NESTA PROJECT: FINE ARTSITS AND INNOVATION

Viewing the arts as a source of innovation is thus a complex
and sometimes paradoxical endeavour. In particular, the
study seeks to understand:
• How fine art graduates understand ‘innovation’.
• The role of consumers, critics or peers in driving or
retarding innovation.
• The links between innovation, novelty and cultural
value.
2.2 The creative economy – where do the arts fit?
The term ‘artist’ may be applied to anyone who works in the
arts. But most people’s definition would embrace the fine arts,
painting and sculpture, personified in the painter or sculptor,
with or without a garret.
A variety of classification systems have emerged from recent
attempts to study the cultural sectors, particularly within a
policy context. The DCMS’s thirteen ‘creative industry’
sectors include ‘arts and antiques markets’ and ‘crafts’
although they do not include a category specifically for the
production of visual arts.
While some critics (Heartfield, 2000) believe this overemphasises
the market-oriented nature of the creative
industries notion, the production and support of the visual
arts have often been included within ‘creative industry
support measures’, particularly at a regional level.
Indeed, Knell and Oakley (2007) have argued that it could
hardly be otherwise, given the dense interlinkages between
subsidised and non-subsidised cultural activities. A list of
projects funded by the London Development Agency’s
Creative London programme 2 would include support for the
extension to the Whitechapel Arts Gallery and the proposed
2 A support programme for the ‘creative industries’. See www.creativelondon.org.uk
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