30 June 2011Ireland has a relatively poor performance and a low level of engagement with Europe in terms of maximizing funding and other development opportunities for Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs), according to a conference held in Dublin today (Thursday, 30th June) in European Union House, D2. Entitled ‘Enhancing Ireland’s Role in European Cultural and Creative Industries’, the conference of European experts in policy, development and practice was devised to help CCIs rethink how to enhance their role in Europe to contribute to prosperity and success at home and abroad.
It was organised by Temple Bar Cultural Trust (TBCT) as part of its Temple Bar Talks Series 2011.
There are 60,000 people employed in the Cultural and Creative Industries in Ireland mainly self-employed and SMEs worth €3.1billion to the Irish economy. There are opportunities to create a sustainable enterprise base here through more direct access for the CCI community to EU projects and funding which is currently not being exploited. According to Grainne Millar, Head of Cultural Development at TBCT there are numerous opportunities to create new forms of entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainability for Ireland’s economy, particularly in the context of Europe’s 2020 strategy and its flagship initiatives.
“During the 2007-2013 EU cultural programme Ireland drew down only €200,000 out of a budget of €400million – that is nowhere near the average 1% of most European member states. Only a small number of CCI organisations such as Science Gallery and NCAD have managed to discover the FP7 Research and Development funds and use them to great effect in developing innovative and successful exhibitions and initiatives that benefit themselves and the wider community. But how many cultural and creative enterprises are even aware of the recent call for proposals from EU’s DG Enterprise and Industry as part of its new Creative Industries Alliance initiative. It is emerging that Ireland now needs a new integrated and joined up strategy that positions CCIs at the heart of our socio-economic renewal and our European neighbours can help us find the solutions.”
Speaking at the conference today, Carsten Schierenbeck, Policy Officer at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry, highlighted that more needs to be done to fully unlock the creative and economic potential of creative industries. He encouraged Irish participation in transnational policy learning and joint concrete activities.
"Creative industries are more than culture and art; they represent highly dynamic professions with a transformative power to drive structural change and achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The creative input and spill-over effects from creative industries into traditional industries help make the entire economy more innovative. For this reason the European Commission has just launched the strategic initiative - European Creative Industries Alliance. We have the ambition to mobilise €100 million Euro of additional support for the further development of creative industries."
The conference keynote speaker was Philippe Kern, Advisor to the European Commission and Managing Director of KEA European Affairs. He previously identified CCIs as a growing sector, developing at a faster pace than the rest of the European economy. According to Philippe creativity is an essential competitive tool and a key component of innovation that nourishes large sectors of the economy (textile, car, ICT, other industries). His recommendations for Ireland were :
- Value culture as an important resource of creativity
- Mainstream culture-based creativity in local policies and programmes to foster innovation (economic and social)
- Re-direct existing financial resources to stimulate creativity (to support non technology innovation)
- Brand Ireland as THE place to create.
- Question and tailor regulatory and institutional supports to creativity and cultural collaboration – redesign cultural policy
Concluding the conference Grainne Millar said the challenge for Ireland is that CCIs are fragmented and currently spread across a wide range of Government Departments. The consequence is a lack of joined-up thinking and integrated strategy around job creation, professionalization and skills development, access to finance to support economic growth in this sector.
The Creative Ireland Alliance, involving experts from across the cultural and creative industries was formed in December 2010 to specifically identify measures that will help unlock the potential of the sector across the economy and society. “We have identified the problems and the challenges and we know where the solutions lie” she said. Recommendations to help organizations unlock potential include;
- Establish an inter-departmental Government taskforce on Culture and Creative Industries led by Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht to look at how we can exploit the availability of EU funding for job creation, economic growth, innovation and tourism.
- Take a more expansive view on the definition of culture to include design and digital media in line with other European member states
- Broaden the definition and understanding of Innovation to include culture and the creative industries to help improve our position on the European Innovation Scoreboard where we are currently followers with a moderate growth forecast
- Identify a number of strategic priorities for Ireland to pursue through the EU Culture Programme [2007-2013] run by the Education, Audiovisual and Cultural Executive Agency (EACEA).