On creativity being serious business

Creativity can support viable businesses, careers and a stronger local economy. It is time we treated it that way.

Creativity is often treated as the nice bit.

The decoration. The entertainment. The thing we spend money on once all the serious work is finished.

I think that completely misses the point.

Creativity can support viable businesses, careers and a stronger local economy. Not in an abstract, feel-good way. In a very real people-getting-paid, shops-staying-open and towns-giving-you-a-reason-to-visit way.

## Creativity is work

Every piece in Pink Seaweed began in somebody’s head.

Then came the years spent learning a craft, the materials, the mistakes, the risk and the hours it took to turn an idea into something another person could take home.

That is creative work.

Sometimes it happens full-time. Sometimes it is fitted around another job, children or whatever else life has thrown at somebody that week. Either way, it has value.

The Isle of Man has an extraordinary number of artists, makers and small creative businesses, but talent alone does not build a career.

Creative people need places to sell their work, audiences who understand its value and opportunities that do not require them to leave the island.

## A gallery can be part of the infrastructure

Pink Seaweed opened in Ramsey in 2023 and now works with more than 140 Manx artists, makers and creative businesses.

Everything in the gallery has been designed, made or created on the Isle of Man.

No imported filler. No mass-produced stock bought to plug a gap. The money spent here supports the people who made the work and keeps circulating through the local creative economy.

Artists receive 70% when their work sells and the gallery takes 30%. There are no joining fees, no shelf rent and no exclusivity.

Artists can sell through Pink Seaweed, through their own websites, at markets or anywhere else that works for them. The gallery should give them another route to an audience, not put a fence around their business.

Pink Seaweed succeeds when Manx creativity flourishes.

It is as simple as that.

## Creativity changes places too

The impact does not stop at the gallery door.

Creative businesses give people a reason to visit a high street. Public art makes them look up, wander down a different road and notice a place they thought they already knew.

The Ramsey Art Trail brings together more than 40 murals, sculptures and other artworks around the town. It gets people walking, looking and spending time in Ramsey.

While they are here, they use the cafés, visit the shops and discover the other independent businesses that give Parliament Street its personality.

That is creativity doing economic work.

It is also doing cultural work. The artists behind these pieces are telling stories about this island, its people and the way it feels to live here now.

## Values and ambition belong together

There can be a strange assumption that a values-led creative business should not talk too much about money.

I disagree.

Artists deserve to be paid. Galleries need to remain commercially viable. Independent businesses need customers. Good ideas need enough income behind them to survive beyond the exciting beginning.

Strong values and commercial ambition are not opposites.

A creative business can care deeply about people, place and culture while still wanting to grow. In fact, growth creates more opportunities, reaches bigger audiences and puts more money into the hands of creative people.

That is not selling out.

That is building something capable of lasting.

## Creativity is one of our strongest resources

The Isle of Man cannot and should not try to compete with everywhere else by becoming more generic.

Our strength is in the things that could only have been made here. The stories, colours, materials, humour and slightly odd ideas that come from people living on this particular island.

Creativity gives places their identity. It creates businesses, careers, experiences and reasons to visit. It makes high streets more interesting and communities more confident about what they have to offer.

Pink Seaweed was recently named a finalist in the 2026 Isle of Man Awards for Excellence category Elevating Our Creative Industries.

That recognition is lovely, obviously.

But the important part is what the category recognises.

Creativity is not just the nice bit around the edges. For a lot of people on this island, it is their business, their career and how they make a living.