In The Netherlands there are roughly two approaches to “culture and/or creative industries”. Both are used, depending on the users aim, and on the methodological choices:
- the broadest one including all cultural and creative activities, subsidised or not (“cultural and creative sector” or “culture and media sector”)
- a specific commercial part of the sector, where creativity is used as the most important production factor (“creative industries”)
The basic tripartition is: creative business services (e.g. enterprises of product designers, architects, fashion designers, digital designers, graphic designers and photographers), media and entertainment (e.g. enterprises of publishers, game developers, film-, television- and radio makers, DJ’s and VJ’s) and arts and cultural heritage (e.g. enterprises of museums, monuments, performing and visual arts, writers). The ”cultural and creative sector” includes all three, whereas “creative industries” includes more or less creative business services and media and entertainment. The Monitor Creative Industries (Monitor Creatieve Industrie ), a series of studies 2014-2023, used this tripartition to describe detailed information on the development of the creative industries in the Netherlands. The edition 2023 concludes: “from 2012 through 2022, job growth in the creative industries averaged 2.7 percent per year. In that same period, the number of jobs in the overall economy grew by an average of 1.2 percent per year. (…) The strongest job growth within the creative industries is attributable to creative business services, particularly in design.”
Statistics Netherlands (CBS) used in the Satellite Account a comparable broad demarcation of the sector, but used another methodology based on goods and services as used in the National Accounts. One of the advantages is the possibility to estimate the creative work of professionals outside the cultural and creative sector (e.g. the designer in the car industry). With this methodology a better estimation can be made of the economic significance of the sector. The gross value added from the production of cultural and media products and services amounted to €33 billion in 2022 (3.3 percent of GDP). The labor input for this production was 4.1 percent of total employment in the Netherlands (see for more details Satellite Account 2022 – in Dutch, and Satellite Account 2018 – English version).
In 2011, the central government marked the Dutch creative industry as one of the nine top sectors and these sectors were all accompanied by specific top sector policy and a so-called Top Consortium for Knowledge and Innovation (TKI). For the creative industry this was CLICKNL. The creative industry was supported by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The aim of the creative top sector was to develop innovative services and products by collaborating with creative professionals and research institutions. The government argued that the flexible and out-of-the-box way of thinking of the creative industry is of importance for challenging social issues.
With the establishment of the creative industry as a top sector, the Creative Industries Fund NL started operating in 2013, as the national cultural fund for design, architecture and digital culture. The fund aims to “enhance the quality of design practice, strengthen the creative sector as a whole and connect design talent to other disciplines and sectors” by offering professionals scope to experiment, research and make.
In 2013, three creative industry institutes merged into Het Nieuwe Instituut (The New Institute) as a platform for the creative industry and a museum for the design sector. It organises exhibitions, lectures and fellowships and carries out research and development programmes.
The Top Sectors have evolved into a “Mission-Driven Innovation Policy,” with Knowledge and Innovation Agendas (KIAs) linked to specific missions. Current policy is set out in the Knowledge and Innovation Covenant (KIC) 2024–2027 (Kennis- en Innovatieconvenant (KIC) 2024–2027) which contains agreements between the national government, businesses, knowledge institutions, and other partners on joint investments in research and innovation. For the creative industries, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science focuses on the design disciplines through the following activities: (1) schemes via The Creative Industries Fund; (2) the Power of design Agenda 2024–2027 (Agenda Ontwerpkracht); (3) the Spacial Desighn Action Program (Actieagenda Ruimtelijk Ontwerp 2024-2027); and (4) the Public Design Practice Program (PONT).
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