Published 27/10/17  

Street performers in Princes Street Gardens at Edinburgh Festival, Credit: This is Edinburgh (edinburgh.org) (CC BY 2.0)

The Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities (SGSAH) was in Dundee in October to launch the SGSAH Creative Economies Hub, a new initiative designed to unite assets in Creative Economy research to support doctoral researchers at Scotland’s higher education institutions.

The launch brought together 13 new Creative Economies PhD students funded through SGSAH’s successful bid to the Arts & Humanities Research Council for £1M of funding from the National Productivity Investment Fund. The projects the doctoral researchers will be undertaking are at the interface of the arts and humanities, and social sciences and sciences, and deepen partnership with industry and business. Creative sector partners who will be providing supervision and placements include the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Edinburgh Fringe Society, and the Scottish Book Trust.

The SGSAH Creative Economies Hub unites the considerable assets in Creative Economy research of the University of Dundee (DJCAD), Abertay University, Glasgow School of Art, and the University of Edinburgh (ECA) and will support this new cohort through a programme of training and events that encourage modes of partnership-based research in the creative and digital sector.

Speakers at the launch including John Kampfner, Creative Industries Federation, Clive Gillman, Creative Scotland, and Gillian Easson, Creative Dundee, discussed What is the Creative Economy?

Research the Creative Economies students are undertaking ranges from the role of arts festivals in supporting and sustaining artists, how mass adoption of streaming services such as Spotify and Apple music has changed the digital music consumption landscape, and utilising artistic methods to promote eco-social island communities.

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First published: 27 October 2017