UK creative industry explodes thanks to tax breaks, talent
LONDON: Despite fears that Brexit would curb the growth of the creative industries in the United Kingdom (UK), TV and film production, is surging ahead. Official government figures released in late October showed the sector as one of the best performing of the UK economy and helping to maintain post-Brexit economic calm. The British Office for National Statistics last week credited the services sector, of which film and TV is a part, for the UK’s surprising resilience since the Brexit vote. The transport, storage and communications sectors increased 2.2% in the third quarter, versus just 0.6% in the second quarter; and within this film and TV programme production grew by 16.4% in the three months to the end of September, outstripping other industries within the sectors. British Film Institute figures show that £728-million was spent on high-end TV productions in the UK in the year to the end of June. The Creative Industries Federation says the sector has been the fastest growing part of the economy since the crash of 2008, but warns that there is cause for concern over the impact of Brexit. John Kampfner, its chief executive, pointed to potential issues such as a skills shortage and the loss of “talented Europeans”, and “keeping a seat at the table” to make sure the UK can protect intellectual property rights for UK creators. READ MORE.
Google Arts & Culture: 3 Ways to Enrich Lesson Plans
UNITED STATES: Google is re-shaping the way learning takes place by integrating technology to develop everything from virtual museum trips to close-up art investigations, a development that will help support educators in the classroom and beyond. Google Arts & Culture is about to revolutionise how arts and culture is taught. In a similar move to what Google pursued in the virtual reality domain via Google Cardboard and Google Expeditions, the tech giant announced in September that it had partnered with more than 50 natural history museums across the world to create a catalog of hundreds of interactive stories, photos, videos and virtual tours. In addition to providing students with scientifically accurate experiences, Google Arts & Culture’s offerings have potential for future lesson plans. Here are three reasons you should use the free tool:
- Providing Efficient and Immersive Museum Exploration
- Getting Up-Close-and-Personal Access to Great Works of Art
- Experiencing History Firsthand with Exclusive Museum Access
To explore more, visit the Google Arts & Culture, or READ MORE here.
Discop Africa: The Africa Channel to Launch TAC Studios Production Unit
JOHANNESBURG: The Africa Channel has announced its new production arm, TAC Studios, which will be officially launched at Discop Africa TV market in the first week of November in South Africa. The new studio will be based in Los Angeles and will finance and distribute premium lifestyle programming about contemporary African life. They will work with a network of producers and production companies in Africa and around the world. The move will expand the broadcasters’ existing focus on premium lifestyle content from the continent, with a mix of travel, cooking, music, and reality programming. It will also develop several scripted projects.
“We have been producing shows for several years for our own use, but until now had not envisioned licensing our content to third parties,” says Narendra Reddy, EVP of content and global operations for The Africa Channel. “After receiving requests from several networks and digital platforms, we realized there is a market for high-quality, affordable lifestyle content reflecting the people and influences of Africa.” READ MORE.
Beijing int'l cultural, creative industry expo focuses on innovation
BEIJING: The 11th China (Beijing) International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo (ICCIE) opened in Beijing in the last week of October with a showcase of over 100 activities, including exhibitions, trade promotions, and forums, over the four-day event. The expo aims to promote cooperation between the Chinese and foreign cultural and creative industries and unleash the vitality of industrial innovation. China has witnessed booming development in the cultural and creative industries. The sector's added value as a proportion of total GDP grew from 2.75 percent in 2010 to 3.97 percent in 2015. The cultural and creative industry has become a pillar industry for Beijing. The added value of the sector was 310 billion yuan (45.7 billion US dollars) in 2015, which is over 13 percent of local GDP. READ MORE.
Contemporary exhibition offers African eye
ABUJA: Retro Africa and the Nordic Hotel in Abuja recently collaborated to bring together a showcase of four unique artists – Diseye Tanfua, Frank Enebeli, Ibe Ananba and Uchay Joel Chima – in an exhibition of contemporary African art titled ‘Afro-spective’. According to the Retro Africa founders, the Afro series wants to give contemporary art from an African perspective a platform. It does so by by echoing past influences, bold fashion statements and satires as social political commentary, and also to reveal a journey between artists’ inner reflections, life’s inner stimuli. Dolly Kola-Balogun from Retro Africa said it was committed to promoting art culture in Africa starting from Abuja. “The idea of Retro Africa is to promote art culture within the Abuja scene and across the nation and the continent. We link Abuja with Lagos and Lagos with the international community. The art in Nigeria is very well established in many art platforms especially in Lagos. In Abuja it is not as developed as I would like to see but its growing and you can see from this exhibition that there is enthusiasm there is a thirst for different things especially curative art not just for art sake. This turnout is pleasing to me and I hope to see more of it.” READ MORE.
Urban Renaissance: The African graffiti movement
By Cale Waddacor
JOHANNESBURG: Africa is rapidly growing into one of the biggest cultural powerhouses for the arts. A melting pot with diverse influences, from both abroad and at its very roots. It is the new vanguard. In terms of graffiti and street art, it boasts the smallest output, but is not as insignificant as one would imagine. When I set up my website, Graffiti South Africa in 2011, one of my favourite things to uncover was the new graffiti popping up everywhere else on the continent. There wasn’t much abound – Banksy’s short visit to Mali and a few mosaic stick-ups by Invader in Kenya, as wells as Parisian photographer, JR’s incredible Women Are Heroes project, also in Kenya. My ‘Rest of Africa‘ section was created to exclusively document these finds as there weren’t many international street art blogs doing so at the time. Stumbling across a video of artist David Choe exploring the Congo looking for dinosaurs was highly unforeseen, and I was constantly finding more big-name street artists gallivanting on our continent. Unlike the classic New York graffiti style, euro-style, and Brazil’s pichação, African graffiti doesn’t have its own easily recognisable style. Most of the artists have drawn inspiration from abroad through books, music videos and the internet. Slowly but surely more African-based artists are exploring their own unique surroundings and incorporating original African designs into their work. A lot of international artists who visit the continent tend to paint African themes and symbols in their work, but who better to do it than the African artists themselves? Further north, artists like eL Seed work in the Arabic graffiti style which is popular in countries like Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. Morocco is also a popular destination as it is located just off the Spanish coast. Gambia and Senegal, which seem like highly unlikely spray-cation destinations, have become popular with two of the continent’s most vibrant street art festivals – namely, Wide Open Walls and Festigraff. The ever growing rise of hip hop culture is also an important influence, especially in countries like Nigeria, Kenya and Angola with their growing music scenes. Barely getting as much graffiti tourism as Europe or Asia, I still get very excited when I come across new work on the continent. Having found and posted blogs from over 30 African countries, the below includes some of my highlights. READ MORE.