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In times of crisis, focus quickly turns to the important things: sufficient supply of material and economic resources, physical safety, societal stability, shelter, health etc. When COVID-19 entered the world, there was a lot of talking about what is systemically relevant. Which sectors keep the world going? What professions are important and needed in times of crisis?
In all these discussions there was little to no mentioning of the creative industries and the included cultural sector. There was a big void and it’s up to us to fill it.
When we look at situations like COVID-19 or the Russian-Ukrainian war in Europe it’s easy to start doubting whether we offer any value in times of crisis. What could we possibly give when people must fight a threatening virus or when the world seems to be on the verge of another great war?
The value and contribution we give in our field of work often come silently. Most of us don’t make headlines or create “wow”-moments. A lot of our impact and contribution unfolds over time and often behind the scenes. It’s easy to slip the public focus. Also, our way and nature of work often doesn’t fit the standard images which are strongly dominated by the glossy pictures of the corporate business world. The seriousness of our work gets questioned.
But we do matter. We matter a great deal and for many reasons.
Table of Contents
What is a crisis?
For a start: Crises can have many forms. The currently most obvious are war and disease. But structural decline, economic crash, suppression, racism, and old wounds from times past (think of colonialism) are also major factors that can lead to a crisis. Crises can be self-inflicted, a third party-responsibility or just very bad luck. Crises can hit individuals and communities. A crisis can threaten people’s lives or make it miserable. It can turn an area or society upside down and leave it suddenly deprived off their economic and social foundations.
A crisis doesn’t always come with a loud “bang” and it doesn’t necessarily have to be life threatening. But there are almost always far-reaching consequences – and that is where the creative industries come in.
4 examples of how the creative industries can make an impact
Further down I will go into why we matter in times of crisis and what I consider to be our most important contributions. But to keep things real I would like to point out a few examples first.
1. Heidelberg Project Detroit, USA
Economic struggles, social upheavals and a huge drug problem almost destroyed the childhood neighborhood of Artist Tyree Guyton in Detroit’s Heidelberg Street.
But Guyton didn’t want to idly stand by and watch the neighborhood go down for good. With the help of his grandfather and neighborhood children, he started cleaning up vacant lots on Heidelberg Street. From the refuse they collected, Guyton transformed the street into a massive art environment. Vacant lots literally became “lots of art” and abandoned houses became “gigantic art sculptures”. All this started in the late 1980s and not everybody understood or appreciated this very special form of political protest and raising awareness.
Since then, The Heidelberg Project, gained international acclaim as a public art installation and as an example for community development, neighborhood revitalization and healing through art. Being the third-most-visited cultural attraction in Detroit it has also become a significant tourism driver.
The Heidelberg Project is a powerful encouragement if you are sitting overwhelmed and discouraged, asking yourself: “What could I alone possibly do?”
The interactive platform URBAN HUB sums it up: “Tyree Guyton’s Heidelberg Project has inspired people to take change into their own hands, particularly in cases where local government action is not available or inadequate.”
Tyree Guyton has created a unique and cool artistic quarter. But most importantly he empowered people to bring new life, perspective, and value to troubled places. He proved to us, that each one of us can take initiative and make a difference.
2. Metrocable Caracas, Venezuela
For many decades, mechanisms in urban development often went somewhat like this: If you have a challenge, you bring in a bulldozer and a load of concrete. From there, things often take a turn for the worse for those who are considered “in the way” of development. All too often these where the poor and troubled areas of a region.
Following this tradition, the city council of Caracas in Venezuela proposed a national highway construction project when it decided to connect the barrio of San Agustin, an isolated and struggling neighborhood shaken by violence and poverty, to the city. The highway would have cut right through the neighborhood and leveled about a third of the people’s homes. Unsurprisingly, this did not go down well with the residents.
A team of architects from Urban Think Tank dared to make a different proposal: A Metrocable that would ride right over the neighborhood, connecting the barrio with the city without doing damage to the settlement. In addition to that, the Metrocable stations were conceived to fulfill a social purpose as community hubs. The idea was to include facilities for community meetings and local supply centers with supermarkets or health offers.
The Caracas Metrocable eventually was constructed between 2007 and 2010. In the end, it didn’t fulfill all planned purposes and it certainly didn’t solve all the problems. But it helped to improve people’s lives, it connected a formerly isolated neighborhood to the city, and it brought a new feeling of awareness. By riding right over San Agustin, the barrio and its people became visible via the Metrocable. As a side effect of that new visibility violence went down significantly.
I like this example because it shows how the creative industries and urban development have moved closer together over the past years. To meet the needs of an ever-rising population in an increasingly complex world, you need to think in new ways and dare to go off the beaten tracks. It takes a new form of urban design.
That’s where we come in. We too must be open to get involved into new fields and challenges. The creative industries aren’t a bundle of detached professions, muddling along in arts, design, or games. The more complex and interwoven our world and society gets the more needed are our competences. We must be willing to leave our creative ivory towers and make our skills available, we must get involved into new fields and offer new perspectives.
