by DAO KHANH HUYEN (No.04) AND VU THI HONG NGOC (No. 07)
Vietnam’s rapid urbanisation and significant economic growth in recent decades have brought various opportunities to develop the nation’s creative industries in urbanised centres, such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang. It also opens the doors for creative and cultural industries in Vietnam to grow and flourish. Cultural and creative hubs, which are organisations and businesses working in the arts and culture sector, are now playing the key role in the creative and cultural industries.
It is said that the operation of creative hubs like this can help promote cultural diversity.
Based on a report conducted recently by the British Council, cultural and creative hubs in Hanoi are divided into several categories. The first category is art hubs where people can find exhibitions, art talks, and even art courses. Some of the famous names in this category are The heritage space, Manzi, Nha san collective. The second one is music hubs which offer music shows and cultural events such as Hanoi Rock city, Cama Atk to name just a few. The third one is Multi-media hubs whichgather film-makers, photographers, videographers, and graphic designers. Hanoi Doclab and TDP Movies are top players. Next is co-working spaces such as Hatch co-working space, Hub.it. These are a shared workplace, often an office, where start-ups work together and join networking events. Craft hubs which promote the Vietnamese craft products and give an authentic insight into the craftwork to the local and foreign guests, top players in this category are Hanoi design center, Zo project. There are, a part from five categories mentioned above, lots of other hubs in Hanoi that you can drop by, such as Chula – a showroom of contemporary fashion with music performance and film screenings, Workroom four – an art, fashion, and design studio and classes blended in exhibitions, and cultural events, and much more.
Despite the fast growth and emergence of creative hubs in Hanoi, there are still some challenges to the sustainability of their existence. Many hubs live are found in constant threat of closure due to capricious landlords and lack of support from local authorities. A further challenge for hub development was the limited management and business skills of hub owners. To better preserve this burgeoning hub movement, here should be a need for greater financial support and investment in creative hubs, as well as more opportunities for networking and ideas exchange events.
