The creative industries have changed and over the years have begun to encompass a much broader variety of crafts. What it means to be ‘an artist’ is subjective and varies from person to person but what we do know is there is no specific Mecca for artists to all flock to. Where creative work is, creatives must go to…together we can Boycott Unemployment. We’re all too aware of major cities and the great opportunities they offer but let’s look at smaller cityscapes that are attracting young professional creatives like never before…
Leipzig
Germany has always valued its contemporary artists and there, Berlin is the European space that most Brits head to for their fashion, music and art scene. However with Berlin over saturated with artists the smaller cities are coming to the fore. Leipzig, a city with a long and glorious history with music has recently developed its own football team after a cash injection and foreign students can study for free at the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts. The developing visual artists can also stay in an abundance of concrete brutalist 70s apartment complexes.
Sao Paulo
Overlooked even though its enormous size makes it the largest city in South America, it has over 40 galleries and over 10 different art museums. Less interested in the classical arts scenes of more conservative cities, there is a thriving architectural firm scene as well as many different forms of graffiti. Grassroots funding and a low cost of living make this city a haven for new, up and coming artists.
Brighton
One of many coastal cities in Great Britain is the flamboyant capital of pride that is: Brighton. There is a strong LGBT presence in the city and they are among the most tolerant of ethnic and sexual minorities in the entire country. On top of that the jobs market as a whole has been rapidly increasing since around 2015 and jobs within the holistic industry are in profusion. Think yoga, therapy as well as creative and organic vegan solutions food and drink.
Seoul
South Korea sits close to superpowers China and Japan. With the swing of the 2010 the popularity of J-Pop has been vastly overtaken by the K-Pop phenomenon. Moving here as a foreign national is fairly easy as the TEFL programme is one of the best in the world, providing room and board as well as a hefty salary and bags of free time to indulge in whichever of the creative industries thriving businesses you chose. Developments in music, art and fashion have seen Seoul take it’s rightful place in the list of most creative cities 2018.
Stockholm
Stockholm or any of Scandinavia’s capitals or smaller cities, are all great places with enough government funding for the arts as any area has ever seen. Spaces are safe, friendly and welcoming to international creatives. Furthermore the fashion scene here is currently going through it’s best years ever with the growing trend of Nordic style clothes with brands like Acne, Libertine-Libertine and Weekday all fronting stores from this exuberant expanse of land.
