Councillor Huw Thomas, Leader of Cardiff Council:
I’d like to wish Creative Cardiff a very happy fifth birthday and congratulate the team on their achievements to date. The creative sector is at the forefront of our city’s Economic Strategy, and one of the many reasons why Cardiff Council were one of the founder members of this network.
The events, research, projects and business development work undertaken by Creative Cardiff has without doubt contributed to our city’s emergence as a leading UK centre for the creative industries.
The sector has grow n from strength to strength in recent years and is now celebrated internationally for what we make here. We’re home to some of the UK’s biggest and best prime-time TV productions, exporting across the globe and working with some of the biggest names in the industry.
Creative Cardiff has played a significant part in securing investment into the sector including leading on the Clwstwr screen innovation research and development project with Cardiff’s two other Universities. Creative Cardiff’s industry events share the latest thinking and technology in the sector, bringing people together to share best practice in creative business. This is also critical to how we nurture innovation in the city. We see Creative Cardiff’s work promoting employment opportunities to sustain and develop talent – from every part of the city and region – as hugely important. and essential to future growth.
Cardiff has successfully transformed its economy in recent decades from industry to services, and subsequently a flourishing knowledge economy, establishing successful bases for financial, tech and creative sectors. Among the many challenges we now have to face, a priority for the city is to develop these sectors to deliver more and better jobs for the people of Cardiff and the wider city-region. Our ambition is to further establish Cardiff as a global leader for the creative industries and put Cardiff at the heart of the UK’s creative and digital sector. We look forward to working with colleagues in Creative Cardiff and the wider sector in Cardiff and the region to help achieve this.
Graeme Farrow, Artistic Director, Wales Millennium Centre:
Creative Cardiff must be congratulated in the role they have played as a lighthouse for the creative industries in Wales and for Wales in the world. They have been a beacon for our emerging talent and shone a light on the innovations and ideas being developed in Wales.
The team has used its considerable energy, talent and dogged determination to provide much needed hope and practical support for creativity in our city.
We fully support the approach that our future cultural and creative development must be driven by grassroots initiatives, and by harnessing the skills, ideas and power of creativity of our young people. For individuals to have their creativity recognised and nurtured, the effect can be life changing. Creative Cardiff has also demonstrated that by bringing people together: this can have a significant impact at scale.
Importantly they have also attracted funding that will allow our talent to achieve its potential. Funding is the crucial enabler that will allow ideas to grow into future economic success and employment opportunities. I have no doubt that the initiatives Creative Cardiff has taken will continue to grow and will pay dividends for years to come.
Wales Millennium Centre shares the view that the creative industries will be a major engine of growth for Wales which is why we have been pleased to be a founding member. Creative Cardiff have been a catalyst for change and the result is that we can now see the network effect taking hold in Cardiff. Given what has been achieved in five years, we look forward to being a part of the exciting potential that will be unleashed in the next five years. Congratulations to Sara Pepper and the team.
Rhodri Talfan Davies, BBC Director of Nations and Director BBC Cymru Wales:
Creative Cardiff couldn’t have marked their fifth birthday at a more difficult time - for the creative industry and for the country as a whole. But, the networks and connections they’ve created during those five years of collaboration and innovation couldn’t be more necessary as we look to support this brilliant industry in the wake of a global pandemic. Thanks to Creative Cardiff there’s a solid network in place to boost and harness the creative spirit and help turbo charge the sector back to full strength.
BBC Cymru Wales became one of Creative Cardiff’s founder members at a time of great change for us as a broadcaster. Five years on, the vision of a broadcast hub in Central Square has been realised. It’s more than that of course – it’s also a home for the creative sector offering a base for local independent TV companies, as well as a base for the brand-new National Film and Television School in Wales. And we’ve only got there thanks to the fantastic creative networks we have here in the city and across Wales who’ve worked with us along the way.
So here’s to the next five years of Creative Cardiff – llongyfarchiadau a phob llwyddiant i’r dyfodol.
