What does it take to build a creative life in the North East?

Reflections from NECF's discussion on the North East Culture, Creative Industries and Sport Strategic Framework.

Last week, we pressed pause on our usual coworking session to discuss the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority's draft Culture, Creative Industries and Sport Strategic Framework.

The framework sets out an ambitious vision for culture, creativity and sport across the region over the next decade, backed by a proposed £25 million investment programme. It talks about growth, opportunity, skills, regeneration and the role of culture in shaping the future of the North East.

As a network led by and for creative freelancers, artists and self-employed practitioners, we wanted to create space to explore what those ambitions mean in practice.

What followed wasn't simply a conversation about funding or policy.

It was a conversation about sustainability.

Throughout the discussion, one idea kept resurfacing:

The framework asks how we grow the creative economy. Freelancers asked what conditions allow creative people to build a life within it.

Those are not opposing questions. In fact, they depend on one another.

A thriving creative economy requires thriving creative workers.

The challenge isn't getting started. It's staying.

The framework rightly recognises the importance of freelancers to the North East's creative economy. It also acknowledges many of the challenges practitioners face, including precarious work, fragmented career pathways and barriers to accessing support.

Our discussion brought those challenges into sharp focus.

Many participants described the reality of maintaining portfolio careers, combining creative practice with teaching, facilitation, consultancy or entirely separate employment. While this flexibility can create resilience, it can also make it difficult to sustain a coherent creative practice over time.

As one participant reflected:

"Portfolio careers can mean you're sustaining two, three or four strands of work at once. It's how many of us survive, but it can make it incredibly difficult to maintain continuity in your creative practice."

Others spoke about the pressure to keep repeating what has worked before, even when health, disability, caring responsibilities or artistic development point in a different direction.

Another participant highlighted the challenge of evolving a practice while navigating life changes:

"Sometimes we need support to transition our practice, especially when disability, ageing or just the natural progression of practice comes into the picture."

The conversation highlighted an important distinction. For many freelancers, the challenge is not entering the sector. It's remaining in it long enough to build a meaningful and sustainable career.

Time is infrastructure

One of the strongest themes to emerge was the value of time.

Not just time to deliver projects or earn income, but time to think, experiment, learn, connect and develop.

Participants spoke about the hidden labour of freelance life: administration, applications, reporting, networking and income generation that sits alongside creative practice.

As one person put it:

"Creative people have to spend the majority of their time not on creative practices but on adjunct work or unrelated income generation."

Another highlighted the challenge of simply finding time to do the work they actually wanted to do:

"The amount of time you need to do the admin to just do the creative or work that you actually want to do."

The discussion raised an important question: if we value creativity, where is the space for creative development?

In many employed roles, professional development, networking and strategic thinking are recognised as part of the job. For freelancers, they are often squeezed into evenings, weekends or not done at all.

When we talk about infrastructure, we often think about buildings and equipment. But our discussion suggested that time itself is a form of infrastructure, and one that many freelancers are in short supply of.

Space to make, space to grow

Access to space emerged repeatedly throughout the conversation.

Participants spoke about the need for affordable, accessible places to rehearse, make, experiment, collaborate and develop work.

One contribution summed it up beautifully:

"Access to discipline-specific spaces that help to evolve practice, a place to practice the practice."

The discussion wasn't simply about desks or buildings. It was about creating environments where creative development can happen without immediate pressure to produce, monetise or justify every outcome.

Alongside space came conversations about access to equipment, technology and resources, particularly for practitioners working outside larger institutions.

If the North East is serious about supporting creative talent, then access to creative infrastructure must be part of that conversation.

Creativity doesn't stop at 25

A number of participants questioned assumptions about who creative opportunities are for.

The discussion highlighted concerns about age-limited programmes and funding streams that prioritise early-career practitioners while overlooking people who enter the sector later in life, return after a career break or evolve their practice over time.

As one participant observed:

"You can be creative at any stage of life. You didn't miss the boat. You just need to find the community and the people who will encourage you."

If we're serious about building a sustainable creative sector, we need to think about creative careers as lifelong journeys rather than linear pipelines.

Who gets to build a creative life?

The conversation also highlighted the ways inequality continues to shape creative careers.

Participants spoke about experiences of racism, discrimination, gatekeeping and exclusion, and the additional labour often required of practitioners from marginalised communities simply to access opportunities that others take for granted.

There was frustration that diversity is still too often treated as a numbers exercise rather than a commitment to meaningful equity, inclusion and shared power.

These experiences matter because they shape who is able to sustain a creative career, whose voices are heard and whose contributions are recognised.

A creative sector that works for everyone cannot be built on unequal foundations.

Beyond growth

The framework understandably focuses on growth, jobs, investment and economic impact.

But our conversation repeatedly returned to a bigger question:

What is culture for?

Participants spoke about the role of creativity in helping us understand a changing world, build connections, challenge assumptions and imagine different futures.

There was a desire for more space to discuss ideas, meaning and purpose, not just outputs and outcomes.

One comment resonated strongly across the group:

"I think we need a place at the philosophical table."

It was a reminder that while culture contributes to economic growth, its value extends far beyond what can be measured in jobs created or visitor numbers.

Culture improves wellbeing. It strengthens communities. It helps us understand ourselves and one another. It creates opportunities for reflection, challenge and connection.

These benefits are no less important because they are harder to measure.

Community is infrastructure too

Alongside the challenges, there was also a strong sense of optimism.

Participants spoke about the importance of peer networks, mutual support and collaboration. They highlighted the ways freelancers share opportunities, knowledge, encouragement and practical support with one another.

One participant described these informal exchanges as structures that "empower individuals and create important support networks."

This reflects something NECF has long believed: community is not a nice extra. It is essential infrastructure.

Creative careers do not happen in isolation. They are sustained through relationships, shared knowledge and collective support.

In a sector where many people work alone, community can be the difference between surviving and thriving.

Looking ahead

The strategic framework presents an opportunity to shape the future of culture, creativity and sport in the North East.

Our discussion suggested that freelancers are not simply asking for more opportunities. They are asking for the conditions that make creative careers possible.

Access to space.

Access to time.

Access to networks.

Access to meaningful progression.

Access to sustainable ways of working.

And perhaps most importantly, recognition that freelancers are not a peripheral part of the sector, but a fundamental part of the region's creative ecology.

The North East is rich in talent, creativity and ambition. The challenge now is ensuring that the people who generate that value are able to build sustainable futures alongside it.

Creative work cannot continue to rely on passion subsidising broken systems.

If we want a thriving creative sector over the next decade, we need to think not only about growth, but about the people who make that growth possible.

Thank you to everyone who joined the conversation and shared their experiences, ideas and challenges. Your insights will help inform our response to the consultation and our ongoing work advocating for creative freelancers across the region.