About this Report

This report provides a summary of the research findings from the Strategies for Creative Cities Project and informs the strategic opportunities articulated in the following sections. The project team studied a range of creative activities and interventions used in cities around the world to support that activity (see Appendix A). For the purposes of this report, we have grouped these areas of study into five broad categories:

People: We looked at the conditions and activities that stimulate the emergence of future artists, enable the success of creative workers across the economy, attract cultural consumers and build an environment attractive to creative people. Strong public education and access to cultural activities play a vital role in the formation of creative people, and enhances community engagement and social inclusion.

Enterprise: We recognized that creativity often produces economic opportunity and that cultural entrepreneurs start and grow creative businesses. Commercializing creative talent enhances wealth and employment generation in the city. We saw how creative enterprises benefit from entrepreneurship support, training and mentoring, incubators and convergence centres.

Space: We identified a strong link between creativity and space. Creative practitioners need space to live, to work, to display and to inspire. A city’s spaces — both natural and built – accommodate, stimulate and express their residents’ creativity. We found that creative spaces must be affordable as well as inspiring.

Connectivity: We considered how an urban environment that stimulates and supports creativity must also connect many isolated initiatives. That connectivity is often, if not always, developed by leadership bodies with a creativity mandate and vision, and supported by intermediaries and organizations that bring disparate initiatives together and effectively leverage resources. In order to be enduring and stable, a city’s creative ecology must be well-integrated so that artists, creative industries, government agencies, investment programs, and research communities can interact in productive, mutually reinforcing ways.

Vision & Voice: We saw the need for civic organizations, governments and citizens to recognize and celebrate their city’s creative achievements. By articulating and expressing a strong creative vision, a city’s confidence and appreciation of local talent will grow, marshalling support for a city-wide creativity agenda. This voice tells the city’s story worldwide, generating ‘buzz’ and promoting tourism, exports and investment.

The following sections of this report analyze Toronto’s strengths and weaknesses in each of the first four categories above, identifying strategic opportunities for action. Taken as a whole, this report is intended as a first critical step in generating the coherent vision and voice that will be necessary to realize these opportunities.

In this report, the terms creative industries, creative occupations and creative workers are used to define a specific set of jobs and employees.

Creative Workers are defined as people who work in the following Creative Occupations: Architects and Landscape Architects | Industrial Designers, Graphic Designers and Interior Designers | Writers and Editors | Producers, Directors, Choreographers and Related Occupations | Conductors, Composers and Arrangers | Musicians, Singers and Dancers | Actors and Other Performers | Painters, Sculptors, Illustrating Artists and Other Visual Artists | Photographers | Announcers and Other Broadcasters | Theatre, Fashion, Exhibit and Other Creative Designers | Artisans, Craftspersons and Patternmakers