Creative Economy

2nd African Creative Economy Conference

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The Arterial Network is holding its second “African Creative Economy Conference” on November 14 -16 2012 in Dakar, Senegal.

According to its organisers: “The aims of the conference are to provide practical analysis and reflective overview of the current status of African creative economy. This should help consolidate emergent African expertise in this area while providing critical thought necessary in navigating the unfolding realities the sector is faced with.

The 2012 Creative Economy conference is a rare opportunity that will mark the coming together of powerful debate from across the continent, live and rich provocation from pioneering international practitioners and thinkers, and the unprecedented collaboration of arts institutions from 40 African countries to shape dialogue and a shared experience.

Its main objective is to assess and share research done to date on the African creative economy in order to inform advocacy strategies in support of the African creative sector, rigorously interrogate the available research on cultural themes, provide a platform for African professionals to share their insights on the African Creative economy aspects and to identify areas of further research, links, opportunities and potential relationships.It offers to researchers, artists, civil society, donors and cultural workers from Africa the opportunity to network, get practical analysis and reflection of the African creative economy from an African perspectives and realities.The African Creative Economy Conference 2012 offers two parallel programmes – one specifically exploring up-to-date researches, experiences and debates, the other is a series of practical know how exchange trainings and workshops. The closing gala dinner will be featuring performances from renowned African artists’ members of Arterial Network.”

Conference program and registration on this website

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

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State of the Arts gets the environment

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This post comes to you from Ashden Directory

Wallace Heim writes: 

At the most recent State of the Arts (SOTA) conference hosted by Arts Council England in Salford had, for the first time, two sessions on ‘Artists and our future environment’, with speakers James Marriott from PLATFORM; the writer Jay Griffiths; Mojisola Adebayo, writer, performer, director; and Andy Field, co-director of Forest Fringe.

All of SOTA’s sessions – on the creative economy, changing society, imagination, fundraising – touch on environmental themes. But these two drew out specific questions of the relations between artists and environments, of the material effects of artistic practices on the Earth, and of the importance of artistic expression of environmental themes.

This interest by SOTA in the environment comes about, in part, from talks between ACE London and arts organisations with an environmental focus in the London region – organisations who had lost their Regularly Funded Organisation status, and questioned ACE’s policies on the environment and climate.

James Marriott’s session, transcribed on the PLATFORM blog, sets out how this collaboration between disparate organisations has worked, and how substantial shifts in ACE’s environmental directions are taking shape.

“ashdenizen blog and twitter are consistently among the best sources for information and reflection on developments in the field of arts and climate change in the UK” (2020 Network)

ashdenizen is edited by Robert Butler, and is the blog associated with the Ashden Directory, a website focusing on environment and performance.
The Ashden Directory is edited by Robert Butler and Wallace Heim, with associate editor Kellie Gutman. The Directory includes features, interviews, news, a timeline and a database of ecologically – themed productions since 1893 in the United Kingdom. Our own projects include ‘New Metaphors for Sustainability’, ‘Flowers Onstage’ and ‘Six ways to look at climate change and theatre’.

The Directory has been live since 2000.

Go to The Ashden Directory

EcoAçãoCultural Seminar, 25-26th of November 2011

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This post comes to you from Culture|Futures

As a result of the Culture|Futures Conference in Sao Paulo May 30th 2011, the following key Sao Paulo institutions; British Council, Centro Cultural da Espanha, Centro Cultural São Paulo, Crie Futuros, Instituto Cultural da Dinamarca, Instituto Cultural Italiano, Instituto Goethe, Virada Sustentável, Serviço Social da Indústria (SESI), Universidade Aberta do Meio Ambiente e da Cultura da Paz (UMAPAZ) have united a group called EcoAçãoCultural, which will join forces the 25-26 of November to  discuss sustainability. The seminar will deal with the questions of how the institutions can implement sustainability in their own daily work and how they approach culture, artistic and social work in a sustainable way.

The themes to discuss at the seminar will be:

  • The way we live
  • The right ways of organizing a sustainable platform
  • Cultural/Creative economy
  • Creative networking and art production

At the seminar there will be speakers from Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Germany and United Kingdom.

Venue of seminar 25-26th November at Centro Cultural Sao Paulo, Sala de Oficinas Tarsila do Amaral – Piso Caio Graco.

For further information and indication of interest go to www.culturefutures.ning.com or contact:

Maibrit Thomsen,
mai@dinacultura.org
Tlf: + 55 21 2532 0599
Culture|Futures

Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.

The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.

Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society.
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Arts, Culture and Creative Economy: The Greatest Sacrifice Arts Workers Make for the Arts

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An excerpt from a post on Gary Steuer’s blog:

With all the financial challenges arts workers are facing these days – struggling to balance the budgets of their organizations, or dealing with salary and benefit cuts on compensation that was modest to begin with – it is easy to view the sacrifices people make to work in this field as being entirely financial.

Not to minimize the financial sacrifices – they ARE significant – but I would argue they are probably no more significant than a wide array of professions where people choose to devote themselves to the pursuit of “making the world a better place”. This includes early childhood workers, teachers, social workers, the whole world of NGOsworking in challenged communities, both domestically and abroad. And the sacrifices all these workers make are also not just financial. We all work long hours, and often under trying and unglamorous circumstances (though to outsiders arts work can seem glamorous).

No, I think the more significant – and unique – sacrifice arts workers make is that we lose the capacity for full, innocent and glorious enjoyment of the very art that our passion for drove us to make our life’s work in the first place.  What do I mean by this?  Think about your earliest experiences with the arts, your first encounter with Matisse, or Chuck Close; your first time in the audience for Sondheim, or Verdi; that time you first saw Baryshnikov on stage, or Judith Jamison. Remember that childlike joy – even if you were not a child – that total immersion in the art where the whole world disappeared and you were unaware of time, of the person chewing gum next to you? Now tell, me when was the last time you felt that?  Sure, you are still passionate about the art form or all art forms, you still go to museums, or opera, or theatre, but something has been lost. Admit it.

Read the full article here:  Arts, Culture and Creative Economy: The Greatest Sacrifice Arts Workers Make for the Arts.