The FINANCIAL — Culture and creative crossovers, the interaction of cultural heritage, modern architecture and design as well as the issues of European audiovisual media market strengthening – these are the themes discussed in the Latvian presidency conferences organized by the Ministry of Culture of Latvia during Creativity Action Week “radi!2015” in Latvia.
The Minister for Culture of Latvia Ms Dace Melbārde, the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Mr Tibor Navracsics and the Head of the State Inspection for Heritage Protection of Latvia Mr Juris Dambis expressed confidence that the Member States have all the preconditions to promote creative crossovers and interaction between different sectors, according to EU.
“Europe is one of the most innovative and most creative continents of the world. We’ve had long traditions of innovations and creativity, social progress and economic dominant position and we would like to preserve this position. That’s why we have to improve our competitiveness. We have to use our spare forces of culture and creativity,” said the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Mr Tibor Navracsics.
The Commissioner admitted that the international conferences organized by the Ministry of Culture of Latvia are really in the core of the European identity. He also appreciates the Creativity Action Week “radi!”.During his visit in Riga he visited the exposition “Lieta Nr. 1914/2014” at Stūra māja.
This year Creativity Week “radi!” (create!) provides a common platform for policy events concerning the cultural and creative industries during the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. It also promotes the values of the Latvian Presidency – involvement, growth and sustainability.
“We have set three main priorities for our Presidency in area of culture. These are: the promotion of cultural and creative crossovers, the interaction of the heritage, contemporary architecture and design that also corresponds to the topic of cultural crossovers, and the future regulatory framework of European audiovisual policy. These priorities are directly linked with each other. They all are set in the way to encourage for action in order to support European culture and creative industries. They all speak about the strengthening of the European creativity, heritage and culture,” highlights the Minister for Culture Ms Dace Melbārde.
On 9–10 March the international conference “Strengthening the European Audiovisual Media Market for the Development of the European Identity” raised a European-level discussion on how to respond to the media challenges of the 21st century.
Creativity and cross-sectorial partnerships is a prerequisite for the future development of the society, especially in the digital age – this was the main conclusion expressed in the international conference “Cultural and creative industries transfer process” by leading experts . The conference took place in Riga on 11 – 12 March and involved 317 delegates representing 32 nationalities.
In the conference director-General of the Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission Mr Xavier Prats Monna stressed the great potential of creative industries as cultural and creative industries is the third largest employment sector after the construction and food industries. Senior Strategy Executive of “Creative England” Ms Johanna Bolhoven pointed out that creative industries provides contribution of 71.4 billion pounds (about 101,5 billion euro) to the national economy offering 1.68 million work places that is 5.6% of total labor market in UK. . The Program Director of “Impulse Programme” Ms Doris Frohlich (Austria) indicated that the situation in European labor market is similar, and it proves that creativity is the driving force for development. In Austria creative industry provides 10.4% of the total economy.
“After five years of the Creative Week “radi!2015” in Latvia has come to the fact that we have many positive and practical examples, but further work is needed as many obstacles are still found in traditional governance systems. As my Finnish colleague, the founder of Snowcone & Haystack Marco Steinberg pointed out in the conference, the management schemes that are made in 18th and 19th century are not applicable in the 21st century. We have to think creatively how to review our governance models. If we can manage to write a good cross-sectorial policy documents, we are not always as successful with implementation as all the implementation mechanisms are developed within the industries. So we need to look for new synergies between different sectors,” said the Minister for Culture of Latvia Ms Dace Melbārde.
On 12-13 March international conference “Heritage, Contemporary Architecture and Design in Interaction” conclude the Creativity Week “radi!2015”.
“Architecture is the art to create high-quality living space for humans. Good modern architecture is the one that does not destroy the cultural and historical heritage. And the good conservation of cultural heritage policy is the one that supports the quality. Good modern architecture will become the cultural heritage in the future. Therefore, we must find ways to ensure the co-existing of cultural heritage and modern architecture. Every era has its own face, and different ages can live together. We have to build a bridge between cultural heritage, contemporary architecture and design. Only in this way we can present the cultural heritage to the society in more professionally,” said Mr Juris Dambis, the Head of the State Inspection for Heritage Protection of Latvia introducing the theme of the conference.
More than 160 heritage experts, architects, designers, planners, representatives of the local and national governments and the owners of the cultural heritage objects from almost all EU Member States participate in the conference. The speakers are such experienced experts as Latvian-rooted German architect Mr Meinhard von Gerkan, the director of the Museum for Europe and the Mediterranean and the coordinator of Marselle as the European Capital of Culture 2013 Mr Jean – Francois Chougnet, architect Ms Marianne Sætre from Norway representing architects’ bureau Snøhetta that are the design authors of Oslo Opera House And others.
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