Successful Launch at NT Libraries

There was a solid showing from those interested in creative industries (CI) and specifically the launch of the creative tropical cities report last Tuesday evening and Wednesday noon. Creative Tropical City: Mapping Darwin's Creative Epicentres helped to establish empirically what many of us may have already believed, namely, that Darwin is already an established creative city and has tremendous potential to move beyond a grassroots CI industry. "The research could very well have shown the opposite, that we just thought we were a creative city," suggested Donal Fitzpatrick, a key member of the research team. When asked why invest in CI in this time of economic downturn, the research team made it very clear that growing CI in Darwin would present a key way to diversify the economy and make it more resilient to the booms and busts of the current resource dependency. The report showed that CI provided a similar if not higher level of employment and flow through benefits to Darwin than the current tourism industry which receives a great deal more focus and investment. The Creative Tropical City Exhibition will continue at the NT Library through to next weekend February 22.