About the Cultural Industries
 | What do we mean by the cultural industries? Here's one definition; The Department for Culture, Media and Sport defines cultural industries as “those industries that have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property”. |
They include a broad range of areas such as: music, performing arts, film & video, television & radio, art and antiques, architecture, crafts, advertising, design, designer fashion, interactive leisure software, publishing, software & computer services, writing.
What's the trend?
The total number of people employed in the cultural industries grew from 1.5m in 1995 to 1.9m in 2004. The sectors which have shown particular increases in employment in 1997-2003 were: Software (+7% per year.), Design including fashion (+6% per year), and Film, Video and Photography (+4% per year).
The figures are Impressive and mean that it's quite a good time to go in the industry, especially in the sectors above. Do bear in mind, however, that it's still very competitive in certain spheres such as the performing arts and music.
What does it take?
There could be a job waiting for you out there, but you will certainly need to:
• Know what you want
• Know how to access it
• Go for it
Training is obviously important in certain areas, particularly when the career involves technical knowledge - Graphic Design or Sound Engineering for example - but you might be able to get away without formal training in fields such as drama or music, where talent is the most decisive factor.
In many respects, the cultural industries are very attractive as they tend to favour your creativity, talent and ideas rather than long years of studying.
Probably more than in any other sector it might be a matter of being in the right place at the right time and having very strong networking skills.
If you don't fancy spending all your energy in succeeding as a professional, you can always enjoy the arts for their own sake and the fun they can provide.
Where to go next?
As we can't cover all the areas in this website, we've focused on the main art forms including: drama, music, video/film, visual arts and dance.
Please go to the Fact Sheet Menu for specific information on each arts form and potential careers/training.