What we talk about when we talk about entrepreneurship : insights into students’ and lecturers’ thoughts on learning and teaching creative/cultural entrepreneurship

This article explores the attitudes to creative entrepreneurship of students and staff engaged in creative education on a graphic design programme at a university in the UK. It will include first hand voices of the participants interviewed, whilst conceptually building on existing literature. In line with the UK governments’ drive of the employability agenda, many creative and design programmes now include elements or modules explicitly focusing on entrepreneurship or enterprise. How effective are these specific modules in encouraging entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviour in creative students? What do these modules add to the traditional art and design curriculum in relation to entrepreneurial attitudes? What are the underlying values that drive entrepreneurial behaviour in creative students? Art and Design has well established and successful pedagogic methods and strategies for encouraging creative behaviour. Creative disciplines also have their own specific value systems that motivate them to engage in entrepreneurship. This article will show some links between art and design pedagogy and general advice on teaching of entrepreneurial behaviour, whilst trying to reveal some the values underpinning motivation for entrepreneurship in a creative subject area. We provide insights into these aspects discussed, but more importantly we stress that there is scope to deepen and widen this research in the context of creative education; its values and motivations in relation to cultural entrepreneurship.