This week’s Global Local Recap focuses on creative industries in rural and regional areas and how local governments can support them.  

How can creative industries assist rural populations? Creative industries offer a potential income source for rural communities transitioning from traditionally dominant industries, such as agriculture and forestry, including through tourism. Commerical and non-commercial creative practices can bring isolated communities together and help them to process challenges such as natural disasters, population changes and social cohesion.

How can rural creative projects work best? It is vital that rural arts projects are place-based, led by or clearly serving local communities and creating opportunities for open dialogue and fresh perspectives. Even if projects primarily seek to attract tourists, they should also involve and be accessible to local people to leave a positive legacy and have the greatest long-term impact.

What can local governments do? Local governments can create a platform for the arts in their area by supporting chambers of commerce or working with community groups to develop community assets like theatres, outdoor performance spaces or market spaces, often in conjunction with civic organisations. Municipalities can also establish creative hubs or artist residencies and offer targeted grant funding.

Who inspired us this week? This week we loved the creative manifesto for Cornwall, UK, the inspirational MEETINGS festival in Central and West Jutland, Denmark, and Regional Arts Australia’s guide to meaningful engagement with regional communities for cultural projects.

By Richard Leeming, LGIU Associate

While the rural creative companies have so far flourished under their own steam, research is showing that with some support, especially from councils, the sector could grow even faster, creating good, green jobs and delivering other contributions to public wellbeing.

As councils stand back and reconsider how their economies work as the Covid-19 pandemic plays out, its increasingly clear that policymakers and local councils in countryside areas need to understand and support rural creative economies.

More than any other economic sector, creative businesses benefit from proximity. By locating near each other in tight-knit groups they help each other and nurture innovation. These tight-knit groups are known as ‘creative clusters’ and research from the PEC shows that creative businesses are integral to local communities. They create a positive feedback loop because creative businesses and the people who work for them have a positive impact on the places where they live and work.

By providing significant economic and social value, creating jobs, developing skills and attracting investment, they therefore attract more creative businesses. In fact, research shows that each creative job can sustain another two jobs in local economies. 

So, how can we support these industries and harness the benefits for communities?

Curated case studies and news from around the globe

Australia: Silo artworks bring vital tourism to remote communities

A series of large-scale murals on grain silos in remote regions across Australia have helped to attract tourists to communities affected by ongoing droughts, depopulation and industry decline. Nearly 50 silo art murals form a 8,500-kilometre trail across five states, depicting local community members or wildlife through bright and colourful designs. Many artworks have been created through partnerships with local councils, including Yarriambiack and West Wimmera Shire Councils in Victoria. A further 110 water towers have also been decorated with murals.
Australian Silo Art Trail Municipal Association of Victoria / West Wimmera Shire Council

Denmark: Multi-year video and performance project brings fresh perspectives on rural life

Central and West Jutland hosted international artists for residencies during the MEETINGS project from 2016 to 2019. Artists created new works responding to the rural area, developed through open conversations with local people. These and other themed artworks were displayed during festivals in 2017 and 2019, which were well-attended by the local community, in non-traditional locations such as fishing huts and abandoned houses around the Nissum Fjord. The project sought to spark new creative networks, discussions and ideas about how to improve local life. Led by non-profit ET4U, the project was funded by Lemvig Municipality and other partners.
IETM / Fernando García-Dory, Piotr Michałowski & Laura H Drane
ET4U / Contemporary Visual Art Projects Mid & Western Jutland

USA: Declaring the city an ‘Arts Campus’ helps tourism boom in rural Minnesota

Population 700, Lanesboro in Minnesota is a historic town known for its architecture, scenic nature, and more recently, its vibrant arts and cultural scene. In 2014, after engaging with the local people and identifying parallel goals between the council and Lanesboro Arts, the City of Lanesboro unanimously passed a resolution whereby the entire town was declared an Arts Campus. Since then, with aid from both local, state and federal funding, the town has been renovating facilities, helping artists relocate there and developing a rotating artist residency. The changes have seen a tourism and business boom – on an average summer weekend, the population can easily quadruple.
PEW Trust / Teresa Wiltz
Lanesboro Arts

AND FINALLY...

Japan: Local government uses rock music against bear attacks

A spike in bear attacks in the northern Japan region led to Iwate Prefectural Government commissioning a rock song to be played in shopping centres and other public locations across the region. Performed by a local duo, the song begins “So you think bear cubs are cute?” before offering helpful advice throughout with phrases such as “never turn your back and run away” and “trying to play dead doesn’t work” accompanying the uptempo drums and guitar backing. Authorities hope that people will recall the messages from the song if encountering a bear, helping to keep the public safe. 
The Guardian / Japan Times

Thanks for reading!

Next week, we'll be reflecting on the Global Local Recap in 2021, taking a fresh look at some of the content you engaged with the most. In two weeks’ time, we’ll showcase spectacular town hall lights displays to celebrate the festive season.

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