Creative Ecologies Category
What is Creative Ecologies?
by Juliet Lennox
The Creative Ecologies Pathfinder is a programme of research and experimentation for Bristol+Bath Creative R+D. Across 2021 and 2022, we’ll be exploring creativity as a networked, connected practice, not something that happens in isolation in studios, offices, or labs, we'll be doing this through three main routes: Hopeful Futures Network, Trailblazer Fund and New Scholars.
During this pathfinder, we’ll be working with experts from across our region and the world to explore how we can make these networks more resilient, dynamic and inclusive, ensuring they are future-proofed to withstand systematic shocks, and can respond to the pressing emergencies of our time.
What can we learn from how creative economies are designed in other parts of the world?
Together, we’ll be exploring a range of questions: what can we learn from how creative economies are designed in other parts of the world? How can the models we use to build our businesses or the way we run our cities be developed to make them more sustainable, inclusive, and progressive? How can we ensure that people - not technology - are put at the heart of a better future?
How can the models we use to build our businesses or the way we run our cities be developed to make them more sustainable, inclusive, and progressive?
We believe that thinking ecologically about creativity is a key to answering these questions. This involves understanding all the different parts that make creative work possible. These include the companies, people, institutions, places, resources, communications infrastructures, producers, audiences and stakeholders that allow things to happen, as well as the ideas, knowledges, cultures, and languages that are part of that network.
How can we ensure that people - not technology - are put at the heart of a better future?
Our creative ecology spreads far beyond industrial sectors and fixed geographies, to encompass whole communities that stretch all over the world. We want to explore how to make this ecology healthy, equitable, and strong, and show how creative and cultural value is everywhere, and vital to our futures.