Last night, 23rd April 2024, Theatre Workout attended Our Creative Future - the launch of a manifesto by Creative UK for the upcoming UK General Election, hosted by the Land of Hope and Story.
The manifesto sets out how, with the right effort, the Cultural and Creative Industries can further generate social and economic prosperity across the country. The event was attended by the sectors leading creatives and organisations in the UK, representing theatre, museums, galleries, music, literature, media, education and more.
You can read the full manifesto here.
We encourage you to share the manifesto with your networks - school community, your MP, local councillors, colleagues, friends and family, to call on both the current and future UK Governments to break down the barriers to creativity.
For our own part, we are delighted to see eduction and the creative curriculum being placed in the spotlight in the first manifesto catagory for future change. There are no problems in the future which we will ever be able to solve unless we address them in education first, starting at primary.
The Creative industries contributed £125bn to the UK economy in 2023, and it is predicted to create 1m new jobs by 2030. It is the fastest growing sector in the UK, and it is the only industry we have in which the UK is still a world leader. Despite listing it as one of the five key sectors for the UK's future economic growth, Government funding cuts to creative education, and to the cultural and creative industries is stifling it, holding it back, and limiting their ability to build our economy.
Land of Hope and Story's open letter calls on the next UK Government to break down barriers to creativity and to “shake off complacency around the UK’s creative superpower status”. You can sign the open letter here.