Launched at the start of 2021, the United Nations International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, Creativity, Culture & Capital recognises the creative sector as a key driver of inclusive and sustainable growth as the world considers recovery from the devastating effects of COVID-19. Creativity, Culture & Capital highlights the need and opportunity for impact investment to support renewed substantial sector growth, alongside continued government funding, philanthropic support and profit-maximising investment at a moment when arts organisations and the creative industries are considering how to ‘build back better’ following a global pandemic which triggered severe economic consequences for all communities.

Creativity, Culture & Capital begins with a series of essays that showcase the employment power of the artisan craft sector, the role of culture in placemaking, opportunities for technology to democratise access to great art, as well as how impact funds are already investing in the creative industries globally. Aiming to publish 100 essays in total by the end of 2021, Creativity, Culture & Capital will create a rich resource of geographies, sectors and experiences, and showcase a variety of initiatives delivering positive impact through creativity and culture and the innovative ways in which value-aligned capital is used to fund these.

2021 was the United Nations International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development. To acknowledge the importance of the creative sector, creativity and culture were added to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals alongside economics and technology as driving the path forward for global development. 

The creative industries account for 3% of global GDP. But that’s changing quickly as the global creative economy grows at nine per cent annually, and 12 per cent each year in the developing world. The creative economy is not only one of the most rapidly growing sectors of the world economy, it is also highly transformative in terms of income generation, job creation and export earnings. But opportunities are often unevenly distributed and, unless efforts are made, the environmental toll of this growth can be severe.

Creativity, Culture & Capital aimed to inspire global policymakers, fund managers, investors and philanthropic funders in impact investing to prioritise the creative economy, supporting the sector to be more inclusive and sustainable. This was also an opportunity for creative organisations, artists, makers and designers to consider attracting alternative financial resources to create meaningful change through creativity, heritage and culture.