WeCreate: presuming to represent the creative sector

WeCreate: Outrage at another agency suffocating the creative sector by presuming to represent it

Re http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1407/S00366/creative-industries-add-35-billion-to-nzs-gdp.htm

The Depot Artspace www.depotartspace.co.nz is a multidisciplinary arts centre, with a focus on visual arts, music and employment. In the creative employment sector we have worked with more than 2000 clients, and in the visual arts we have held more than 3000 exhibitions in 4 galleries. The Depot has been established for nearly 2 decades. We were therefore surprised to hear about a new organisation whose goal is to grow the creative sector in New Zealand. We have never heard of this organisation or its chairperson and question whether their knowledge of the creative sector allows them to make the claim to grow it. To grow something requires a knowledge of its components and the climate, not to mention the micro-climates, within which the sector operates and all its accompanying vagaries.

There seem to be a lot of groups across the creatives and community sectors who presume to speak on behalf of groups who don’t even know they exist. Yet they gain some credibility, and press, by aligning themselves to PWC and some statistics on specific – not all- creative enterprises. The visual arts are entirely missing. It’s equivalent, at an individual level, to having an agent represent you and your creative practice who knows nothing about you, the business you work in, the audience base, markets and trends …..

Regards,

Linda

Linda Blincko MA, QSM
Depot Coordinator
Depot Artspace

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