Scotland showcases its creative talent
EMBARGOED UNTIL 00.01 WEDNESDAY 1 AUGUST 2012
Scotland showcased its creative talent to an audience of creative companies from around the world last night at a business event to help develop new business opportunities around the London 2012 Olympics.
Around 100 attendees were expected to attend the event at Scotland House, hosted by the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and Creative Scotland.
Using innovative technology to display the diverse nature of Scotland’s creative sector, attendees were able to try out new mobile apps developed by Scottish companies, take a virtual tour of the new V&A at Dundee and see some of Scotland’s latest fashion designs.
Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop, who is speaking at the Scotland House event, commented, “Scotland is known the world over as a place of creativity and innovation and we boast a wealth of talent. As well as being Olympic year, 2012 is our Year of Creative Scotland, when we are highlighting and celebrating our nation’s cultural and creative strengths. This event is a fantastic showcase of our outstanding creative industries, a sector which generates significant benefits for our economy.”
Also speaking at the event, Lena Wilson, chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, said, “The Olympics has a long tradition of celebrating culture and creativity alongside sporting success, so it is fitting that tonight we are taking some time to celebrate Scotland’s creative industries.
“That’s why showcases such as these are important to raise the profile of the talent that exists in Scotland and to forge new relationships that could have a positive impact economically as well as culturally.”
The event also highlighted some impressive facts about Scotland’s creative industries, which overall are worth £3.2 billion to Scotland’s economy. These include:
- Scotland is ranked third in Europe’s top 50 games development locations with over 50 games companies developing some of the world’s leading titles including Crackdown, the Grand Theft Auto series and Minecraft on Xbox 360, which on launch in May broke all Xbox 360 digital sales records and has now passed three million sales.
- Scottish textiles exports are worth £295 million and there continues to be high demand from overseas markets like Russian, China and Japan for luxury cashmere and Harris tweed
- Scotland has the highest level of film, TV and animation production in the UK outside of London, with more than 100 production companies and 300 facilities companies, with a combined turnover of £1.2 billion
This vibrant gaming and independent TV production landscape has recently benefitted from major industry players endorsing Scotland as their location of choice. Companies such as Serious Parody, Shed Productions and Editworks have committed to expanding their Scottish operations.
In May this year, development studio Serious Parody raised over £1 million in investment to expand the studio’s games portfolio. This funding was to allow the company to establish a new dedicated studio, based in Dundee and recruit 18 new members of staff. Serious Parody raised the majority of the money from private investors, with a further £230,000 coming from a Scottish Enterprise Regional Selective Assistance grant.
Editworks Scotland is a leading Scottish post production facility based at Pacific Quay, Glasgow. It announced in early July that it is expanding its operation and investing £200,000 in new editing and audio suites that will create 8 further jobs at its Glasgow headquarters. The company has secured £68,000 of additional Regional Selective Assistance funding from Scottish Enterprise to support its expansion and commitment to create new jobs.
The company opened its operation at The Hub in Glasgow’s Digital Media Quarter in 2010, close to STV’s and the BBC’s headquarters. Amongst the first shows to be edited in Scotland as a result of its launch at The Hub were ‘Eggheads’ and the National Lottery Show ‘In It To Win It’. Since then, the company has continued to develop and forge strong relationships with local television production companies.
Last August, Shed Productions announced that it was relocating Waterloo Road to Glasgow, providing a huge boost to the sector in Scotland. It is projected this will generate almost £25 million in direct investment and up to 230 jobs.
Shed Productions CEO, Eileen Gallagher, told the Scotland House audience of her experiences of moving a production to Scotland, and added, “Moving Waterloo Road to Scotland took a huge amount of effort but it couldn't have gone more smoothly thanks to the support we received from Scottish Enterprise and Inverclyde Council. The show looks better than ever thanks to the hard work of a talented Scottish workforce.
“Scotland is a great home for creative businesses and we are delighted to be part of the Scottish creative revolution.”
Caroline Parkinson, Director of Creative Development at Creative Scotland, said, “Scotland House and the Olympic Games present an important platform to showcase our Creative Industries in London to national and international audiences, in this the Year of Creative Scotland 2012. Scotland’s textiles industry supports over 7,000 jobs in Scotland and generates an annual turnover of £678 million, we are delighted to be showcasing 10 of our top fashion and textile designers in London.“
New research, jointly commissioned by Creative Scotland and Scottish Enterprise and published in June, also identified direct employment in the sectors as at least 84,000, with a further 21,000 working in a creative capacity – for example, those self-employed, or working in a creative role beyond the creative industries.
Where indirect contributions (through the supply chain) and induced effects (spending by both the supply chain and workers within the arts and creative industries) are included, the total gross-value-added contribution rises to £6.3 billion and employment to nearly 130,000.
The report highlights Scotland’s performance when compared to UK counterparts in the arts and creative industries. London and the South East of England account for more than half of all UK jobs in these sectors, followed by Yorkshire, while Scotland ranks fourth.
Recent initiatives to help boost the television production sector in Scotland include a new £1 million Television Production Scheme and Creative Edge, a partnership between broadcaster Channel 4, Creative Scotland, Scottish Enterprise and TRC media.
The Year of Creative Scotland
The Year of Creative Scotland began on January 1 2012 and spotlights and celebrates Scotland’s cultural and creative strengths on a world stage. Through a dynamic and exciting year-long programme of activity celebrating our world-class events, festivals, culture and heritage, the year puts Scotland’s culture and creativity in the international spotlight with a focus on cultural tourism and developing the events industry and creative sector in Scotland. More information about the programme can be found at: www.visitscotland.com/creative
The Year of Creative Scotland is a Scottish Government initiative led in partnership by EventScotland, VisitScotland, Creative Scotland and VOCAL. More information and resources to help businesses and organisations engage with Year of Creative Scotland are available at www.visitscotland.org/yearofcreativescotland-toolkit
Scotland Re:Designed
After a successful debut in New York at Scotland Week 2012, 10 of Scotland’s hottest fashion designers will be showcased in London at the Scotland Re:Designed fashion show. Scotland Re:Designed is a platform from which Scottish fashion designers, manufacturers and textile companies can build, establish and secure new and on-going business relationships.
Taking part in the project are Bodywear designers Bebaroque, the Scottish Queen of Cashmere Belinda Robertson OBE, Scotland's oldest continually operating textile factory Caerlee Mills, Edinburgh born and based menswear designer Kestin Hare of brand Common People Clothing, couture jeweller Euan McWhirter; luxury womenswear designer and celebrity favourite Henrietta Ludgate, award winning designer Judy R Clark; famed for her exquisite womenswear designs in lace, silk and Harris Tweed as well as a recent collaboration with Ford Motors, internationally renowned cotton lace weaver Morton Young & Borland Textiles and award winning milliner William Chambers.
V&A at Dundee
V&A at Dundee will be an international centre of design for the widest public, housed in a world-class building at the heart of Dundee’s waterfront. It will show major exhibitions of international design, celebrate and promote the care of Scotland’s design heritage, inspire and help develop contemporary talent, and encourage design innovation for the future.
The striking building, designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, will have more than 1,500 square metres of flexible gallery space, with one of the largest dedicated museum-standard exhibition spaces in Scotland. There will be four galleries, hosting world-class design exhibitions alongside displays devoted to outstanding Scottish design – historical, contemporary and of the future.