The 'Creative Sector': Definitions - Strategies - Funding - Caveats

Over the past decade, the ERICarts Institute has frequently been involved in conferences, workshops and hearings addressing perspectives of the "Creative Sector" (now often - and irritatingly - being labelled as "Cultural and Creative Industries"). More recently, ERICarts Executive Director Andreas Wiesand was asked by the ALDE Group (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) to speak about this topic in Brussels at the Committee of Regions during the 9th "European Week of Regions and Cities" (11. October 2011), as well as by Fondazione Rosselli and the S&D Group (Socialists & Democrats) at a joint conference held in the European Parliament (22. November 2011). His presentation at the latter of these two meetings can be downloaded here.

For Wiesand, this was not really a new issue: His first encounters with the subject date back to 1972, when he and Karla Fohrbeck published the "Authors' Report" (Der Autorenreport); together with Michael Söndermann, he was also the main editor of the "1st Culture Industries Report" in Germany, 20 years ago (download English Summary). This could explain why he now tries to damp down a bit the present high-flying expectations of politicians or consultants on both the European and national levels, some of which see the creative industries (CI) as some kind of magic bullet in strategies to counteract the economic crisis and to raise employment. His advice in Brussels: "Beware of unrealistic growth fantasies!"
Of course, there are stil a few "islands" in Europe where such CI growth - even as regards regular employment - can be registered, despite the general economic downturn since 2009. One of these examples appears to be Germany, but Wiesand warns against overgeneralisations, since the German conditions are quite exceptional, at present: A robust economy with the largest consumer market in Europe, fuelled by rising salaries and export revenues. In his view, CI development efforts should adopt a more local or regional perspective that could better reflect specific strengths and traditional profiles, which correspond to the lifeline of Europe: cultural diversity.

WorldCP, the global Compendium, launched in Melbourne

ERICarts an active participant in its development

The prototype of http://www.worldcp.org/, a new international database of cultural policies and trends, has been launched on 3 October 2011 by IFACCA, the global network of arts councils and ministries of culture. With its country-specific profiles of cultural policies, WorldCP has been modelled on the Council of Europe / ERICarts Compendium of Cultural Policies and Trends in Europe. At the launch, the Compendium community of practice was represented by Ritva Mitchell (ERICarts Institute / Cupore). Compendium and ERICarts webmaster Joerg Torkler has been one of the architects in the construction of the new site.

Since 2008, when the "Open Compendium Initiative" had been started, several authors and editors of the European information system advised colleagues from around the world in preparing new country profiles, e.g. in the Arab countries, Australia, Asia and USA. WorldCP also benefits from close cooperation with other bodies such as the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), the European Cultural Foundation, ERICarts partner Boekmanstichting and national authorities. The autonomy of regional sites like the Compendium is secured by a "federal" governance structure of the new system.