Research Workshops
We worked with over 75 creatives across workshops, interviews, collaborative conversations, and awarding grants, to collectively identify ways to overcome barriers facing the sector in changing the way we work for a fairer creative economy.
Our participants worked across multiple creative forms, including community arts, publishing, music, marketing, writing, heritage, creative technology and more. They had diverse organisational models from freelance and sole traders, to social enterprises, co-operatives and micro businesses.
The backbone of our work was 7 research workshops.
Workshop 1: Creative Rivers
Explored how values and life circumstances informed career decisions and how wider systems acted to support or create barriers.
Workshop 2: Values-led work
Explored values that motivate work, alignment with funders, work-life balance, care and burn-out.
Workshop 3: Invisible Labour
Introduced Gibson-Graham’s Iceberg economy. Mapped invisible, unpaid and emotional labour in the creative sector.
Workshop 4: Creatives of the Global Majority
Invited creatives of the global majority to explore their career trajectories and what it means to be value-led. Many joined subsequent workshops.
Workshop 5: Creative Futures
Imagined what a fair creative economy in the future might look like. Explored narratives and ‘key moments’ that could get us there.
Workshop 6: Metrics
Assessed the current civic metrics from a culture sector perspective and developed ‘alternative’ ones to support a thriving, equal and sustainable city region.
Workshop 7: Cultural Plan
Creatively designed an alternative cultural plan from the bottom up. Developed themes from previous workshops and generated new ones.