Guiding others on creative expansion

Creative and cultural markets are set to grow with the help of a blossoming collaboration.

Basa (Business and Arts South Africa) has teamed up with British Council Connect ZA to address an important need in the creative industry.

The partnering companies have developed and launched the Creative Markets Growth Hub which they are confident will change the nature of the industry and turn it into a more sustainable market with great growth and development opportunities.

The first phase of the hub is the Guide to Growing Creative Markets which is an animated, interactive e-learning programme which provides tools and insights on how to become a self-sustainable business or organisation within the creative markets.

The launch of the project, which took place at the BubblegumClub at Newtown Junction’s Work Shop New Town Market, saw the positive reaction of the cultural and creative communities who would benefit from the guide.

“We have already undertaken a small sample of real world testing of the guide that we’ve launched, and the results have been overwhelmingly positive. We have no doubt that this is the first step in the creation of a new platform that will impact the South African creative and cultural industries in a sustained and ongoing way,” said Michelle Constant, chief executive officer of Basa.

The research on which this guide is based has been collected and collated through a study which was inaugurated last year called Connecting Creative Markets, a market development programme led by Basa.

A Guide to Growing Creative Markets showcases initial results, lessons learned and uniquely South African case studies that have emerged from the Connecting Creative Markets partnership, and is a free online platform that is open to all creative industry players interested in building their markets for consumers of creative practice, goods or services.