White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 15Creative cities and local territoriesObjectiveEncourage institutional activities linked to the creativity and productionof culture in cities and local areasAction 1 : The creation of Territorial Agencies for Creativity. Giving voiceto creative citiesAreas of competence on creativity and the production of culture are dividedbetween various institutions and public bodies. Funding is provided by theEuropean Union, Communal Administrations and foundations. The many issuesin a given area can range from cinema to design and are highly diversified. Thereis a danger of indiscriminate funding without real knowledge of the context orany co-ordination of specific policies.The Territorial Agencies should play the role of co-ordinating initiatives andpublic and private resources associated with creative activities in the productionof culture. The Agency could be configured as a public-private partnership madeup of representatives from commercial associations, local administrative officers(involved to varying degrees in the cultural field and creative sectors), localeducational institutions (universities), urban planning and employment agencies.The Agency will have the task of identifying the many areas of interest and thesocio-economic actions required to encourage cultural and creative initiatives. Itcould, for example, recommend some urban zoning initiatives to encouragesocial inclusion, maintain diversity in city centres and encourage thedevelopment of creative urban communities. One idea could be to set up acommission with the objective of studying, discussing and outlining newstrategic pathways for Italian cities. They would take into account variations insize, economic and production structures, the role of the historic centres, therelationship with the periphery, etc. In this way joint strategies and specificpolicies could be identified for some types of local territories/situations.Action 2 : Set up a Fund for Creative Communities. A public-private fundto encourage cultural creativity in local areasIntroducing incentives for creativity requires setting up public-private funds tofinance the efforts of artists.The international reference models are the Creative Capital Fund and the NewYork City Cultural Innovation Fund.The funds should be privately run and public tenders used to allocate subsidisedloans or contributions to entrepreneurial initiatives.Through the creation of these funds it will be possible to foster ideas andcultural creativity in the local area without any political interference in theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 349