Transition to Fontys Academy for the Creative Economy
More than ever in these times, a different approach to the economy can make a difference. Economics has turned into a financial and capitalist frame of mind: ‘more and more’. The unbalance between this perspective and the situation we have been going through in the last 18 months, showing us the fragility of our existence, confronts us with the necessity of a new mode of thinking.
ACI has always been committed to economic innovation: a new approach of economics that is based on the concept of the creative economy. One that goes beyond the supposed opposition between the creative, the business, and the social domains, and puts meaning and values-creation at the core. This new approach is much closer to the original meaning of the word economics, which was all about the ways in which everything we had (both material and immaterial) could be managed and shared optimally and as fair as possible.
This explains why ACI will from now on be known as Fontys Academy for the Creative Economy, Fontys ACE trains students to become impact creators: creative professionals who merge their creativity, social awareness and business mindset to stimulate transitions (in everyday life). In doing so, they are both shaping and actively contributing to the creative economy. The goal is to create value and meaning, thereby acting as valuable and leading contributors to the economy and society of the future.
A logical consequence of broadening our horizon outside the limits of the creative sectors to include the whole creative economy, is the renaming of ACI into Fontys Academy for the Creative Economy. The IEMES educational track of the Communications education will be named Creative Concepts for Communication. The IEMES educational track of Marketing Management will be named Creative Marketing Concepts. The Digital Business Concepts track of the Marketing Management education as well as the programme Trend Research & Concept Creation in Lifestyle will keep their current names.
Each of the four programmes is focused on a creative economy that is versatile, sustainable and humane. The education, research and alumni of Fontys ACI can meet a large demand among the companies, institutions and organisations that are trying to shape the necessary transitions. After graduation, students can become creative-business professionals in any other sector instead of only the creative industry, either profit or non-profit.
For employees and students of ACI – soon to be ACE – this creates unique opportunities, yet also new responsibilities and commitments. Each of you wants to contribute to this changing society, by using your existing knowledge and expertise along with your imagination. By thinking and acting differently, you display the creative willingness to help steer our society and economy in a yet unknown new direction.The professional field will increasingly try to give concrete shape to all these transformations. And they too are noticing that exactly this demand for new ways of thinking and acting, is making your creative involvement more needed than ever. This is how we can keep working towards a society that is vital, sustainable and exclusive.