Creative outsiders : creative industries in Greater Western Sydney

Greater Western Sydney is often portrayed as a cultural wasteland and appears to have been overlooked in official reports about creative industries activity in NSW. Yet a creative boom is occurring across the region shown through a diverse range of initiatives occurring between artists, community, and corporate sectors. Examples can be found in local government initiatives such as Penrith Council’s ‘Magnetic Places’ and the Penrith Progression plan for action, as well as Parramatta’s ‘creative city’ agenda. In addition to this, there are noticeable clusters of creative practitioners, organisations, and business enterprises based in the region. This paper presents a collective case study of emerging creative clusters in Greater Western Sydney suggesting that this should have implications on future policy and strategy development concerned with creative industries statewide.