Creative entrepreneurship in 2022 and beyond: some implications for higher education

Nearly ten years ago, I wrote a conceptual journal article named ‘Not a Dirty Word: Arts Entrepreneurship and Higher Education’ for the Journal of Arts and Humanities in Higher Education (Bridgstock, 2013). At that time, entrepreneurship was gaining a presence in higher education creative degree programs in the UK and Australia. In part, it was finding purchase in curricula because of scrutiny around graduate outcomes, and in some institutions, creative industries discourse. However, there was still a sense that by addressing entrepreneurship in creative degrees, universities might be compromising their commitment to disciplinary depth and critical engagement for instrumental graduate outcomes and neoliberalism. Some were worried that the art school and conservatoire were being invaded by the business school, bringing with it curricula of questionable relevance to creative practice, and a profit-motive at odds with deeply held creative values. In that article, my intention was to reassure creative practitioners and educators that there are ways of thinking about creative entrepreneurship that are actually highly congruent with the creative ethos. My argument was that all creative practitioners are entrepreneurs (whether pushed or pulled to it), and all can learn to hone these capabilities for their benefit. A pragmatic approach does not absolve governments of responsibility to support a strong subsidised arts sector, or regulate for fair working conditions. Nor does it condone precarious labour and exploitative working practices. In the article, I also argued that it did not seem appropriate for most students of creative practice to learn entrepreneurship skills through courses that do not address the nuances of creative practice and contexts.In this present chapter, I take my 2012 article as a base, and explore how thinking and practice in creative entrepreneurship has changed and developed over the last decade. I consider shifts to creative entrepreneurship because of the networked economy, the 4th industrial age, and what this means for creative entrepreneurship education going forward.