Brian Rudman: Time to stop the talk and take creative action

There's a glaring absentee from the roll-call of creative industries listed in Auckland City's new "snapshot" report on the sector - the art of report writing.

How could they miss it out? Reading the acknowledgments to the cast of dozens involved in this latest exercise, one could be forgiven for jumping to the conclusion that it is Auckland's most labour-intensive creative activity of all.

To mark the snapshot's launch, Councillor Richard Northey, chairman of the economic development and sustainable development committee, was all gung-ho about the follow-up action plan, which is due mid-2006 and is to show the way to enhance and support the growth of this sector in the city.

As a participant in this sector, I do so want to believe it all means something, but deep down, all I can think of is: Do I have enough shelf space for yet another report on how to foster Auckland's economic growth?

It was salutary timing that this "we want to be the creative capital" report came out the day before the launch of the programme for next February's Wellington-based New Zealand International Arts Festival.

A quick drool through that programme was enough to suggest we Auckland pretenders have a way to go before anyone else is going to take our claim seriously.

That's not to say we don't have a case. The report reveals that well over 30 per cent of New Zealand's creative sector workforce is in Auckland City. Numerically, Auckland City has 13,616 workers engaged in the creative industries compared with Wellington's paltry 4540. If you lump in the satellite cities, the difference is even greater, with Auckland region employing 17,974 to Wellington region's 5433.

Of course the creative sector is rather broader than "the arts". Indeed, the performing and visual arts employ fewer than 2000 people fulltime in Auckland City. That's the ones who are GST-registered and turn up in the official statistics anyway.

The biggest segment of "creative industry" is "design", which employs 5400 and includes the dark arts of advertising. Close behind comes screen production and radio, then publishing.

Exactly how you develop a creative industries development plan that caters for people as diverse as fat cat advertising moguls and the struggling musician in his garage studio, I wait to see.

The random quotes in the report underline this. The concerns are those of anyone trying to do business in the city: Traffic, parking, want cheap broadband, traffic. They moan about the lack of good urban design and the difficulty of finding affordable and appropriately located office space and venues.

One graphic designer called the city centre "a vacuous hole, compared with Wellington, which has soul", and an art gallery owner didn't think "Auckland offers anything really except numbers".

They do agree that a thriving creative sector has a "feel good" effect on public morale and the city's image. They also want to be wanted, gazing enviously at whatever goes on in Wellington.

Say the report writers: "They want to know that the council is on the case. They like the way Wellington has embraced and promoted creative industries, making them a central part of Wellington's brand. They think Wellington really likes and notices its creative people."

If this is an accurate summary of the creative sector's view, I think they're being a tad unfair. Auckland City is a paragon among cities when it comes to supporting the creative arts. Sure, we all demand it do more, but with little help from the rest of the region, and without the huge central Government financial input Wellington enjoys for its "national" arts organisations, Auckland City is the major funder of our major cultural institutions.

Instead of clamouring for more help from the city council, wouldn't it be wonderful if those doing the clamouring were a bit more community-minded and got in behind, for example, Auckland's festival in the same way as Wellington's movers and shakers back theirs.

If Auckland's creative classes want to steal Wellington's crown, then who better to lead the charge than themselves. It's their trade after all. Why leave everything to the poor old city council and its ratepayers?