1. Supporting Artists and Creative Practitioners to Commercialise their Work

2. Durham Creatives
Business Durham received European funding between 2012 and 2015 to commission Durham Creatives.
Business development programme designed specifically for the creative sector
The aim of the programme was to assist artists and potential creative industry entrepreneurs living in County Durham to commercialise their creativity by;
Developing entrepreneurial capacities
Exploiting opportunities
Launching new business
Growing existing ones

3. Who we work with Architects Visual artists Craftspeople Designers
Film makers
Musicians
Performing artists
Dancers
Historians working in the heritage sector
Curators
Writers
People working in the games industry
People supporting arts and creativity-based learning

4. Why the creative sector?
It was felt that sector helps to create the conditions for growth through making the Durham a distinctive, exciting and attractive place to live and work.
It is believed that by being bold and creative in the development of the county’s natural and arts and heritage assets, the area will secure a sustainable future, helping to attract inward investment and more and higher value tourists.

5. Why the sector ?
Additionally, the county was particularly interested in commissioning this work as they believe that, if the county is to maintain and develop its cultural and creative offerings and individual creative practitioners are to be able to exploit the opportunities available to them to sustain their practise, then artists and arts organisations need to become more commercially resilient as public funding for the arts diminishes.

6. The funding enabled the county to building on a pilot programme
That identifies the following barriers to growth in the sector
Limited awareness of business practice
Disdain for commercial success - seen as ‘selling out’ artistic integrity
Creative focus rather than market focus
Limited understanding of the benefits to potential consumers of their work and of market opportunities
Isolation - ploughing lonely artistic furrows
Disconnect from mainstream business and skills support agencies and resources
Business support community largely not incentivised to work with sector
Business advisers not necessarily familiar with market opportunities

7. That’s not to say the artists and creative practitioners do not have aspirations for growth. However, they express these aspirations in terms of goals such as developing studio spaces, exhibiting internationally or having a social impact. Rarely do they express aspirations for growth in explicit financial language or in terms of job creation.

8. Taking all this into account we…
Designed our start-up programme specifically for the creative sector
Created a brand that resonated with the sector
Exploited social media and creative networks to raise awareness of the programme and engage artists and other creative practitioners
Ensured that all our advisors had awareness and understanding of market opportunities within the creative sector and of the benefits that derive from artists’ work

9. Ensured that our advisors had experience of working in the sector and were seen as credible in the eyes of the creative community
Designed enterprise activities in such a way as to animate and enthuse
Ensured that learning was undertaken within the context of real creative opportunities
Brokered artists’ relationships with creative and commercial commissioners

10. We offered a programme of:
Events and workshops
One-to-one professional development sessions
One-to-one business coaching
Mentoring

11. We also …
Sought to signpost artists to the wider business support community
Helped artists identify studio/exhibition spaces
Organised ‘pop-up’ selling opportunities
Supported artists/creative practitioners to access loan funding
Built understanding and capacity amongst the broader business support community to ensure that they were better able to support artists beyond the lifetime of the programme

12. Lindsay Madden: visual artist

13. Lindsay Madden: visual artist

14. Kelvin Moor: Performance Artist

15. Hannah Peters: Jeweller

16. Over the lifetime of the EU funded programme we…
Built the entrepreneurial capacities of over 600 artists and creative practitioners
Supported the creation of 100 new businesses
Created over 100 new jobs
Supported 50 new business to grow

17. Since the funding
Durham Creatives has become established brand and as an initiative well placed to support the sector.
Attracted funds to:
Support creative practitioners build their digital know how
Broker relationships between creatives practitioners living and working rural areas with potential commissioners
Implement a regional professional programme which will conclude with a major art exhibition at Newcastle City Library
Support the development of the dale centre at Stanhope as a creative and cultural centre in Weardale
Research the business development needs of creative practitioners living in east Durham.

18. Going forward
The project has just received additional support from Business Durham which will enable us to offer additional support to the sector across the county until 2019