Creative practitioners, microenterprises, venues and cultural organisations across Argyll and Bute have been engaged in bespoke development support through an innovative initiative from CHARTS in partnership with Dr Michael Pierre Johnson from the Innovation School at The Glasgow School of Art.

Backed by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland’s Create:Networks fund and Michael’s AHRC Innovation Leadership Fellowship in the Creative and Digital Economy, The Value of Creative Growth, interconnected creative communities throughout the region participated in mapping, knowledge sharing, peer-to-peer networking and direct development support.

The partnership did this in five key stages: a scoping stage, a cultural profiling stage, a themed engagement stage, Place Makers: Microcluster Networks, where Creative Scotland’s Create:Networks fund led to awards of £5,500 for each of three creative ‘place making’ collaborations across Argyll and Bute, and developmental evaluation throughout.

This report presents these stages in sequence, sharing the approaches used, insights gained and recommendations identified for how CHARTS, its members and its wider network of regional partners can build on the opportunities identified on:
• how mapping and modelling ‘creative growth’ can enable the understanding and development of creative and cultural microenterprises;
• how ‘microclusters’ can contribute to the sustainability and resilience of culture, heritage and arts in Argyll and Bute.

• https://www.chartsargyllandisles.org/med...