Creative cluster or creative class?

Florida (2003) states that creative people tend to move to an area with place-related “talent, technology and tolerance” that become a creative center. Around a real concentration of people in real places, there will be formation processes of the economy. Porter (2000) argues that clusters, or geographic concentrations of interconnected companies and associated institutions in a particular field, linked by commonalities and complementarities. The main reason is to benefit from cost efficiencies. Further, the ongoing process of cooperation and collaboration to solve shared problem result a clustering. The research studies the relevance between the Florida’s context of creative class and the Porter’s context of creative clusters. The main-research question is: Why has Nitiprayan artist kampong emerged and grown as a creative economy?” Further the research wants to know to what extent the emergence and growth of Nitiprayan artist kampong can be explained with Porter’s context of creative clusters and with Florida’s context of creative class. The research is an explanatory study as the study is trying to search for the causes and reasons for the phenomenon and its historical background. The research is using, a survey within a case study. Survey of this study uses form of questionnare. Structured questions are being set based on specific indicators which can be measured and analyzed using SPSS. The research found that Florida’s theory explains why artists move to Nitiprayan. Amenity is the most important factor that they looking for. It will create a perfect “habitat” for artist to create the art work. They have different lifestyle with common people, such as nightlife and peculiar appearance. A place with openness and tolerance attracts them. Social interaction exist either among the artist and between artists with the local society. Their identity is an artist of Yogyakarta. The natural view, Javanese traditional art and its activities, the authenticity and quality of place, are what make this place more attractive to many artists.It is clearly that Richard Florida’s theory of creative class giving a powerfull explanation in the process of emerging this creative center. Meanwhile, Porter’s theory of cluster is more relevant to explain the growth of this creative cluster. Quality of place in theory of cluster including natural resources, physical infrastructure, strategy and rivalry, an demand condition is also affecting their decision to choose this place as a place to live except the presence of the buyers. The artwork buyers are mainly collectors inside or outside Indonesia. Collective action was built among the artists. Trust that includes familiarity grew. Network is very important for developing their career. Legal or contractual security is needed in trading process of the artwork because the product is a very expensive and high-valued commodity. The process is continuing, from forming a creative class to clustering. Clustering become more important. The study results appear that this cluster stage reaching the emerging cluster. Ongoing collaboration or joint project was developed. The weakness form this cluster is the government support. Moreover, firms need to become economically viable. This redirects government support to start to give attention to modern art as well not only to traditional art. The difficulty is to strike a balance: promote clustering without losing the openness. Further, this study reveals that both theories are important and linked.