Seminar on «Heritage and Society» - Lisbon, 5 and 6 December

The Portuguese Presidency of the European Union will be holding a seminar on "Heritage and Society" in Lisbon on the 5th and 6th December. Considering that all policies and interventions should contribute to an improvement in people's quality of life and that Cultural Heritage must be regarded in its social dimension, current political and economic constraints constitute new challenges in the process of building and reinforcing Identity, Education and sustainable Development through Cultural Heritage. The aim of this Seminar is to encourage debate and reflection on the social dimension of heritage today, as new responsibilities in managing and enhancing it may be regarded as contributions for social and economic sustainability.

More information and programme here.

COMEDIA: thinking about creative cities

COMEDIA, founded by Charles Landry in 1978, is linked to the idea of 'The Creative City' and now the notion of ‘The Art of City Making’ and how people and cities can make the most of their possibilities. ‘The Intercultural City’ adds another concept and focuses on how cities can live well with their multicultural diversity. The questions the team tries to answer are:

• How we create the pre-conditions for decision makers at all levels to think, plan and act with imagination and in an integrated way;
• How we develop a common language across professional disciplines concerned with city making;
• How we combine an understanding of hard - physical - as well as soft - cultural, social and economic infrastructure;
• How we encourage people to think differently, so they do things differently and do different things;
• How do we identify, harness, promote and sustain the creative, cultural resources that are present in every human settlement if we look deeply enough.

You can order some of the team's publications or access free a growing number of texts (after registering)

Barcelona Strategic Plan for Culture

The city of Barcelona has been in the last decade promoting itself and making its own path as a European capital of culture, by situating culture as one of the principal elements in the development and projection of the city, through the running of municipal facilities and cultural services and by promoting and facilitating the emergence and consolidation of the numerous private-sector cultural platforms and projects in the city. This central objective is based on the Strategic Plan for the city's culture sector and is embodied in the following specific actions:

• To consolidate culture as a basic strategy in the development of the city of knowledge
• To assist Barcelona in becoming a centre for the production of cultural content
• To support popular and traditional culture, and the activities of Barcelona's cultural associations
• To complete and remodel the city's network of heritage facilities and improve the effectiveness of these
• To promote the educational dimension of culture
• To facilitate the incorporation of the cultural sectors into the flows of the digital age
• To articulate metropolitan strategies in the field of culture
• To implement the libraries plan approved by Barcelona City Council
• To articulate actions to improve cultural provision in the districts and neighbourhoods of the city

Access the Barcelona Strategic Plan for Culture here.

Documentation of the Seminar «Cultural and Creative sectors at the Lisbon Agenda» available

Documentation of the Seminar «Cultural and Creative sectors at the Lisbon Agenda» held in Lisbon on the 31st October and 1st November is now available in the website of the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union. The seminar had three objectives: to create research and policy agendas for the sector, capable of being efficiently articulated; to explore new employment opportunities, either offered by the sector or being offered to the sector; to reflect on how the sector can grow into a sustainable development factor in the different EU countries.

Access the documentation here.

Creative Partnerships

Creative Partnerships is the English Government’s flagship creativity programme for schools and young people. It aims to develop:

• the creativity of young people, raising their aspirations and achievements;
• the skills of teachers and their ability to work with creative practitioners;
• schools' approaches to culture, creativity and partnership working; and;
• the skills, capacity and sustainability of the creative industries.

More information here.

London: Cultural Capital - Realising the potential of a world class city

Launched in April 2004, the City of London Mayor's Culture Strategy 'London: Cultural Capital - Realising the potential of a world class city' is a ten-year plan to develop London as a centre of cultural excellence and creativity which includes arts, sport, heritage and creative industries in London. The Culture Strategy has four key objectives focused on: excellence, creativity, access and value. Underpinning each of these objectives is the principle of diversity. The recognition that the excellence and quality of culture in London will only be achieved by ensuring that London’s diverse communities are reflected, and active, in the cultural life of the city.

Culture Strategy highlights PDF here.
Full Strategy here.
Other documentation here.

Creative Tampere

Creative Tampere is the City of Tampere's business development policy programme, for implementation in 2006–2011. The practical implementation of the Creative Tampere programme is performed in three selected theme areas: the cultural industry, service innovations, and creative structures. The programme has three central targets, which support one another. These goals are based on the selected theme areas: strengthening the cultural industry; creating new service innovations; and improving the pillars on which creativity is built.

More information here.

