This research focuses on the creative community (or communities) that exist/s within HW/FI and the QEOP. Besides firms of varied sizes, entrepreneurs, artists, and freelancers, the creative community consists of other actors that support and interact with them and others in and around the geographic area of study. The diagram below represents the framing utilised in this project to understanding these different groups.
Although the focus has been on the creative community (■), this research has identified four sub-categories within it, namely:
- The live/work communities in the warehouses in HW/FI;
- The creative businesses in studios and workspaces across the area;
- The creative businesses operating independently; and
- Other actors in the creative community who do not necessarily conform to the aforementioned categories.
In order to access the knowledge within each of these groups, the researchers have immersed themselves by engaging in diverse activities with people from these groups. This has led to fruitful conversations that span beyond the scope of this research and promise future collaborations. Likewise, a collaboration with Creative Wick‘s Living Lab to develop a citizen scientist approach to research has been developed to better understand the work-live communities in HW/FI warehouses. Furthermore, a number of cases have been identified in which actors and organisations in the community have shown great resilience by adapting business models and developing new offerings during the pandemic. A crosscutting thematic in all these cases is the search for synergies that allow for the implementation of new ideas that benefit and generate value for the wider community.