Cashing in on creativity

There was a time when the line between what feeds the soul and what feeds the stomach was firm and properly respected: we expected our children to sing and dance, perhaps even paint, play the piano or write poetry, but only as a sideline, a hobby. These are extravagant indulgences one cannot risk one’s life with.

And so, to ensure their future, we advised our children to take up something ‘reliable’ like engineering, commerce, or medicine. It was all so fine to be an artist, but at the end of the day, they have to eat, and so they better find something to do that will feed them, the unwritten part being that the arts cannot be a reliable livelihood.

This is all in hindsight now, but I wonder how many casualties this perspective had wrought, budding artists who were snapped out of their day dreams and forced to do math, as it were, so they could be assured of a proper future?  Just how many poems and novels died before they were born, how many masterpieces the world never saw, songs we never heard because we forced our young to rein in their muses and keep planting camote?

Of course this is not to blame our parents and grandparents, they did the best they could, but these thoughts come to mind as the country prepares for the World Economic Forum that unfolds in Makati this week. The forum, which will showcase to the world the economic success story that is the Philippines, has a component that focuses on the role of creativity in development, a recognition, finally, that progress isn’t all about what the brains can do for the stomach, but also about what they can do to feed the soul.

Finally, the world has realized, the arts can be monetized, creativity can be turned to cash and culture used as an economic tool.  Suddenly, we realized, the artist does not have to be condemned to a life or penury and misery; he can in fact be  a major propeller of the economy.

In the last 15 years or so, we have seen the rise of the so-called creative industries, that sector of the economy fueled by artists, designers and creative people. In the Pinoy setting, economists always point out to our call center industry, which has had a phenomenal growth, as a shining example of this.

To my mind, however,  what best exemplifies the Pinoy creative industry are our graphic designers and illustrators who work on the visuals – books, advertisements, logos, films – that have become so important to businesses all over the world these days.

Dance, music and other performance arts, they who were deemed a generation ago as risky professions, are also becoming a source of stable income and in these, Pinoys are everywhere – from Disneyland to cruise ships to Israel Got Talent, and everything in between.

It is an exciting time to be an artist, indeed, to dream on and create, without having to worry about finding “real work” that will bring in the dough because creativity, finally, pays.

The inevitable question now is: so what else can be done to sustain, if not accelerate, this momentum? Elsewhere, venture capitalists are coming up with the funds to encourage the creative process, perhaps to develop a script that will eventually become a movie, or some computer application that will improve medical technology.

The creative process does not have to focus on such grand or grandiose projects to be monetized. It can be used for such simple undertakings as developing new products and foods that the market can buy. We do not have to look too far: the Showroom of Negros Products started and grew basically on the strength of our housewives’ creativity.

Bacolod and Negros Occidental have a thriving arts and culture scene that could supply the manpower requirements of creative industries. In fact, in many homes these days, our artists work at night on  projects for clients from around the world, proof of the vast human creative resource we have.

How to tap that enormous resource that teems with endless possibilities should be this generation’s priority.*

back to top