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How arts and culture impact innovation outcomes
Factsheet 3 drawn from ANA’s 2019 Insight Report, ‘Transformative: Impacts of culture and creativity’
Innovation – defined as ‘fresh thinking that creates value’ – is a key global driver of industry
growth. It follows that stimulating and supporting innovation has become a key strategic
priority for governments and corporations globally. Given that creativity drives innovation,
Australia can strengthen its capacity for innovation by investing in, and enhancing, our
nation’s creative capabilities.
The need to stimulate creative thinking and actions
Innovation and economic growth are directly correlated – and Australia is currently underperforming on multiple innovation measures, causing us to lag behind our international peers. In recent years we have declined in terms of economic complexity, R&D expenditure, and the sophistication of our human capital, research, infrastructure and markets.
Australia currently measures innovation performance based on our nation’s science and technology research and development activities. This relatively narrow interpretation of innovation ignores the benefits that arts and culture bring to this area. Adopting and applying a multidisciplinary mindset (and measures) will help us identify opportunities for innovation that will assist in growing the economy.
Our reduced performance is further impacted by our current under-investment in creative skills development. If we don’t increase and target our investment, our performance will fall further behind our competitors.
That’s why we need to be systematic and strategic about developing a strong, rich arts and cultural terrain that enhances our nation’s capacity to innovate.
Why use arts and culture to stimulate innovation?
Innovation is crucial to economic diversification, new industry development and future productivity. Therefore, stimulating and supporting innovation has become a key strategic priority for governments and corporations globally. Leading international research shows that arts and culture play a key role in developing creative capacity – the key driver of innovation.
