Creative and cultural hub sustainability: from theory to practice

ABSTRACT

The ‘Cultural and Creative Hub’ (CCH), serves as platform playing a key role in supporting the socio-economic development of the cultural and creative industries. With diverse manifestations – from regions to independent legal entities – it plays a pivotal role in fostering innovation and supporting inclusive and sustainable economic growth. The scattered information on CCHs globally necessitates a systematic approach to define their activities and economic sustainability comprehensively. This paper aims to validate the practices of cultural and creative hubs: questions regarding their objectives, main activities, and therefore their economic sustainability are explored through an extensive global research initiative, analyzing 587 active hubs in various geographic areas. The study integrates systematic and grey literature reviews, leveraging data from hub networks like the British Council and the European Creative Hubs Network. This research seeks to enhance awareness of cultural and creative hubs through a scientific evaluation of their models and activities, fostering sustainable business practices, cultural diversity, and inclusiveness in the cultural and creative sectors.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural and creative hub
• sustainability assessment
• case studies
• activities analysis
• literature review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. creativehubs.net.

2. creativeconomy.britishcouncil.org.

3. bls.gov.

4. See https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Culture_statistics_-_cultural_enterprises&oldid = 566799#Structural_business_statistics_.28SBS.29.

5. See https://esa.un.org/MigFlows/Definition%20of%20regions.pdf. and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_geoscheme.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Clio Flego

Clio Flego is Research Fellow at the University of Genoa, where she covers the position of Innovation Hub Manager for Ulysseus European University. She holds an EMJM in Media Arts Culture, and a graduate degree in Visual and Performing Arts obtained at IUAV Venice. She has broad international experience in project management, with expertise in tourism and cultural projects at the crossroads of art, science, and technology. She has published articles and special issues in international magazines, organised international conferences, and collaborated with many international festivals and institutions, such as Radio Web MACBA (ES), EPFL (CH), FACT Liverpool (UK) and Venice Biennale (IT). She has been European Innovation Ambassador in 2019-2020. Actually, she is Art Papers Juror at SIGGRAPH2024, The Premier Conference & Exhibition on Computer Graphics & Interactive Techniques.

Alessio Tei

Alessio Tei is associate professor in Maritime Transports Economics and Economics of Tourism and Transports at the University of Genoa (Italy). Alessio has previously worked at the Newcastle University as Lecturer in Maritime Economics, and at the Department of Economics of University of Genoa as post-doc research fellow and as adjunct professor in Regional Economics and Transport Economics. He was also enrolled as adjunct professor in Maritime Transport at the Naval Academy of Leghorn (Italy). During his career Alessio has been a visiting researcher at the Department of Transport and Regional Economics of University of Antwerp (Belgium). Alessio is currently Section Editor of the official IAME Magazine “The Maritime Economist” and member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Transport Economics.