INTERREG IVC Project idea - STRATCULT-REGIO.net

The region of Upper Asutria, is looking for cultural departments of European territorial authorities (especially from the UK, Germany and Baltic States) to be partners in the STRATCULT-REGIO.net project, which aims at fully integrating all cultural development potentials into the Lisbon and Gothenburg agendas of the European Union, with a special focus on the related regional and rural development policies in the frame-work of EU Structural Funds. The project's expected outcomes are fourfold: better know-how of administrations involved; more cultural projects implemented in European regions and cities; improvement of dynamic of related discussion on policy level; and the implementation of results of applied research on regional/local level based on Europe wide research results.

More information and contact details here.

Seminar ''The Cultural and Creative Sector – Lisbon Agenda'' - Lisbon, October 31st - November 1st

Building on the KEA Report “The Economy of Culture in Europe”, the seminar ''The Cultural and Creative Sector – Lisbon Agenda'', to be held in Lisbon on October 31st and November 1st, aims at creating research and policy agendas for the sector, capable of being efficiently articulated; exploring new employment opportunities, either offered by the sector or being offered to the sector; and reflecting on how the sector can grow into a sustainable development factor in the different EU countries.

More information here.
Provisional programme (in Portuguese) here.
The Economy of Culture in Europe report here.

Imagine a Toronto... Strategies for a Creative City

The "Imagine a Toronto... Strategies for a Creative City" research projects aimed at developing a strategy that addresses the current needs of Toronto's creative economy, The project built on empirical evidence from 6 six: Toronto, New York, San Francisco, London, Barcelona and Berlin (coming soon). For the purposes of the report, the research team has grouped the areas of study into five broad categories (people, enterprise, space, connectivity and vision & voice) and analyzed Toronto’s strengths and weaknesses in each of the first four categories above, identifying strategic opportunities for action and sugesting policy actions for those four areas.

Full report here.

Centre of Expertise on Culture and Communities

The Centre of Expertise on Culture and Communities is a cultural research and development centre based at Simon Fraser University’s Vancouver campus and it conducts research and brings together academia, policy, and practice in four areas: the state of cultural infrastructure in Canadian cities and communities; culture as the fourth pillar of community sustainability; culture in communities: cultural systems and local planning; the impacts of cultural infrastructure and activity in cities and communities. The Publications and Bibliographies sections include valuable resources on these themes. The Culture and Cities Research Directory contains links to research projects and the Cultural Indicators Research Directory includes some initiatives relevant to Cultural Indicators.

The Intercultural City - planning for diversity advantage

The Intercultural City project aims at investigating to what urban cultural diversity is a source of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship which brings advantage to cities and at providing advice and practical tools for cities seeking to benefit from the diversity dividends. The research themes include changes in conceptual and policy aspects of cultural diversity, individuals or groups who are intercultural innovators and the development of new practical indicators. The case studies are structured around three areas of research: city case studies, thematic studies and intercultural innovators. Some research documents are freely for download.

Cultural Forum for Europe, Lisbon 26-28 September

Tomorrow will start in Lisbon the EU Portuguese Presidency-prooted Cultural Forum for Europe, which will go on until the 28th September. The Forum aims at gathering representatives of civil society for a debate on what should be jointly achieved in this field, inside the EU and in the ambit of its international projection, and the conclusions drawn from this exchange of different perspectives will be conveyed to decision-makers. The debate will be organised around three main issues: intercultural dialogue, the economy of culture and Europe and the rest of the world. The programme can be accessed here.

Creative City Network of Canada

The Creative City Network of Canada is an organization connecting people employed by municipalities across Canada working on arts, culture and heritage policy, planning, development and support, in order to develop ways of being more effective in cultural development in Canada communities. Beside news, events and job opportunities sections, the strong assets of the network are the three membership-based listservs and the resources section, in which staff employed by Canadian municipalities can access numerous resources. Some resources are freely available, namely the project profiles. Also available in French.

Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley

Cultural Initiatives is a now extincted nonprofit organisation which was created to implement the plan for the cultural transformation of Silicon Valley developed in 1997, by working with a network of public and private cultural agencies and organizations to provide the necessary resources and leadership to turn the plan into a reality. The website is still active and you can get information on the now implemented initiatives: the Creative Education Program, the Community & Neighborhood Arts inititiative and the Leadership Development Program.

Creative Economy - Richard Florida on Charlie Rose Show 2004

Richard Florida has became famous for his research on the relationship between talent and economic development and he has written what was probably the first economy-related best-seller book, 'The Rise of the Creative Class'. Although controversial and questionable, Florida's theory has gained support amongst both policy-makers and politicians and has been replicated in different territorial levels and contexts. On this Charlie Rose Show interview, Florida makes an interesting case on the value of creativity and talent in economic development.

For more information on the Creative Economy, visit Florida's research group website.