OECD Culture and Local Development.pdf - PACA

CONCLUSION - DESIGNING LOCAL PUBLIC POLICIES
To get there, both national and local measures would seem to be necessary. We
shall focus here on the latter.
Education and training to build up cultural capital
Cultural activities constitute a source of creative capital for all economic activities.
Formation of such capital must be constantly nourished and this requires first distilling
and then instilling the knowledge and skills that form the basis of that capital. There
are two major obstacles to creative capital formation.
• In many cases, capital formation is done through formal training in art schools
or applied arts schools. The art schools are often isolated, cut off from the
applied arts schools, and they neglect the kind of training needed to convert
artistic resources into economic activities, among which design ranks first.
These divides between training systems, often of long-standing, reproduce
themselves at the local level where they impose a high financial burden. It is
a striking fact that the emergence or rebirth of cultural districts has often been
linked to the introduction of a new training approach that combines general
arts training with applied arts training, starting typically with the latter.
• These skills are also acquired on-the-job, and they disappear with the job.
In the days before art schools, training in cultural activities was traditionally
done through the guilds, and their traditions of journeymen and apprentices
have not completely disappeared, even if the academies system has
downplayed their importance. Today, these systems, which have the feature
of being immersed in their local setting, are under threat. The demand for
general knowledge often drives students to other places, and the financial
instability of artistic production facilities makes it difficult for them to take
on young trainees. For these two reasons, many people with specific knowledge
and know-how will retire without having passed on their expertise. If a
territory fails to respond to these challenges, it puts the maintenance of rare
knowledge and skills at risk. Mechanisms are needed to encourage this
training and its renewal, ranging from supporting creators to managing the
transfer of businesses.
A quality approach to managing human resources
The low quality of cultural jobs can impede the development potential of cultural
activities. Cultural work is often sporadic and low-paying. While it is true that the onand-off
nature of such work depends on the unique characteristics of each cultural
production and the specific skills it requires, the situation nevertheless poses a
constant risk to people devoted to the cultural trades. Low pay is a persistent obstacle
that cannot be masked by the occasional breakthrough to stardom. It is a problem
CULTURE AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT - ISBN 92-64-00990-6 - © OECD 2005 159