White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 13Table 13.3 shows the data for the liveperforming arts sectors in Italy in 2006.More specifically it highlights the data ofthe number of events, the admissions tothe events, the money paid by spectatorsto acquire tickets and/or season tickets,the overall sums paid by audiences toattend performances, including boxoffice and all other costs (drinks,cloakroom, theatre programmes, etc)and the overall proceeds for theorganisers.The institutional system of theperforming arts is characterised byfunding methods which encourageexcellence in terms of quality selectionsaccording to the assessment of technicalcommissions with consulting power.This produces a long-term drain on thecreative fertility of the system, sinceinstead of supporting the developmentand consolidation of a widespreaddiversified production system, it simplyopts for the large-scale productionorganisations which more obviouslyfollow tradition. In this way over thedecades, a closed sector withconsiderable obstacles to entry hasdeveloped.The paradox of a system structured inthis way is that outside the officialdomof public funding an extremelyinteresting breeding ground made up oftheatres, companies and groups has beendeveloping. Capable of creatingstylistically innovative works, they tendto be rooted in the local area, partlythanks to the interest shown in them bylocal public administrations. One strikingexample is the city of Bolzano. In themid-1990s a theatre, designed by MarcoZanuso, was buit in the city to host theactivities of the Teatro Stabile diBolzano, the Orchestra Haydn and thenewly created Vereinigte Bühnen Bozen.While the Teatro Comunale attracted theinterest of the bigger institutions whichperceived its symbolic value in terms ofinstitutional representation, an informalfabric made up of very solid smallinnovative groups working in nonconventionalspaces spread and attracteda growing part of theatre audiencesinterested in new forms of creativity.Ten years on from the construction ofthe theatre, the upshot is an unrivalledferment in the whole performing artssector, with very encouraging growthfigures. This demonstrates that emergingaudiences attach less importance to the“assessment” by officialdom andrecognise and appreciate creativity. lxxviiiThe case of Bolzano, like other examplesof growth in creativity, albeit lesssystematic but equally intense (found inareas ranging Romagna to Pescara,Catania and Terni), demonstrate that theinterest by local government institutionscan be an important element in bringingout and consolidating creativity in thesector of the performing arts in whichexperiments usually do not involve largecosts or huge production machinery, butsimply the perception of a physiologicalpositioning in a favourable social andcultural climate. In this sense, in additionto driving cultural growth, public actionmay be an effective way of boosting thereputation of the whole area.The Bolzano model clearly shows thatpublic action must be continually tunedin to the situation, intervening wherenecessary to shore up elements offragility or encourage potentially positiveWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 308