Vicki joined the team in 2019 after working to support the film and television industry in Wales through BAFTA Cymru and Mad Dog Casting. The focus of her work at Creative Cardiff is to nurture and grow the network by curating a series of events and initiatives for the creative economy community in the city and beyond.
She writes:
I joined the Creative Cardiff team nearly two years ago. I would say that it has taken me nearly all of that time to truly understand the scope and wide range of work that Creative Cardiff does and has the potential to do. The opportunities that present themselves for us to engage and run with are plentiful and much of that is testament to Sara and the team’s relationship building across the University, the sector and the city as a whole.
Whilst it’s been an incredibly challenging year for all of us as a result of the pandemic, there have been some golden moments. Some may appear small and we may not shout about widely such as the very open and honest sharing and connecting that took place in workshops between our commissioned creatives for the Our creative Cardiff project. Or watching from the corner of Rabble Studios as students from across the three Universities networked, swapped contact details and planned collaborations at the coworking hub crawl in March. Other achievements are more public such as launching and gaining 2000+ listens of our new podcast series or our In conversation with events at the start of lockdown with creative leaders, or hosting the first ever gathering of creative network leaders from around the UK.
I see the concept of the ‘network’ as much more than the individuals and organisations signed up to our site. It’s all the people who engage in our work – who listen to our podcasts or attend an event. It’s the students we mentor through placements and catch up with over coffee. It’s the hundreds of quick email connections we set up and the pieces of knowledge we accrue and share.
As we look to the future, we will look to enrich our three main areas of focus – Connections and Collaborations, Telling Cardiff’s creative story, and Enterprise and Entrepreneurship - with even more value and purpose. Creative Cardiff as a model is not a fixed entity. We must continue to work hard to identify how and in what ways we can be most valuable to the groups we serve and adapt and grow accordingly. The COVID-19 pandemic and the move to digital and remote working has provided us with an opportunity to open up new connections, conversations and ideas which we’ll look to explore in the immediate and longer-term future.
In 2020, the role and place of networks proved to be more vital than ever, with the need for shorter advocacy loops and direct pathways to policy makers and emergency funding providers. New sector and topic specific networks and taskforces have been established across the city with the aim to collect and share the voices of certain groups that might previously have been unheard. Creative Cardiff must continue to connect with and support these people, sharing our experience and knowledge of network building in order for us to continue providing an overarching, broad and informed perspective which represents the creative economy as a whole.
The foundation of the network and its reputation has been growing over the past five years. For this to continue we must continue to listen, be involved, respond and reflect in our offering. We hope to continue to develop our understanding about networks and share that knowledge with other Welsh cities and towns for the benefit of the whole of the Welsh creative economy.
Our mission is to strengthen and showcase Cardiff’s creative accomplishments and our vision is for Cardiff to be recognised as the capital of creativity in the UK. This can be brought about by working with partners to continue to build and develop meaningful connections and inspire a confident and innovative creative community. We want to increase connectivity between the Universities, colleges and the creative sector, increase collaboration between creative individuals and organisations and raise the awareness of Cardiff’s creative economy outside of the city.
A final thought…. A creative freelancer recently remarked to me that he treats Creative Cardiff as his “morning coffee” – a source to connect to the latest news and opportunities across the creative sectors. And that’s how I’d like us to be thought of now and into the future – full of energy and vital to many of those who populate our city region’s creative economy.
