Tag: Creative Economy

The Skills We Keep Talking About

Post author By CreativeWomensAssociation
Post date January 22, 2026

The OECD Skills Outlook 2025 confirms what many already know: skills systems are failing not because people lack talent, but because workforce structures ignore care, health, and real-life complexity. The Creative Women’s Association is moving beyond commentary to build the missing infrastructure — transforming skills recognition, creative labour, and economic participation through measurable, standards-based reform.

Tags arts and provenance, Care Economy, Creative Economy, Creative Women’s Association, economic participation, future of work, OECD Skills Outlook, skills policy, Women And Work, Workforce Reform

Across the Commonwealth

Post author By CreativeWomensAssociation
Post date January 13, 2026

Australia’s cultural labour has long powered industry, health, and community life—yet without provenance, its value leaks away. This article explores why recognising cultural contribution as trained labour, protected through provenance, is essential to building a resilient national economy.

Tags Common Wealth, Creative Economy, creative workforce, Cultural Infrastructure, Culture & Provenance, Manufacturing Capability, Public Interest Infrastructure, Regional Development, Sovereign Value, women’s labour

Art, Expression & Therapeutic Practices Blogs Creative Business & Leadership Creative Capital Creative Health & Wellbeing Creative Spark Creative Survival Creativity Economic Independence & Women's Enterprise Health In Real Life | IRL. Insight Intermission Play Popular Culture, Women & the Creative Economy Science & Research Smart News Social Prescribing, Creative Health & Community Care Sound, Voice & Music in Health Stories The Almanac The Architecture of Women's Health The Future of Women's Work: Creative, Economic & Cultural Power The Gazelle The Power Source: Women’s Mental, Sexual & Creative Health The Reading Shelf Wellness Women's Physiology, Anatomy & Cycles Work & Money

Provenance as Economic Infrastructure

Post author By CreativeWomensAssociation
Post date January 6, 2026

Employment in the Harris Tweed industry grew by 570% following the introduction of certification and protected provenance. This data-driven case study demonstrates how provenance operates as economic infrastructure, enabling workforce growth, regional stability, and long-term productivity in creative sectors.

Tags Applied Creative Intelligence, Certification, Creative Economy, creative labour, cultural industries policy, economic participation, Harris Tweed Authority, provenance, regional employment, Workforce Infrastructure

1969 Was Supposed to Change Everything.

Post author By CreativeWomensAssociation
Post date January 5, 2026

In 1969, Australia recognised equal pay for equal work. What never followed was the infrastructure to support women’s real working lives — particularly where creativity, care, and economic security intersect.

Tags 1969 Equal Pay Case, Creative Economy, Creative Women’s Association, creative workforce, Cultural Infrastructure, domestic care load, economic design, Superannuation Gap, Unpaid Labour, Women And Work, women’s work

Creative Health Isn’t a Side Project.

Post author By CreativeWomensAssociation
Post date December 18, 2025

Creative health is not a small-grants sector — it is a missing economy. When women are supported to sustain caregiving and skilled creative labour through proper workforce infrastructure, billions in lost productivity and preventative health value can be unlocked.

Tags Arts Definition, Creative Economy, Creative Practice, Creative Women’s Association, creative workforce, Cultural Industries, Cultural Infrastructure, Cultural Labour, Economic Policy, Gender Equity, Practice vs Performance, provenance, Skill & Output, Skills & Certification, Textiles & Craft, Trades & Craft

Arts & Culture Blogs Creative Business & Leadership Creative Capital Creative Survival Creativity Economic Independence & Women's Enterprise Health Historical Contributions & Women's Science In Real Life | IRL. Innovation & Ideas Insight Intermission Legacy & History Popular Culture, Women & the Creative Economy Power & Privilege Smart News Stories The Almanac The Architecture of Women's Health The Future of Women's Work: Creative, Economic & Cultural Power The Gazelle The Reading Shelf Wellness Work & Money

When Did Art Stop Being a Trade

Post author By CreativeWomensAssociation
Post date December 17, 2025

What does “creative” actually mean — and when did art stop being a trade? This article explores how arts shifted from skilled, trade-based practices into performative spectacle, and how that transition reshaped value, labour, and women’s work in the creative economy.

Why We Built Trades for Boys

Post author By CreativeWomensAssociation
Post date December 16, 2025

Australia has spent decades building trade pathways for boys while leaving women’s creative labour without workforce infrastructure. This article examines why the creative economy emerged from women’s historical trades — textiles, design, and cultural production — and how the failure to formalise these as certified professions has created systemic economic insecurity for women.

Tags Creative Economy, Creative Women’s Association, creative workforce, Cultural Industries, Economic Policy, Gender Equity, provenance, Skills & Certification, Textiles & Craft, Unpaid Labour, Women’s Trades, Workforce Infrastructure

Arts & Culture Creative Business & Leadership Creative Capital Creative Survival Economic Independence & Women's Enterprise In Real Life | IRL. Innovation & Ideas Insight Intermission Legacy & History Popular Culture, Women & the Creative Economy Power & Privilege Smart News Stories The Almanac The Architecture of Women's Health The Future of Women's Work: Creative, Economic & Cultural Power The Reading Shelf Wellness Work & Money

The Missing Architecture

Post author By CreativeWomensAssociation
Post date December 11, 2025

This article examines why leadership programs cannot fix a structurally unsupported arts sector, and argues for a national creative workforce model — certification, standards, pathways, and provenance — as the only sustainable foundation for Australia’s cultural and economic future.

Tags Arts Sector, Australia Creative Policy, Certification, Creative Economy, Creative Industries, Creative Women, creative workforce, CWA, Economic Strategy, Gender Equity, Harris Tweed model, national standards, Policy Reform

The End of Theory-as-Rhetoric

Post author By CreativeWomensAssociation
Post date December 10, 2025

This article argues that Australia can no longer treat creative work as a grant-dependent sector. Using the CWA’s four-pillar solution architecture — Innovation, Creativity, Sovereignty, Integral — it reframes creativity as a national workforce requiring certification, standards, and structural recognition to drive economic and cultural innovation.

Tags Arts Sector, Australia Creative Policy, Certification, Creative Economy, Creative Industries, Creative Women, creative workforce, CWA, Economic Strategy, Gender Equity, Harris Tweed model, national standards, Policy Reform, provenance, Workforce Development

Certification Is What Creates a Workforce

Post author By CreativeWomensAssociation
Post date December 9, 2025

Australia’s creative sector is stalled not because of funding scarcity, but because no national certification system exists to turn practitioners into a recognised workforce. Using national data, this article explains why certification — not grants — is the foundation of a functioning creative economy, and how the CWA model provides the missing infrastructure.

Tags Arts Sector, Australia Creative Policy, Certification, Creative Economy, Creative Industries, Creative Women, creative workforce, CWA, Economic Strategy, Gender Equity, Harris Tweed model, national standards, Policy Reform, provenance, Workforce Development

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