This is Part 2 of a three-part series on the future of creative careers.
→ Part 1: Creative careers sure don’t work like they used to.
→ Part 3: Our common goals, collaboration & what’s next.
We value every industry that contributes to the happiness, health and wealth of society; so why are creative people so often ignored?
If you’re reading this, I expect you’ve come from Part 1. If not, you might like to go back and read that first.
It’s hard to know how a piece like that comes across. One person might see it as a complaint. Another might see it as gospel. I suppose all our experiences are unique to us; the thing I hope came across is that I deeply care about creative people and the world that we’re building to support that.
I don’t for a second think that everybody deserves to be handed a creative career or that everybody is going to get to live that reality.
But I do think it should be easier. After all, creativity is proven to have such wide reaching benefits to society. I think too often creatives are an afterthought, considered not critical.
But I want to challenge that. Creative work is critical and the people behind it are as important to the fabric, health & wealth of society as anyone else.
Without further ado, let’s get into Part 2.
In this article:
The unfair situation creatives everywhere have found themselves in and why we need to start changing it at a societal level.
A few numbers on the true impact and value of creativity on society.
The risk going forward and ideas to start making change.
The world runs on what creatives make.
Think about all the creativity that people are consuming in the world right now. A new film or TV series. A song or an album. A podcast or a book. You get the idea.
But how often does everyone think about the people behind the creative work? How often is the world thinking about you and your livelihood as a creator?
The best parts of our world are fuelled by creative people. We are learning from other creatives. We’re being entertained by creatives. We have endless access to the world’s creativity literally in our palm. And some of that is your creative work that you’ve shared with the world.
Creativity is important. I think we can agree on that.
But are creatives being fairly rewarded for their efforts?
As a society, we seem to be spending more time assuming creative people can’t earn enough and don’t spend enough time thinking about how to change that.
The world is fuelled by creativity. So why is it so hard to make a career in this area? Everybody is constantly looking for that new experience that means something to them. We only get to experience creative work because somebody, against all odds, decided to make a thing for us.
Yet here we are. Still struggling to make names for ourselves as creative people and bring in enough income to sustain what we make.
“Have you had to get a real job yet?”
How many times have you heard something like this? I know I have.
It cuts. It doesn’t matter if it’s from someone you care about or a stranger’s misguided question. It still hurts. We may guard ourselves from it. We tell ourselves “that’s just their story, not mine” but deep down you can’t deny you feel it.
All you can think is this IS a real job, in a real industry, with more value and impact and meaning and importance to society than most people realise.
One could argue, with plenty of significant and respected studies mind you, that the impact of the arts and culture is more wide-reaching than any other industry or career choice.
Yeah, I said it and I mean it.
We might not provide food or water or electricity or save lives. I value the work of everyone out there who makes society worth living and keeps us healthy. But the idea that creative work isn’t essential for society must be changed.
Creative people and those that support creatives, we provide culture and social cohesion and health and wellness outcomes and education outcomes and significant economic impact, usually way above the expectation. And that’s just the stuff we can measure.
How is a happier, healthier, more productive, and more prosperous society not of more value to the world?
Its easy to look and see direct impact from other sectors. And easier to overlook the indirect impact of the arts.
I think it’s because the systems we’ve built over the last century to reward creative people for their contribution to society are broken.
For too long we’ve suggested that creative careers are for the few and the rest of us should work hard on something else.
That is a hangover from an old word and we need to change that perspective because it’s devaluing human craft.
You can also find this video on our YouTube channel, where we publish all our video essays. Watch on YouTube
There are numbers to support this
In Australia, the creative economy provides employment to 714,632 people as of the 2021 census. Not bad! It’s actually a $122 billion industry here in Australia, and growing rapidly. We’re talking about an industry that globally contributes 3%-5% to global GDP and could grow beyond 10% in the next decade.
Again not bad for an industry that is chronically underfunded. The broader creative industries is a strategic advantage for growing and emerging economies.
And think about who it reaches. Is there a day that goes by that everybody doesn’t benefit from some type of creativity?
Without going into the rabbit hole of “everything is creative” just thinking about arts and culture. If you can make it through a day without experiencing art, cutlture and human creativity I’ll be amazed. Genuinely amazed. And that’s just passive consumption.
When we actively engage with arts and and culture, like attending events for example or participating in the arts, our happiness improves, our understanding (and social cohesion) improves, our education outcomes improve and so too does our health.
But we forget about the people behind the creation.
It is getting more expensive, not less, to be an artist.
Creative people take on significant risk. Both financial risk, but also just with their time. Imagine a doctor training all their life without the promise of paid work at the end, but they do it anyway.
It’s hard to imagine because we value the work of a doctor. I’m not here to compare apples to oranges, but I also don’t see why two people making their best contributions to society cannot be regarded as equal.
A society after all is about everybody making their best contriobution.
