the economy.
For Scotland to flourish we need to provide the conditions for creatives to research and develop their skills, to produce creative outputs, to build connectivity with their markets and create sustainable creative ventures.
One hundred years ago Scotland was the beating heart of an industrial powerhouse. The billowing smoke rising from chimney stacks was a sign of the health of the economy if not of the workforce. Much has changed in that time and where manufacturing was the marker of a country’s economy it is now the creative industries that can boast significant growth.
As CEO of Edinburgh Printmakers I see first hand the industry and ingenuity of the artistic community. However I’ve also seen how small scale creative start-ups can flounder and fail for reasons that could have been avoided with support, such as subsidised spaces to work from, business development mentoring or marketing support.
The mark of a successful creative business is a mix of creative talent and skills acquisition, business acumen and access to facilities and resources, alongside a peer or sector specific support network.
The industrial factories of our past are being transformed by grassroots creative-led initiatives, full of makers, designers, digital creators and artists, the micro-entrepreneurs that can collaborate, innovate and grow together.
Cultural centres are becoming booming business hubs. It feels like Scotland’s legacy for innovation, a reputation for creative excellence and global outlook ideally positions us as a creative industries powerhouse. With those success factors in place the missing link remains the spaces to harness all of these qualities.
In 2019 Edinburgh Printmakers Centre of Excellence will open its doors as one of these spaces. We’re on the final fundraising push to complete an £11 million project that will not only transform a semi-derelict former rubber works factory and help re-invigorate the post industrial landscape of Fountainbridge but will physically represent the future of creative industries in Scotland.
Just as the 18th-century industrial pioneers relied on governmentinvestmentin infrastructure to create seismic shifts in the economic model of the day, the Scottish Government, Heritage Lottery and Creative Scotland investment into Castle Mill Works is paving the way for creative industries to be a major keystone in the economy of our future.
But funds fall short to complete this ambitious vision by £1m. The question remains for those with capacity to bring about change. Who will step up?” ● Sarah Price is CEO of Edinburgh Printmakers.