White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 11to ideological positions or rather poses.On one side are the apocalypticsupporters of Debordian prophesies,pop fanaticism and the triumph ofmidcult and, on the other, theenthusiastic fans of the apotheosis ofpopularising, of “anything is better thannothing” and the revenge of theexhibition and festival culture vultures –people who actually have rather elitistsocial profiles, from the point of viewof their education, although in Italy, asis well known, they are not alwayspositively correlated to income levelsFor some time now these problemshave gone beyond the critical threshold,since the phenomenon tends to take theform of an increasingly confusing“event mania”. The number ofinitiatives is incalculable, partly becauseof the high birth and death rates of whatare often local events. Any attempts tosurvey accurately the enormous numberof events in our country and tounderstand their effective extent arethwarted not only by the generic natureof the “festival” formula or the term“exhibition”, which makes comparisonsproblematic, but also the spin-offaspects of their success.Yet the time has come to attempt totackle these issues, especially since thereis an abundant high-standardinternational literature on the subject.The starting point for an understandingof the impact of institutions and culturalevents on local areas is twofold. On onehand, the institutions and culturalevents make an important contributionto economic development and jobs inthe areas in question. They are capableof attracting hundreds of thousands ofvisitors, diverting huge tourist flows,sustaining various economic sectors,slowing down intellectual emigrationand encouraging the development oflocal human capital, etc. But on theother hand, the same institutions andevents can create congestion to thedetriment of the cultural heritage,increase the costs sustained bycommunities and local authorities, upsetthe balances in the property market andin commercial activities, encouragesituations of living off rent, exercisenegative social impacts, etc..The key issue is in fact linked to anaccurate assessment of positive andnegative impacts, given that the finalfigures provide undeniably importantinformation and elements fornegotiation. It is no accident that in thelast 30 years a growing number ofcultural institutions have commissioneddetailed impact analyses: the TateModern (2005, with the London Schoolof Economics), the MOMA (2006), theGuggenheim (which pioneered the“Bilbao effect” assessed in 1999 byKPMG), and the New YorkMetropolitan (2007), not to mentionfestival organisers who for decades havecommissioned similar studies.To offset the partial nature of theseestimates, various public and privateresearch centres have conducted veryinteresting counter-analyses, thusopening up a clear debate on the prosand cons of a very useful tool of social,cultural, political and economic policy.What is measured?To quantify the size and positive ornegative nature of economic impact, wemust follow a very precise procedure,which in the initial stages involves aWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 264