Selling UK

This past week, British Council Indonesia has posted several advertisements in Kompas about the upcoming IYCEY (International Young Creative Entrepreneur of the Year) Music Awards. Indeed, the end of this month all the way through April will be a busy time for British Council. The Education UK will be promoting UK universities in Jakarta and Bandung, and Love and Money Exhibition, will be presenting works of 25 UK designers in Jakarta.

What’s all these buzz about?

British Council is well on promoting UK, with the intent of selling the idea that UK is the center of creative industries, defined it seems according to John Howkin's Creative Economy. In the next several years, they will have completed several programs, which altogether will strategically sell this idea. When you think of creative industries, you will think of the UK, and vice versa. All grounds relating to the creative industries will have been covered by these programs: they are working with Indonesian government, educational and professional institutions, arts, crafts and design communities, NGOs, aspiring young artists and designers.

As I am currently freelancing for the British Council, I get to scoop a little more into their plans, and I am very much impressed by how strategic and well the institution and the country work. It occurs to me that this conference I attended at the beginning of this year was part of the same effort, sponsored by UK’s Higher Education Academy. And so it goes all around the world through the British Council.

If this effort continues well, America will have to watch out about losing its dominancy, if not in developing countries throughout the world, then maybe in Indonesia. In comparison with other countries like France, The Netherlands, and Germany who have centers to promote their cultures in Indonesia through CCF, Erasmus Huis, and Goethe Institut respectively, with the exception of AMINEF that promotes US education, the United States doesn’t seem to bother with promotion and exchange of cultures. Perhaps the US doesn’t feel the need to do much promotion at present, considering most top universities around the world are currently in the US. But how long would this last?

The only concern I have with UK’s promotion is the definition being used for creative industries that is narrowly correlated with arts and design industries. It could mislead to the perception that other fields of study are not and can not be correlated with creativity. I prefer, rather, the definition of creative industries by Richard Florida in his The Rise of the Creative Class.