The creative sector is a key part of the West Midland’s economy with 10% of the UK games industry and substantial strengths in Advertising, Marketing & Design.
Creative Industries in our area
Greater Birmingham has a substantial advertising, marketing and design sector, including web, product, fashion design, PR and data analysis and it also supports design led thinking as a ‘catalyst of growth’ for all sectors. A mix of digital media expertise – from young and diverse to major companies – means the region is well placed to develop a new mixed media kind of storytelling, combining for example, virtual & augmented reality (VR/AR) with theatre and tourism.
It has emerging potential in High-End Film & TV Production and expertise in next Generation Content Creation – including the application of virtual and augmented reality to anything from live theatre and tourism to manufacturing.
Our Impact
- £75,000 funding towards feasibility studies to develop a World Cultural Centre and a new Science and Industry Museum for the region that will help promote Britain to international visitors
- Cultural Zones – eight cultural organisations awarded a total of £77,000 to build capacity and unlock investment to help with the visitor economy.
- Creative Social Enterprises - GBSLEP has been supporting a number of female led creative social enterprises across Birmingham and the Black Country, working with WMCA and Black Country LEP.
- GBSLEP contributed a £3 million grant to the £18 million Creative Content Hub. Our funding will give independent TV producers and creative content developers access to high quality space and equipment. It has been the catalyst for further investment in Digbeth from the BBC.
- £1.3m Creative Sector Scale-Up programme – played a key role in the success of this through early work with Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and key stakeholders.
Greater Birmingham has a large, growing and dynamic creative economy, employing nearly 50,000 people and generating £4.1 billion GVA per annum, almost 9% of the total GVA of £46.8bn.
To hear more about the work GBSLEP is doing for the sector, please contact hello@gbslep.co.uk