CREATIVE ECONOMY RESILIENCE

Andrea Dempster-Chung | Remarks at Honey Bun Foundation "Critical Conversations" Livestream Webinar Thursday 26/3/2020

At Kingston Creative, we are very focused on the continuity of the Creative Economy and creative people. The Creative Economy (also called the Orange Economy or Creative and Cultural Industries) as defined by the UNCTAD includes:

• Arts –Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Culinary Arts - painting, sculpture, photography dance, music & theatre
• Media – Books, Film, TV, Radio, Podcasts, Software, Gaming, any digitised creative content
• Heritage – Museums, exhibitions, cultural sites, Festivals, crafts, heritage celebrations
• Functional creations - architecture, interior design, graphic design, jewellery, fashion

So you can see that many of the micro, small & medium enterprises in the Jamaican economy fall under the umbrella of the creative economy. The creative sector is economically and socially significant to Jamaica.

Economically, the film sector alone earned $2.3 billion for Jamaica and created 2,677 jobs in 2019. Across the entire creative economy, the impact is much greater. We are just starting to get the numbers on total earnings and jobs (thank you MICAF and JBDC). We haven't started tracked the new investment the arts is attracting to urban areas like Downtown Kingston; and we haven’t measured the value of those high-end cultural tourists who spend more, stay longer and come back again.

The creative sector in Jamaica is also socially significant, not just locally but on a global scale. This sector is the epicentre for intangible and tangible cultural heritage, things like art and music and dance ...things like Reggae, which have an international reach. So we need to ensure that both during and after this crisis has passed that the sector is vibrant and that the artists are protected.

What’s happening is simple... Supply & Demand

People need culture. The demand for Netflix, music and all forms of games and entertainment has spiked. Last weekend a DJ played for 9 hours from his living room on Instagram Live to over 150,000 people that included Michelle Obama, Oprah, Joe Biden, and an assortment of Hollywood stars who came to enjoy the virtual experience of #ClubQuarantine. Because the supply is lower, the demand is higher. This augurs well for creatives.

The Jamaican Creative Economy is particularly vulnerable to Pandemic

In the immediate term as a direct result of the virus, artists may get ill. Since a lot of these businesses are usually "solopreneur" operations and not a company with 1000 employees and some degree of redundancy, it means that some creative enterprises will cease operations, temporarily. 

Also in the immediate term, this sector is used to making its money by selling in stores, at markets or performing face-to-face to large audiences, so it follows that musicians, event planners, festival organisers and other artists would be hardest hit financially by the cancellation of events and this new era of social distancing.

Post crisis, will there be a lingering reluctance, especially among older audiences, to attend large events? Will there be an expectation from younger audiences of more social media interactivity than artists were used to delivering before? Non-essential international travel may slow down, how will this impact the outlook for cultural tourism and festivals which are such a large part of our economy?

There is no going back to normal, this will be a lasting shift. We need to innovate and find our "new normal" for the creative sector.

So Let’s Talk Resilience in the Creative Sector– what does it look like?

Globally, governments have been coming out in strong support of artists. Germany just rolled out a 50 billion euro (US$54 billion) aid package for artists and cultural businesses with their culture minister Monika Grutters making a powerful statement that “Artists are not only indispensable but vital, especially at this time”.

Arts Council England has launched a ￡190 Million Emergency Relief Package for Creative Organizations and Artists. The package includes a ￡20 million specifically for individual artists and freelancers, an often overlooked group.

The National Endowment for the Arts in the USA is listing all the arts service organizations which are providing resources for artists and arts organizations - and there are many.

Locally, surveys indicate that about 35% of creatives may need emergency relief. It seems that there needs to be a government response that supports creative entrepreneurs in particular, not just lumping them under the banner of SME’s. Creativity is Jamaica's brand and in a time of crisis, the artists need to be recognized for the value that they have brought and will continue to bring to the nation.

Creatives have a responsibility to become more resilient and to innovate.

There are some real opportunities (as they say... never let a good crisis go to waste) to rethink the way that we do business in the creative economy.

1)   Register – Find your union and very importantly, register with the Ministry Registry of Creatives to be eligible for waivers and support that may come down the line.

2)   Formalise – Formalise your business and make it a legally registered entity, so that you can be eligible for the support. Copyright your intellectual property (contact JIPO about how to do this).

3)   Join your Industry Network – You don’t want to be out there operating on your own at this time, collective action is important. Join your industry association, for film - JAFTA, for music -JARIA, sign up for the Kingston Creative database etc). Pay the dues and /or join their social media networks. Arts organisations and industry groups can help by advocating for their members and disseminating key information.

4)   Identify your Curators – Taste-makers select and promote the “best of” and with their large networks and they drive sales. Look for the influencers, curators or "messengers" in your sector, the magazines, the bloggers, the groups that function like Goodreads does for books. Right now, keeping artists visible, prominent and easily accessible in the digital space is key and that is best done by linking with entities that have large audiences that trust them.

5)   Get in the Training Hours– Look for online training in social media, digital marketing, e-commerce. Locally, look specifically at the iCreate Institute as they are offering free courses right now. Also look at self-improvement and personal development courses, 450 Ivy League schools have opened up and are offering free online courses (CNBC).

6)   Launch Online Sales and Delivery Options - For creatives that have tangible products like paintings, crafts, jewelery or clothing, online sales are key. All artisans should be thinking of advertising their products for sale online and moving quickly to e-commerce. Check out eBay, Amazon, Shopify or local e-commerce platforms like Coolmarket.com and HBJamaica.com. You can start preparing for e-commerce by photographing your goods on a clean uncluttered background in good light and working out your "delivery included" price. Even without an e-commerce store, you can start by using your Facebook or Instagram account to advertise your products and pricing, share your contact number or email, and then use a bearer to deliver orders that you receive. Where delivery was once a convenience, now it is a necessity.

7)   Offer Virtual Events - Kingston Creative is hosting a Virtual Artwalk on Sunday, March 29th at 11 am on Instagram, with over 27 artist being employed and providing hours of entertainment, Just as they would have been in the in-person Artwalk. Don’t be afraid to try a Livestream. Use free tools like Instagram, Facebook Live, Vimeo, Zoom to deliver engaging live streaming events or pre-recorded workshops, a talk or demonstrations to your audience.  You can invite the private sector to brand your livestream and become sponsors. You can monetise directly from your audience too. The minimum requirement is a smartphone, so any arts practitioner can start live-streaming today. 

Lastly, Always Look for the Upside

Yes, the coronavirus is here, and yes we also face issues of tech inequality, based on age and income disparity that some more developed nations might not. But it is not all doom and gloom; demand is high and that is to our advantage.

Don’t just cancel those events – start telling people how they can find you online, where they can browse your products, how they can become patrons and donate to you and keep you in business, how they can pay online (or directly to your bank account) for products, where they can watch your livestream or call you for delivery.

Creatives should use this time as an opportunity to learn to leverage technology to expand their audience and reach a new customer base across the world. Jamaican creatives should not go back to having the most amazing arts event that only 30 people experience. After the restrictions are eased and we should get used to using technology to share our cultural events and take them "to di werl"!