I have taken the Coasters from the workshop, digitised them and clustered them. The two questions asked were;
What barriers have you faced accessing the creative industries? & How might Design/Creative institutions help remove this barrier?
Digitising them has allowed me to organise and categorise them, this helps to work out shared experiences and problems faced. A quick taster just now for you;
Representation
There is a need for representation within the industry. Despite there being Working-class people within the industry they rarely get the promotion level as others. With any group there are positives in seeing yourself represented within that industry, encouraging you to go for it.
Outreach and Access
Feelings that there is a need for lower entry and access to creative industries. Allow people to access creative industries out with expensive education to test and try out what they like. Also, the availability of creative networks (Scotland in this case), with the central belt being the hot spot.
Nepotism and Connections
People from Working-class backgrounds often have little to no connections within creative industries. Often being one of the first in their family to enter the industry. There is a need for connections to be spread and help create a supportive and equal network.
Supporting Creative Careers
Within high school education, there tends to be a lack of support of creative careers. Many people sharing stories of schools not supporting it at all. STEM industries are often being encouraged, with teachers having a greater understanding of these. Also, the stigma around creative industries being lower paid stops teachers from encouraging this.
Cultural Stigma
Stigma around creative industries has been a key topic for everyone involved in this project. Speaking to people whose family’s activity discouraged them from getting creative jobs. This is partly due to how creative industries present themselves, seen as typically more middle-class. There is stigma and pushback around this.
Money
Money is the obvious one. But breaking it down a key issue was costs for experience and employment. Right now, unpaid internships are the norm. This is an obvious barrier as often people rely on jobs to keep themselves afloat, meaning that taking on an unpaid opportunity is unrealistic. Also costs around interviews and employment, hearing stories directly from people who couldn’t attend job interviews because they couldn’t afford train prices.
This is a very surface-level look at these barriers. With all these Barriers they link in many ways, playing into the larger issue of under-representation and barriers to accessing creative industries.
Thank you for taking your time to read, promise it will be shorter next time. If you would like or chat or work together, please reach out.