This portion of the website provides access to Hill Strategies Research work on creative neighbourhoods, creative cities, the "creative class" and creative people.
The concept of creativity, as applied to people, classes, neighbourhoods and cities, has been thrust into the limelight by the success of Richard Florida's book The Rise of the Creative Class. In this context, the arts, culture, creativity and innovation are receiving significant attention from economic development and urban planning spheres. But what does a creative city look like? How do artists and cultural organizations contribute to this urban ecology?
See below to access our work on creative neighbourhoods, classes, cities and people.
This report provides an analysis of artists residing in 92 municipalities across Canada with at least 50,000 residents in 2001. Statistics in the report show that, among large Canadian cities:
-Vancouver has the highest percentage of labour force in the arts -Toronto has the highest average earnings of artists -Montreal has the highest average earnings of artists as a percentage of average local labour force earnings -Barrie had the largest percentage increase in the number of artists between 1991 and 2001 -B.C. has a large number of municipalities with high concentrations of artists.
A key finding of this report – that there are significant concentrations of artists in small and rural municipalities across the country – demonstrates that the arts contribute to the quality of life and the social and economic vitality of many small and rural communities in Canada.
This report highlights creative neighbourhoods across the country – areas where artists interact and help shape the character of their communities. Using mapping technology, the report examines artists as a percentage of the labour force in various postal regions – “neighbourhoods” – based on 2001 census data.
Nationwide, the “most creative neighbourhood” is H2W in Montreal’splateau area, which has an artistic concentration of 8.0%, 10 times thenational average of 0.8%. The most creative rural area is Nunavut’s X0Aregion. This area, encompassing Baffin Island (Iqaluit, Cape Dorset,etc.), has an artistic concentration of 3.4%.
The concept of creativity, as applied to people, classes, neighbourhoods and cities, has been thrust into the limelight by the success of Richard Florida's book The Rise of the Creative Class. In this context, the arts, culture, creativity and innovation are receiving significant attention from economic development and urban planning spheres. But what does a creative city look like? How do artists and cultural organizations contribute to this urban ecology? This issue of the Arts Research Monitor attempts to synthesize a variety of reports on the topic of creative people, classes, neighbourhoods and cities.
The suggestion in the Harvard Business Review’s 2004 Breakthrough Ideas edition (February 2004) that a Masters of Fine Arts degree has become the new MBA is a sign of heightened interest and recognition of the developmental role played by creative professionals in the economic, physical and social evolution of a city. But what is the definition of a creative city? What are the benefits and barriers to the creative city process? This issue of the Arts Research Monitor focuses on four research papers that seek to provide some answers to these questions.
Artists in Large Canadian Cities 
