Creative Industries
The creative sector in Cornwall is substantial and diverse. It is helping move towards a knowledge-based economy and achieve greater economic prosperity for the county. Creative businesses include advertising, design, media, photography, architecture, art, crafts, fashion, textiles, performance sportswear, music, dance, professional writing and illustrating, PR, journalism, publishing, TV, radio, web, software development and IT. Cornwall has and continues to benefit from European Convergence Funding for creative industries support and superfast broadband.
Five of the six partners within CUC offer a range of expertise in these areas:-
University College Falmouth has a reputation for first rate teaching in art, design, media and performance, collaboration with business and growing expertise in research.
University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, offers English, supporting graduates progressing to work in the creative industries.
Truro and Penwith College has university level courses in art, design, music, performance, media and IT.
Cornwall College has university level courses in art, design, journalism and performance.
Plymouth University has a strong offer in art, design, music and performance.
Unlocking Cornish Potential, the CUC graduate placement project has a track record in helping businesses throughout Cornwall implement e-commerce and social marketing business development projects.
Perfecting or Updating Your Creative Skill
Whether you’re an existing or newly created business, CUC partner universities and colleges have much to offer. They can help with: perfect or update your creative skills through courses or workshops; access to expertise with academics with relevant business experience; access to specialist equipment; drawing on expertise within the universities and colleges to address business challenges or the application of emerging technologies.
For more about helping your business benefit from new technologies, visit our Digital Economy pages.
Leverage More Value From Your Creative Assets in Income and Equity
Innovation and continuous improvement in creative businesses is about thinking differently about your offer. How to develop new business models which generate recurring income streams? And at the same time, how to protect your creative assets and capital through intellectual property like trademark, copyright, design right, patent or distribution licence? How to repurpose and monetise what you create to reach new markets without creating channel conflict? What will be your routes to market? Which core activities are better undertaken in house and which should be outsourced, even abroad? What systems and structure will be needed to support new strategies? How do you create an asset at the end of it all that you can exit and sell?
Continuous improvement is about ensuring you have the right marketing and business development, financial, distribution strategies and capability, project management and organisational skills, soft skills that complement your creativity and build a successful creative business.
Creative Industries Contacts and Resources
CUC partners work with and alongside other private and public sector organisations and projects in Cornwall to help you realise potential in your creative business.
University College Falmouth's Performance Centre will generate exciting opportunities for collaboration with local, national and international businesses and companies, and the local community.
University College Falmouth’s Academy for Innovation & Research supports collaborative projects in sustainable design and the digital economy.
Creative Enterprise Cornwall provides free postgraduate consultancy level business placements. This can provide help with a business project for 40- 120 hours in textile design, creative advertising, TV production, journalism and creative writing. All we ask is that the work is interesting and at a level to make postgraduates more attractive to future employers.
Creative Skills Network is a professional development organisation for practitioners in Cornwall.
CREATive Business Project- intensive support for creative businesses delivered by Truro & Penwith College and Cornwall College .
Unlocking Cornish Potential - Supporting Business Development Projects in Creative Businesses through graduate placement.
University College Falmouth can also help with student projects and placements - two way relationships where businesses get a helping hand from students who need industry experience and students can learn from businesses who invest time in coming into universities and colleges to share their work experiences. You could also approach UCF about tapping into their academic expertise - many of our academics have commercial experience and may be able to help you solve a problem, identify routes to market or address a situation in a different way.