Cultural and creative sectors

Since cultural and creative sectors were put on the map in Richard Florida’s book ‘The Creative Class’ (2002), they have been the subject of many discussions, studies and policy papers around the world. Visual arts, music, literature, performing arts, audiovisual arts,... what lies behind this umbrella in terms of creative diversity? What weight do they have in our economy and society? How are these sectors organised and what challenges do they face? Just consider digitisation, for example, and the whole debate about the ‘fair remuneration’ of artists by Internet platforms such as Spotify or Google. Or the often difficult access to funds.

With numerous studies in recent years, we have contributed to a better understanding, while also drawing attention to the role of these sectors and their contribution to our economy and society, both in Belgium and at European level.