In the last few years there has been conversations and discussions brewing around the rise of creative economy. ‘What is creative economy?’- let’s just say it’s an evolving concept. But by the name one can fairly say it is based on people’s use of their creative imagination to increase an ideas value. It was John Howkins, a British author and speaker that popularized the term ‘creative economy’ in 2001. Initially he applied the term to the arts, cultural goods and services, toys and games & even research and development.

Well, I must say it did not start there. If we go back in time, the term ‘creative industries’ prevailed and were evolving even 20 years ago. Some countries even used to describe them as ‘cultural industries.’ However, no government or institutions ever took a step to measure or document the growth of the industry for years together. In 1998, the department of culture, media and sport in UK published ‘Creative Industries-mapping document 1998’. The follow up analysis in 2001 revealed and defined that the creative industries were generating jobs at twice the rate of the UK economy as a whole. In 2008 the survey published by the United Nations again testified that the rapid rate of the creative and cultural industries was being visible in every continent.

But just look around us. We are living in a world where the economy is driven by the quality of creative content. This is now not only pertaining to dance, drama, music, and visual arts. Financial consultants, doctors, teachers and even coders have opted to become influencers, content creators and social media icons. In no time we can see the creative economy rising above the major revenue earning streams in every country. Different countries have now understood that creative and cultural activities can put them in a pedestal in the global forums. The rise of K-pop cultures, foreign language movies and even cuisines are living examples in front of us. As you can see the need for interdisciplinary learning and the requirement for an evolved creative curriculum is the need of the hour.

Many traditional education patterns had side lined the creative subjects as cocurricular activities in the past. However, pedagogies such as the International Baccalaureate has always made arts an integral part of its curriculum right from its Primary Year Programme (PYP) all the way till its Diploma Programme (DP). The Middle Years Programme (MYP) particularly focuses on interdisciplinary learning and teaching where students can form new understandings by drawing connections between subjects. This opens doors to a holistic approach to develop their creative thinking and synthesis thinking skills. With the revised MYP arts guide that came out in 2022, the pedagogy now offers strength and flexibility to the art education based on conceptual and contextual learning.

The curriculums which are developing in terms of its arts education can still adapt the service learning and project-based learning strategies to inculcate creative thinking in students. Inquiry-based teaching strategies can push educators to bring in more creative content and presentations to the classrooms. Designing and devising creative assessments is the next step towards this. Communication patterns have always been a challenge to many students in different pedagogies. With a creative window they can now express and reciprocate in their individualistic ways. Slowly but steadily, we are approaching a curriculum that focusses on a student’s individuality and creativity rather than his adaptability to age old