The Paint Factory Placebook - Report - Page 38
THE PAINT FACTORY, 115 HYDE ROAD, YERONGA
3.2
Making Brisbane more
culturally productive
IMPACT OF CULTURAL AND CREATIVE
INDUSTRIES IN AUSTRALIA
Analysis from the Bureau of Communications, Arts and
Regional Research (BCARR) shows cultural and creative
activities continue to boost the Australian economy.
The analysis shows cultural and creative activities contributed
$122.3 billion to our national economy in 2019–20.
This represents an increase of $26.0 billion (27.1 per cent)
over the last 10 years.
Cultural and creative activity,
2010–11 and 2019–20 ($Billion)
Lacking Grecian ruins or Louvre-level museums,
contemporary, bold and progressive places like Brisbane
compete best when they combine uniquely characterful
settings with smart, fresh strategies, policies and programs
that support the creation, not just the consumption, of culture.
In 2018 QUT’s Digital Media Research Centre reported that
recent overviews of cultural and creative activity showed
creative employment in Australia was growing at nearly twice
the rate of the Australian workforce. In terms of Queensland,
62 per cent of all Queensland creative industry workers are
employed in Brisbane.
Key trends in developing creative city-regions:
140
Deliberately selecting a handful of key districts to build
cultural clusters with the scale to anchor a larger population,
accommodate new economic activities, or to underpin a
wider spatial strategy supported by new connectivity.
120
100
80
Recognition that cultural investment is a means to achieve
densification and scale in locations where other positive
factors are present such as transport and public space.
Increased integration can be achieved in places that
blend culture and public space.
60
40
20
0
2010-11
2019-20
Source: ABS Australian System of National Accounts, Australian
National Accounts: Input-Output Tables; BCARR calculations
GROWING DEMAND IN BRISBANE
As cities get bigger their capacity to increase productivity
and deliver welfare also increases. Economists call this
phenomenon ‘agglomeration’ economies. Cities are most
productive when they not only consume culture but also
create it. Considering many activities in the cultural sphere
depend on audiences, the larger a city is, the more specialised
its venues can be.
As Brisbane grows, the audience for creative goods, services
and places will grow in tandem. Meeting the demands of these
audiences requires growth on the other side of the equation
too, specifically in terms of numbers of creative professionals,
workplaces and precincts, training venues, performance venues,
soft and hard infrastructure and more. Ultimately, creative
workers in Brisbane need places to train, collaborate, produce
and perform while creative consumers need places to
experience, patronise, purchase from and learn from.
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Identifying that the Innovation Economy is often fostered in
inner city cultural districts. This means city-regions need to
manage the life cycle of change in such districts and blend
of uses. This requires strategies both to manage change and
densification in such locations and to seek additional space
for the displaced or growing activities.
Some common ingredients of success:
Production as well as consumption elements
Housing and other uses integrated
with creative precincts
Attention given to place performance
as well as building performance
High quality programming of festivals,
events and pop-ups to generate momentum,
foot traffic and place attachment
Involvement of a leading cultural business,
training or education provider
Complementary daytime and evening uses