3. Resilience Study Fukushima, Japan
By digging into the connection of creative industries and urban/regional development, I’ve come across an interesting project: “The creative reconstruction of Fukushima through a mille-feuille approach.”
More than ten years after the nuclear catastrophe of Fukushima the region is still rebuilding itself. In its own words, the project (which is partnered by several scientific institutes) seeks to “cultivate human resources who can contribute to the creative reconstruction of Fukushima from the four perspectives of ‘creation of new industries,’ ‘information transmission,’ ‘regional revitalization,’ and ‘sustainable educational foundation.’”
What strikes me in the project details is wording “creative” and “mille-feuille approach”.
Creative means to involve the use of skill and the imagination to produce something new. Mille-feuille literally means “a thousand layers”. It’s also the name of an extremely yummy French pastry where layers of cream and puff pastry are stacked onto each other.
If we put these terms together, a creative mille-feuille approach would mean, using many different people and skills on different levels to develop new ways of thinking and revitalizing the region of Fukushima. The project description says indeed: “We define ‘mille-feuille human resources’ as those who have acquired multilayered knowledge and skills.”
In the project, people join forces in culture, education, and science. They host art and science workshops, science classes, public lectures, and field studies. Local government and companies get involved. The project also aims to contribute to the development of tourism resources, and digital contents.
So, what do we take out of this?
To me, the Fukushima Resilience Study shows: Creativity and the creative industries play an important part in dealing with a crisis not only because of what they do, but because of how they do it. This post-catastrophe revitalization project adopts the modus operandi that is the very nature of the creative industries. It shows that our work, our approaches, and our principles of operation not only help to produce something new, but they also build resilience. When striving for a sustainable and stable future worldwide, this might be one of the most important things to do.
4. Creative industries in times of war, Ukraine
I put this example at the end because I think, in a few years’ time, the Ukrainian creative industries might face many of the challenges shown in the previous examples. Right now, there is a very different challenge in this country: Surviving and staying sane while facing death and destruction.
The importance of the creative industries is shown daily. The world wouldn’t be able to get news and information without the work and courage of the journalists and camera crews out in the field. Artists on the ground help people to cope and endure by giving stand-up performances in subway stations turned bomb shelters, just to name a few examples.
In March 2022, the Ukrainian creative industries made headlines with something different: A group of creatives collected real sounds from the daily life in war – screams, explosions, and air raids. In cooperation with musical producer Roger Leao, they compiled them together in an oppressive soundtrack called the “Anthem of true Russia”.
When listening to it, I felt torn. Technically, the clip is well done and gives a chilling acoustic impression of what happens in Ukraine right now. The power of creativity is used to turn something as abstract as a war in a distant country into something frightening tangible. On the other hand, the project has a strongly partisan air by stating: “These are sounds of the aggressor. This is how Russia, who invaded Ukraine, sounds. This is the anthem of true Russia.”
To me this biased emotional subtitle shows the true importance of this project.
When I read the Youtube-comments I wasn’t surprised to find a lot of nasty stuff. But inbetween hate-statements there is also something like a dialog. Several Russian viewers articulated their sympathy for the Ukrainian people. Some openly condemned the attacks. Others justifiably pointed out that a governments actions don’t necessarily reflect a people’s position. They criticized the sweeping condemnation in the video’s title and asked for a fair distinction.
I can’t blame the Ukrainian creative industries for their partisan wording. The feelings of fear, shock and anger need to go somewhere. These three Russia-blaming sentences in the video’s title are not fair, they show unadorned human feelings. It’s just as understandable how some of the Russian commentators felt about being lumped together with pro-war Putin-Cheerleaders.
This video offered an outlet for emotions and a chance for discussion. An exchange of these thoughts and emotions (be they ever so nasty, negative and sad) happened over this clip of war. Social media all too often fuels physical violence these days. But it could also provide a space where people can go back to words instead of weapons and reminds that the world is no clear case of black and white, heroes and villains.
This might be far-fetched and a rather naïve way to see it. But somehow it feels encouraging to me.
Summing it up
Change for the better always starts with a single small step. Together we in the creative industries can make a big difference. The UNESCO stated our importance in 2021: „The creative economy has grown to become one of the great powerhouses of our times.”
Just as our work itself, our importance and contribution often doesn’t present itself with a loud “bang”. As stated in the introduction, the effect of our work emerges often silently by …
- … empowering and healing
- … unblocking and breaking up outdated thinking patterns
- … creating awareness
- … offering platforms for initiating development, simulating new realities and discussion
- … driving and shaping innovation
- … creating sustainability
Relating to the pandemic, the British cultural advisor Anthony Sargent wrote in 2021: “With the mysterious kinds of alchemy that crises can produce, good things have also happened.”
I like that statement. It sums up our work. The creative industries are important because we make good things happen.
Take this as an encouragement. Go and do something good!
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