Creative industries can boost economies, conference told

THE CAPACITY of creative industries to revitalise economic growth was emphasised yesterday at the World Crafts Council conference in Dublin Castle, where speakers included ceramic artist and author Edmund de Waal and the economist Edna dos Santos Duisenberg.

The “creative economy” refers to an evolving concept promoting the role of the arts, crafts and design industries in fostering income generation and social development.

According to the latest UN creative economy report in 2010, world exports of creative goods and services reached $592 billion in 2008, more than double their 2002 level.

The report also revealed that a growing number of governments were now identifying such industries as a priority sector in national growth strategies.

President Mary McAleese, Patron of the Year of Craft 2011, reminded international delegates of Ireland’s “vast treasury” of craft heritage, but also spoke of her own background in Belfast, where skills and traditions were passed down through the generations.

“I grew up in a home where clothes were knitted or sewn, where curtains, bedspreads and cushions were not shop-bought. Irish crafts form an important part of many rural and local economies.

“There are approximately 5,700 people employed in the sector in Ireland, and its contribution to tourism and exports is hugely significant.”

Mr de Waal, whose family memoir The Hare with the Amber Eyes won the Costa Biography Award last January, spoke about the public and private questions of what craft means and where it belongs in the 21st century.

“It is about sense, touch, memory and place. The kind of things I do are informed by music, landscape, language and history. Craft can belong in all kinds of places.”