Mapping the Creative Hubs in Northern Ireland.

Boom Studios is delighted to be partnering with and working for the British Council this Spring.

We have been successful in biding for a project that will Map the Creative Hubs in Northern Ireland.

This project is part of a wider exercise run by the British Council, aiming to map creative hubs across all four UK nations. This will refresh the body of knowledge on creative hubs and their ecosystem, providing understanding on how has the sector developed, what are the trends, where do hubs bring impact and what are their challenges and successes. 

The British Council has worked with over one thousand creative hubs globally since 2014.

Their definition of  a creative hub is ‘a physical or virtual place that brings enterprising people together who work in the creative and cultural industries’. Creative hubs are really communities of support for creative professionals, as well as catalyst platforms that contribute to an inclusive and sustainable creative economy. 

In 2020 and 2021, the Mapping of Creative Hubs in Scotland report and the Mapping of Creative Hubs in England report were published.

The purpose of this mapping is to offer a wide understanding of where creative hubs are situated across Northern Ireland, what they look like, how they work, and what their challenges and ambitions, how they collaborate internationally [if they do], if they report themselves to the global Sustainable Development Goals or other objectives, if they work towards a social impact or not, etc.

It is our hope that the Northern Ireland report will bring in new opportunities for hubs in terms of both local and international collaborations. The report will also be a means of promoting Northern Ireland’s creative economy to a wider audience, as well as a tool to compare trends among the UK nations.

For the British Council it will mean a wider network of creative hubs and their members who could be engaged in international opportunities.

For the hubs themselves, the report will be an up-to-date resource for advocating to partners, funders, policy makers, etc. It can also be a great tool for understanding who their peers are and for sharing and learning experiences.

February 2022

We have completed our first phase of the research an complied a list of the virtual and physical hubs and we are beginning to contact them to introduce the project.

April 2022

The report is completed and we are looking for to the publication.