Creative Suburban Geographies - Emma Felton+Christy Collis

ARC Discovery mapping and investigating experiences of creative industries workers in outer suburbs of Brisbane and Melbourne . Aligns with Gibson, Brennan-Horley and Luckman’s work in Sydney and Darwin (2006 -09.) Do “Creative City” (Florida 2002, Landry2000) policy and discourse overlook what’s happening in the outer suburbs?

Places of greater social, cultural and economic complexity Major shifts in demography from 1980s Rezoning created denser suburbs, large -scale developments some are - “mini inner cities”

Australia’s fastest growing city from 1994 – 2007, grew by 31.7% Shift in status from ‘cultural backwater’ Large scale cultural infrastructure during growth period, predominantly in inner metropolitan region

40 in-depth interviews from a cross-section of creative workers from the `industrial’ to the `artisan’ Eg: multi-media developers, architects, advertisers, graphic designers, fashion designers, musicians and visual artists Decision makers

 Affordability  Relationship between place and creative work  Networking beyond the inner-city

Affordability of housing and business premises or workshop Good for clients as businesses were able to keep fees lower than inner city competitors Technology and good roads to some extent, offset distance between clients located in inner city

Space imperative : for individual artists and musicians, most worked from home studios or purchased industrial sheds. Lifestyle factors enabling comfortable combination of family and work

In what way does the environment influence people’s creativity?

Place as aesthetic resource for artists Slower pace and freedom from distractions facilitated creativity

Professional and social networks identified as central to success of the creative economy (Florida, 2002, Kong 2005, Pratt 2007) Distance from city, commuting time = reflective, creative time Emphasis on networks in inner metropolitan regions in the literature (as above)

‘Industrial’ (SME’s) networks are business focussed `Artisans ‘ networks support their creative practice, develop skills , community engagement Most active among age 18-24 and 24 - 39

 High value placed on face-to-face interaction  Distance from CBD a limitation for commercial creatives.  Local business networking not always seen as useful  Limitations of places to meet: local shops and galleries, houses used as hubs

I miss a lot of networking. I missed one last night and I missed one last Friday… Friday night traffic and I‘d been working in a school all day, I was too tired to make the trip. But had I made the trip I‘d have met the publisher of ABC books, the new publisher, and could have got a job out of it, but I couldn‘t make it. So the distance…impacts on your work. Illustrator, Frankston.

‘I used to belong to the Design Institute of Australia but then I just found I wasn’t getting enough out of it… a lot of the events are very city- focused. I don’t think it caters for businesses outside of that central city hub.’ Graphic designer, Frankston ‘there’s not much of a draw card really to be with them here.’ Graphic designer, Redcliffe

Research corroborates Gibson and Brennan-Horley’s study Implications for networking, participants generally are active networkers, despite limitations. Lack of meeting places or hubs perceived as an obstacle. Lifecycle and lifestyle factors inform peoples decision about location of business/work.

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Creative Suburban Geographies - Emma Felton+Christy Collis

by CCI on Nov 16, 2009

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