Creative Industries

What are the creative industries?

R & D
Advertising
Architecture and related services
Crafts and designer furniture
Culture and Heritage (includes tourism)
Fashion clothing and textile
Film, video and other audiovisual production
Design
Software
Live and recorded music
Performing arts and entertainments
Television, radio and internet broadcasting
Visual arts, galleries(includes photography)
Writing and publishing (includes printing)
Independent Artists, Writers and Performers

The higher the degree of creativity in a process, the more easily it can be located anywhere, governed not by the level of cost but by the presence of human creative energy. This, then, is the key to Maine’s future prosperity—human creative energy.

Creativity is a product that needs not the whirling current of a river or the vastness of a thick, pine forest to be produced. Already, the arts and culture industry employs as many people as the wood products industry[1] . “(Our) most recent figures state that with 63,000 employees in the creative industries sectors, these sectors are only slightly smaller than employment in manufacturing (68,000), and larger than all local government (60,000). With 7,500 employees, the arts and culture industries (a sub-sector of all creative industries) are larger than wood products manufacturing in Maine, which employed 6,900. In addition, the arts and culture sector as a whole grew by nearly 24% in the past five years, a growth curve not seen in the wood products industry.” Creativity can be seen and felt throughout the state, from the cottage industry of back-office photography studios, to a clustering of custom shipbuilders, to an award winning super bowl ad, to the vibrant independent music industry, to custom designers and manufacturers of pocketbooks and rugs and clothing. The list goes on and can continue to, limited only by the imaginations and energy of those who do, or could be attracted to, live in Maine.

(Special thanks to Senior Economist, Charles T. Lawton for his contribution of ideas and historical context regarding Maine’s economy.)