Issue 23: A bulletin for big ideas and better business.

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Ready, set, go! Our latest issue is packed with the global great and good. We explore a day devoted to small businesses, a festival concerned with tiny houses, and an art gallery that invites visitors to curate collections. But first, a new political vision for the UK, and beyond. Vote Creativity Party.

OPINION/ CREATIVITY 

Running for office

💬 Sir John Hegarty

2024 has been branded the election year. The current moment in history is a record-setter for people heading to the polls. A global wave of democratic process could be an uplifting thing, but there are concerning trends afoot. And the jeopardy associated with who gains power (and where) is monumental.

In the UK, trust in politicians is at its lowest ebb in forty years, according to Ipsos. Just 9% of people here say they expect elected representatives to tell the truth. This makes it the least trusted profession in the country. This set my team and I thinking. Should there be a UK Creativity Party? And if so, what would the election manifesto look like? Below are a few highlights from our first informal cabinet meeting.

1. Boosting British Business 📈

Ideas are free. But building a business isn’t. Our apprenticeship scheme would partner aspiring entrepreneurs with industry leaders. It would also fund the former’s living expenses for twelve months as their companies take flight (subject to the submittal of a sensible business plan).

2. National (Creative) Service ⚔️

Rishi was nearly right. But rather than arming youngsters with assault rifles, we think arts equipment would be better. Anyone between the age of 17 and 21 not in creative employment will be drafted to join the National Creative Corps – a high-tech, modern force designed to deploy arts programmes globally. No Gen Z backlash for this one.

Anyone between the age of 17 and 21 will be drafted to join a force to deploy arts programmes globally

3. Education 📖

Our classrooms and schools are still modelled on factories. We would initiate a total overhaul of how education is delivered in the country. Youngsters would be taught the principles behind imagination, innovation and critical thinking. And there would be a specific focus on how to use AI as a tool (rather than succumb to it as a threat).

4. Urbanism 🌆

Initiate a mass pedestrianisation of urban areas. The automobile is no longer fit for purpose in cities. And countries that walk more have citizens who live longer. Crucially: travelling on foot helps ideas to ruminate. This fact alone would serve the UK economy.

5. The Arts 🖼

You can’t have a UK Creativity Party and not have a robust plan for arts and culture. Citizens would be required to gather in town squares, community centres and public spaces every Friday for a whole afternoon of free life drawing classes. State-subsidised art supplies would be provided for every household.

What else should go into our plan for the future of Britain? Write to john@businessofcreativity.com to have your say.

THE AGENDA

✏️ Pencil it in:
your agenda for the coming week

1.
The conversation is usually dominated by a handful of mega companies. Not this week. The UN’s Micro-, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Day is an opportune moment to remember that such ventures account for over 90 per cent of businesses, 70 per cent of employment and 50 per cent of GDP worldwide.
27th June  

2.
In 2024 every day feels like Social Media Day. Still, the purpose of this occasion is to celebrate the real connections we make on Insta, TikTok and the rest. We endorse it as an opportunity to experiment with social in a more traditional sense – in person and over a cold drink.
30th June

3.
Living in a tiny house is usually a measure taken due to adverse economic conditions. But the Tiny House Festival in Karlsruhe is about the interplay between creativity and necessity. The houses are small, but the imaginations of those who live within them, aren’t.
28th – 30th June

4.
For thought leaders who can’t abide cold weather, the World Economic Forum’s ‘summer Davos’ kicks off in Dalian in the People’s Republic of China. With US-China rivalry heating up, and a trade war brewing between the Asian country and the EU, there’s likely to be at least one elephant in each (conference) room.
25th – 27th June

5.
The UK’s biggest FOMO event of the year. Glastonbury Festival of Music and Arts opens this week, with crowds of 200,000 expected. The size of the gathering has some asking: Where festivals are concerned, how big is too big?
26th – 30th June

ROTTERDAM / ARCHITECTURE

An edifying theme.
Contributor: Panther Media GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

Building optimism

It’s a dirty business. The UN reckons that the construction industry accounts for 37% of global emissions. Organisers of the International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam must have had this fact front of mind when they decided on the event’s theme this year: Nature of Hope. Festivals that concern polluting industries often feature hand-wringing and philosophising, but little action. This promises to be different. The main exhibition, at the city’s Nieuwe Instituut, will focus on buildings that take a cue from nature and aim to respect their surroundings. The programme’s most intriguing feature is a series of so-called Botanical Monuments. Visitors will be directed to 25 green spaces across town, some of which are home to re-wilding or gardening projects. Designing buildings that preserve nature is a tall order for architects envisioning cities of the future. The best will create the urban fabric to support communities, while allowing nature to pursue its own course.

CREATIVITY

Contributor: Sir John Hegarty

MINNEAPOLIS / ART

Sources: Napisah, Dwi Budiyanto from Noun Project

The curator is always right

Public criticism for brands is at a fever pitch. But is the customer always right? The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis seems keen to find out. In a lengthy, 4-part initiative entitled Make Sense of This: Visitors Respond to the Walker’s Collection, the institution is inviting people to respond to a set of questions about the works on display, as well as how they are curated and explained in accompanying gallery texts. Throughout the programme, visitors responses have been on real time display around the space, offering a ‘composite view of ideas, opinions, and preferences’. While the general museum-going public are bound to have a useful thought or two, putting work on display in the most impactful way possible requires the oversight of a brilliant curator.

LONDON / MEDIA

The Long Mail 

Technology is supposed to be shrinking our attention spans. Publishing brands have responded with ever shortening and more snackable ways of getting a story across. Surprising then, that UK tabloid The Daily Mail has announced an investment into long (or, rather longer) form videos that will be hosted on YouTube. Around twenty new shows will be between fifteen and twenty minutes in duration. Intriguingly, it’s a duration that many insiders at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity were quick to identify as the least effective compared to very short (30 seconds) or very long (2 hours). Is the pendulum of our attention ready to switch back to easier, early-noughties times where a half hour was standard? In the UK media scene, the Daily Mail is notorious for being proudly contrarian – so it’s probably in the best position to experiment – and find out.

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.

/Mary Lou Cook