Creative Industries Economic Status
Origin 2008; Photo: Dave Ashton, 2008
Crafts Council Response to the DCMS Creative Industries Economic Estimates Statistical Bulletin
DCMS Economic Estimates under-represent Crafts Sector Growth:
Crafts Council Response to the DCMS Creative Industries Economic Estimates Statistical Bulletin
The most recent creative industries economic bulletin from the DCMS shows the crafts sector performing strongly, with an 11% growth in employment (1997 – 2006) comparing favourably to just 2% in the visual and performing arts. The report also highlights the discrepancy between the classifications used to define creative sectors, and the nature of those sectors as understood by those working within them. Indeed, a closer look reveals a crafts sector including occupations ranging from florists to building trade labourers, all counted within the analysis.
Crafts Council research published in 2004 presents an analysis conducted over a similar timeframe (1994 – 2004), but using a definition of the contemporary crafts agreed by the sector, and employing methodologies designed to enable a robust analysis of this difficult-to-reach sector.
According to this research, employment growth within the contemporary crafts (in England, Scotland and Wales) can be pegged at almost 50%, from just under 19,000 in 1993 to 35,000 in 2004. In this decade, broadly comparable with that portrayed by the DCMS Bulletin, sector turnover is seen to have doubled in England and Wales alone, from £400m in 1993 to £826m in 2004. Moreover, in 2006, ACE research pointed to a latent 63% growth potential in the UK contemporary craft market, as well as to strong aspirations and opportunities for increased export activity from businesses in the sector.
The true impact made by the contemporary crafts sector on UK employment, turnover and competitiveness is likely to be considerably higher than even these figures suggest. Incorporating the sector’s gallery, retail and trade show infrastructures into the analysis, alongside curatorship and crafts education, would give a more accurate picture of sector impact. However, a full analysis of both this and the impact made by craft professionals working in the wider economy – in fashion and product design, manufacturing, film, television and theatre, teaching and community arts, and leisure and tourism – would need to be made if the sector’s full economic impact and growth potential was to be understood.
1. Crafts Council (2004): Making it in the 21st Century.
2. Arts Council England (2006): Making it to Market.
18 February 2009
