BA Creative and Cultural Industries

How do artists and other creative practitioners make a living? What are the roles and skills needed in creative and cultural production, distribution and consumption and how are they organised in creative enterprises and cultural organisations? What are the skills and attributes that are desirable for creative industries professionals? How can creative labour be fairly compensated? What are the barriers and issues to equality, diversity and inclusion for creative workers?

This core course unit will answer these questions by providing a practical and theoretical introduction to employment in the creative and cultural industries. Students will develop a critical understanding of the changing status, value and conditions of creative labour in historical and contemporary contexts, and on its organisation, remuneration and protection. They will be introduced to professional practices, business models, and key organisational approaches for managing creative and cultural businesses. These will include individual specialist, entrepreneurial and transferrable skills and traits, and the roles, frameworks and operational models used within the creative and cultural sectors. Through lectures, seminars and guest lectures students will be introduced to theoretical and empirical perspectives on creative work and will develop their own critical observations through evaluation of case studies introducing real-world examples and issues. Assessment will combine in depth analysis of a key creative practitioner and a creative organisation.

• Introduce key debates, issues and practices of working in the creative and cultural industries
• Prepare students with knowledge and understanding of the key occupational roles, business strategies and organisational models within creative enterprises and cultural organisations
• Offer opportunities to develop and apply skills relevant to creative employment  
• Develop critical understanding of equitable and social justice practices for creative employers and freelancers 

Students will be able to critically assess, develop and apply project management tools and enterprise skills relevant to creative and cultural employment/self-employment, and to analyse and appraise the organisation and business models for creative and cultural organisations.

The shifting values of artistic labour from artisans and bohemians to creative and knowledge economies  

Star systems, wage protection and precarity: the lived experience of creatives

Occupations, organisational models and organograms: the structures and cultures of creative businesses

The robots are taking over - digital transformation, AI and creative work

Project working and creative project management  

Policies and practices for creative diversity: EDI in the creative workforce  

Managing freelancing and self-employment

Tools of the trade: contracts, employment law and doing taxes

Collectivism and trade associations 

The 11 week course will be taught by 11 x 1 hour weekly lecture followed by 2 hour seminars with small group learning, workshop elements and guest speakers. There will be a field trip for 1 week which builds in workshop and guest speakers into a site visit. There will be no additional costs to students for this, and costs will be covered by the standard department budget for course enhancement. Seminar and lecture preparation will be supported by Adobe Spark pages with links to reading materials and relevant video and audio content via Blackboard. Group projects will also require self-directed learning and team work outside of contact hours.

• Demonstrate understanding of organisation, management and development of creative and cultural workforce and occupations.
• Identify relevant roles, skills and traits of creative practitioners and cultural workers and their position within organisational structures.
• Critically evaluate through observation of professional practice and case study examples, the frameworks and processes for organising, delivering and protecting creative and cultural labour.

• Analyse and synthesise theoretical debates on the changing conditions and valuation for artists and creative and cultural workers.
• Identify and summarise the profile of motivations, attributes and career trajectories within creative occupations.
• Critically evaluate industry practices and approaches through desk research and observation of real-life examples.

• Organise ideas and present these in the context of seminars, group presentations and written work.
• Successfully deliver projects individually or as part of a team.
• Undertake critical self-reflection and peer review to improve performance.

• The ability to solve problems and critically reflect on key issues in creative work.
• Present complex information clearly in verbal, visual and written formats.
• Research, summarise and present persuasive and evidence-based arguments.

Abbing, Hans. Why Are Artists Poor? : the Exceptional Economy of the Arts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2002.  

Banks, Mark.  (2017). Creative Justice: Cultural Industries, Work and Inequality. London: Rowman & Littlefield International

Banks, Mark. et al. 2012 Theorizing Cultural Work : Labour, Continuity and Change in the Cultural and Creative Industries. London: Routledge.

Becker, Howard S. (1982). Art Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press.  

Branagan, Alison. (2011). The Essential Guide to Business for Artists and Designers : an Enterprise Manual for Visual Artists and Creative Professionals. London: A. & C. Black,  

Brook, Orian, Dave O’Brien, and Mark Taylor. (2020) Culture Is Bad for You : Inequality in the Cultural and Creative Industries. Manchester: Manchester University Press  

Luckman, Susan., and Jane. Andrew. (2020). Craftspeople and Designer Makers in the Contemporary Creative Economy. First edition, 2020. Cham: Springer Nature,

McIntyre, Phillip et al. (2023) Entrepreneurship in the Creative Industries : How Innovative Agents, Skills and Networks Interact. London: Palgrave Macmillan  

McRobbie, A. (2016). Be Creative : Making a Living in the New Culture Industries. Wiley.

Walter, Carla (2015). Arts Management: An Entrepreneurial Approach. Routledge.