Cultural and Regional Identity
11.4 The impact of culture on the life of the region extends beyond the economic benefits in terms of business activity and visitor numbers. The region gains a distinctive identity from the range of cultural assets and resources, from visual arts and crafts to theatrical and musical performance, film and digital media to archives and museums, from sporting activities to the historic, natural and built environments.
11.5 The region’s cultural identity, assets and resources are increasingly central to the profile of the South West and to the achievement of the policy objective to become a knowledge-based economy. Creativity, intellectual property and the range and quality of amenities play a crucial role in defining and shaping the South West's competitive advantage and its national and international standing, (SWRDA May 2006). Employers and employees in knowledge-based industries are known to be drawn to areas where there is a rich, diverse and thriving cultural and creative environment. Given the region’s existing producers of creative and innovative ideas and those emerging from the 14 higher education institutions, the region is well-placed to fulfil this ambition.
11.6 It is important to recognise the cultural diversity of the South West population because of its significance to the expression of cultural activities throughout the region. Although people from Black and minority ethnic (BME) groups make up only 3.5% of the total population, the lowest in England, this statistic under-estimates the breadth of cultural life, (ONS 2004). Census categories of ‘White Other’ and ‘Other’ hide distinctive cultural backgrounds and ways of life of, for example, individuals from Italian and Eastern European backgrounds. Cultural diversity is also evident in the region’s different religious and local communities, (Reeves 2006).