Innovation for Culture / Culture for Innovation!
On 8 and 9 September 2010 in Brussels, the colloquium “Creativity, Culture and Innovation: finding new links” was held, one of the official events of the “Culture and Audiovisual” programme of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, organised by the French-speaking Community of Belgium with the support of the European Commission. On this occasion, Fadila Laanan, Minister for Culture and Audiovisual, welcomed more than 400 players from the sphere of Culture.
On 8 and 9 September 2010 in Brussels, the colloquium “Creativity, Culture and Innovation: finding new links” was held, one of the official events of the “Culture and Audiovisual” programme of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, organised by the French-speaking Community of Belgium with the support of the European Commission. On this occasion, Fadila Laanan, Minister for Culture and Audiovisual, welcomed more than 400 players from the sphere of Culture.
The European Commissioner in charge of Culture and Education, Androulla Vassiliou, opened the two days of debates.
Innovation for culture, or how to make culture and the cultural industries more innovative
This colloquium made it possible to confirm clearly that innovations in the broad sense, including non-technological innovations, are also important additives for competitiveness, growth and the quality of life of the citizens.
However, this sector is often not sufficiently supported, and receives little benefit from European aid programmes. This is why the new policy of the European Union, through the EU 2020 Strategy adopted by the European Council of 17 June this year, has the goal of creating an environment in which these cultural and creative industries can make the best possible use of their potential. Thanks to creative partnerships, they can play a major role in helping European citizens to acquire the creative, entrepreneurial and intercultural skills that they need, while also promoting social cohesion at the same time.
In addition, the new technologies thus created foster the creation of new cultural goods, activities and services, especially beneficial for SMEs, and strengthen European competitiveness.
Culture for innovation, or how to promote transfers from the cultural and creative industries to other sectors
Moreover, such a colloquium could not of course let the cultural dimension of economic development, its dynamism and its potential, pass by in silence. In fact, the cultural and creative industries are developed especially at local and regional levels, and they play a significant role in development at these levels.
This is why all the players and all the regions must be involved in the cycle of innovation. This is also why the strategies of development – and especially cohesion policy – must continue their efforts to integrate the cultural and creative industries.
As Fadila Laanan noted, the debates of 8 and 9 September bore out the idea that “to support this potential of creativity in the cultural and creative industries, and particularly that of the SMEs (58% of which have only one to three salaried employees according to a study by the University of Utrecht), it is necessary to define an integrated and strategic approach.” These SMEs, because of their size and their specific characteristics, “require policy strategies that recognise the complexity of the interaction between the economic, cultural, technological and social dimensions of the creative process. These SMEs, which have a huge capacity for innovation, represent an essential source of cultural diversity.”
To allow SMEs to innovate, it is necessary to strengthen the skills, the synergies between sectors and the positive role of culture. This can be done especially by encouraging creative partnerships between artistic education, management schools, companies and research laboratories. The integration of creativity into educational policies could generate significant advantages for the economy, but also for the socio-cultural sector.
Paths for the 2020 Strategy
This colloquium made it possible to reaffirm the importance of supporting the cultural and creative industries, guarantors of cultural diversity.
Research and innovation policy is currently assuming increased importance in terms of the political priorities of the European Union. It is considered a vector of competitiveness, growth, productivity and viability.
As Luc de Brabandere, a specialist in the area of creativity applied to business, emphasised during the debates: “Paradoxically, the crisis and its constraints must stimulate us!” In his opinion, in a rapidly changing world the ability of our economies and industries to survive lies in their capacity for breaking out of their existing framework. Consequently, it is indispensable to be in the forefront of change, to create new perspectives and to make it possible for new ideas, which arise from creativity, to become innovations.
