At the beginning of November, we were invited to speak at the b.creative conference in Namur, Belgium. The conference saw participants from over 50 different countries come together to celebrate innovation and entrepreneurship in the cultural and creative industries.
This event was used to launch Creative Tracks; a new online platform aimed at promoting young creatives worldwide to encourage cross-cultural collaborations and foster their professional development.
Over 2 days we heard from influencers, artists, entrepreneurs and cultural managers who shared their views on important topics such as policy making, funding, cross-collaboration and the interdisciplinary nature of the creative sector.
Jepchumba from African Digital Art emphasized that the role of creative entrepreneurs is extremely powerful in society, and that creatives need to take ownership of this space. This was reiterated by Marko Radenković from Nova Iskra who challenged creatives to question current systems, to add value and contribute to the building of new ones.
Our Programme Manager, Genevieve Pace contributed to a panel on access to finance for creatives, and spoke about how we need to empower creatives by supporting them to understand what types of finance opportunities are available to them and make financial terminology accessible to them.
Do all artists and creatives need to be entrepreneurs? Can we make art financially sustainable without funding?
These were some questions that cropped up more than once. Through discussions, workshops and speed networking sessions we got to exchange experiences, ideas and insights on creative entrepreneurship in the current climate and focused on how creativity generates socio-economic development.
Creative Tracks are organising more events throughout 2017- sign up to the platform for updates.