And this too is backed by numbers, here in Australia, artists on average earn well below minimum wage. That’s often the lucky ones.
It cannot be the fault of the artist, or the people around them; this is a broken system and it starts from the way we value creativity as a skill and creative people who commit to their craft.
This to me says that the way we view creativity, the way we protect it, the way we support it, the way we fund it and the way we teach it, needs to adapt. And rapidly, before the future overtakes us.
This feels like a fork in the road moment
We’re at the beginning of the biggest change our world has seen this century.
Yes, right at the beginning. The internet is a teenager but AI is a newborn, so to speak. We’re on the horizon of a whole range of jobs vanishing. It’s not just creativity that is under threat. Everyone’s asking themselves: what will my contribution be? I get that it’s not just creative people who are asking “well, what now?”
But after a couple of decades researching, teaching, and working across the creative industries, I really think that it’s time to find ways to double-down on creativity; on a whole of society level.
We need to ask serious questions of ourselves. We need to ask serious questions of those around us. We need to ask serious questions of the institutions and governments that supposedly support creativity.
Will we let human creativity be replaced and replicated by the algorithmic predictions of AI? Or will we rise to the challenge and create an economic system that can support innovation and art and connection and culture and health and learning and new economies and all of the things that the creative industries produce?
Will we create a world where actual humans are the champions of creativity, or will we let AI replace the stuff that is most important to us?
It’s a ridiculous thing to be asking in 2026 with all of the knowledge and the resources we have. But I genuinely feel like these questions are going unanswered.
Do we want a future where creative people can make a living and contribute creative work to society?
Do we want a future where creative work is made by humans?
Do we want a future where we have new art, culture & experiences?
Or are we willing to let creativity die out?
Some will argue that creative people will create regardless; I believe that. But over the course of history, we have understood the imperitave for an economic incentive. Copyright laws were created to incentivise people to create. Our world today benefits greatly from works that never would have been created without these laws.
Yet today, our laws remain unfit for a modern world. Not to mention the complexity of the world means we need way more than an update of copyright for creative careers to be viable.
We need creative people to enter the sector, not leave it.
We need managers and producers and people who support and believe in creatives to be able to actually work in the sector, not burn out.
This has to begin from the way we value creativity and more importantly, creative people and the significant contribution they make.
I think there’s always been this disconnect between how much society values creative work and how little it values creative workers. And now, with tech companies pilfering creatives’ hard-won skills and insights and intellectual property, not paying for it, and then feeding it back to people so they can pay for it in the form of software, we need to be really careful about where we’re heading.
To frame this simply I increasingly believe that creativity is valued, but creatives are not.
So what do we do?
I know there are incredible people, organisations, educators, even some politicians working tirelessly at this problem every day. It’s not like nobody is trying. But I still fear that too much of what is being done is either supporting the way that creativity used to exist in the world, or isn’t organised enough to create the opportunities for people to enter and grow in the industry long term.
We are chipping away at the edges of the problem. When this problem would be better addressed with a Super Bowl commercial (I’m not kidding, I have an idea for one, if you know anyone who could help me fund it).
Too much of what we’re doing are small initiatives that support some creatives in some places. But now is a time to think more boldly, to completely reimagine a future where anyone who calls themselves a creative person can choose that future if they want. We have the technology, the tools, and we’re getting closer day by day to potentially having the economic conditions.
Creative people have never really been prioritised. We’ve never been the ones who have held the most money or power or influence. And so it’s been hard to come together and push for change. But right now, it does feel like more people are realising how hard it is; as their livelihoods are in the firing line, everyone is in the same boat and realising how scary it is to stare into a future and have no idea if you can earn any money from your skill.
We need to ask these questions right now because there is a world where creativity stops here; if AI becomes a replacement for human creativity, then true creativity and innovation will end.
That is not to say that AI will not have a place as a tool in the creative process; it absolutely is already and will continue to be for many.
But this is a question of value, what we value; who we value and how we show it.
I for one am tired of the idea that creativity isn’t a real career.
It is. because creatives matter. Creative work matters. And if you call yourself a creative person or you support creative people in their work, your work is vital. To our health, happiness and economic future.
It’s time we valued that for the contribution it truly brings.
A few questions to sit with:
Have you ever felt devalued by others who don’t get your career or career path? How did that make you feel?
When you have felt valued by others, how has that changed things for you? What if that was all the time?
If the creative economy continues to grow like it is, how do you think that economic impact should be reinvested?
What conversations do you think we all need to have and who with to make societal change?
Thanks again for reading & for reflecting here with me.
I know this is a ridiculously big and maybe unsolvable problem. But it’s too important to not try and make inroads. Creativity, I think, depends on it and I’d love to hear what you think, too.
With optimism,
Steve
Ready for more?
Up next is Part 3 in the series: Our common goals, collaboration & what’s next.
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