2007-10-25
Change through the Cultural Economy
Has the change with the cultural economy already started in Germanys biggest state North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)? How can 2010 - the year when Essen (together with Pecs/Hungary and Istanbul/Turkey) is the European Capital of Culture - push the development toward a creative economy? And what about the traditional industry, which the Ruhr Area was famous for in the past? These and other questions tried to answer an international congress in Essen in September.
The location has been chosen wisely. The Colloseum theatre was originally a factory of the German steel giant Krupp and is now used for entertainment performances like musicals. About 300 participants and 40 speakers from Europe, USA and Asia joined the congress. Essens mayor Wolfgang Renninger headlined the importance to continue the discussion about cultural industries in the state after the last conference 8 years ago. But beside the fact, that in the state so called Art & Economy Days have taken place frequently, the view on the conference calendar gives the notion that every politician tries to underline the importance of art and creativity for the economy of his region, whereever he can. In addition, the German EU-presidency 2007 brought already three conferences for this sector. Some people may almost get tired from this trend. On the other hand, it is still difficult to convince a wider public of these facts, which has to do with the usual ignorance of the press. Topics like that are hard to classify in a typical newspaper, which is ordered in policy, economy, and culture. What a pity - its about all these civic areas! In case of doubt and also in case of this conference only the local editorial staff attends, though the Minister of Economy, Mrs. Christa Thoben, the North-Rhine-Westphalian secretary of culture Mr. Hans-Heinrich Grosse-Brockhoff and a leading representative of the NRW Bank came for speeches.
The most prominent guest speaker was Dr. Jürgen Rüttgers. The minister president of NRW refered in his address on the position, that the creative economy doenst mean the end of the industrial production - in difference to the current British opinion. He and his minister of economy follow the conception, that ideas and creativity are the goods, which in the 21st century help the entire economy to prosperity. The region around Rhine and Ruhr offers the best requirements to become one of the leading regions in Europe. 200 museums, 100 concert halls or 19 universities are an outstanding basis, which reveal the broad understanding of the creative sector by Mr. Rüttgers. He includes purposely science, research and especially aspects of education and knowledge, which is absolutely correct and necessary. The application for 2010 is an edge to kick off the beginning development, Rüttgers said. It would be necessary to get over the mentality of subsidies and rather reward competition as well as support start-ups. Anyhow about 4 billion Euro are available during the next years. Of course there would be also problems, but Rüttgers didnt matched them during his address, trying to develop a living debate about the best way into this deep economic change.
After this opening address, it was not easy for Christa Thoben to set own courses in her position as minister of ecomomy. She called attention to the fact, that it is not possible to displace creative milieus, networks or cultures. This might be a signal to the political class itself to be careful with active support in difference to the typical industrial policy. It depends more to let those networks and creative milieus growing, helping from time to time, but not to waste too much money for prestige buildings, which is lacking then for small creative structures and sustainable arts projects. Experiences from other countries, for example the vibrant art districts of New York, London or Krakow, brought evidence for this argument.
In particular Allen Scott responsed to this aspect. The author of the book The Cultural Economy of Cities is professor in Los Angeles und deals for many years with these questions. Scott spoke about two different strategies for cultural industries, the management approach and the urban approach. Driving powers for a prosper development like to be awaited for North Rhine Westphalia are networks of special producers, local labour markets with available professionals as well as the creative field the humus, as Michael Sondermann, the expert for cultural statistics, used to identify it in his studies. This creative field is characterized by a climate of learning and innovation. Prof. Scott illustrated this wvery good with maps of the Los Angeles region, where the creative sector is affected obviously by the movie industry. He spoke about a new balance between work, life and leisure in the city, which is to be seen in an increasing penetration of extended districts for production and an urban social environment. Scott recommended a bottom-up-strategy. This includes the opportunity to fail sometimes, but more trials will be successful. A setup of institutions for regional coordination is important as well as the care of cultural-social milieus. The dark side for those developments are an increasing number of illegal immigrants, the further diverge of wages (the elite sometimes earns more than a hundred of the income of the basis) and the reduction of public services.
Dr. Oliver Scheytt, president of the German Association of Cultural Policy and CEO of the Ruhr 2010 GmbH in Essen, underlined the broad understanding of culture in the concept for the culture capital year. The metropolitan Ruhr area wants to present itself in a global environment and show, how the people live in this region, Scheytt said. He aligned 3 thesis. First of all, it is necessary to deal with the customers and creative people, which is articulated, for example, with the topic of migration, one of 4 topics in the program for 2010. Secondly the organizers will include the existing cultural scene instead of establishing only new venues. The third aspect is the understanding of cultural policy as a policy of structure while combining activities like economic support, urban development and integration.
The first representative of the creative sector itself was Frank Dorpheide, chief creative of the agency Grey, the well known marketing communication company, which has 800 employees around the globe and hires mainly creative people. The topic would be much bigger than assumed, Mr. Dorpheide said, because creativity is the worldwide most wanted good. The borders are unclear facing global brands like Apple, Virgin, Red Bull or Nike, which cannot be reduced to just producers. Dorpheide explained, how tough and ruthless the search for creative talents nowadays is. He reported from NOKIA, who had difficulties with lure creative people to Finland, the home country of NOKIA, known for its cold climate and difficult language, and from NOKIAs final decision to move the headquarter to London. The two Asian cities Singapore and Shanghai received 73 billion dollars of investments in the recent years to get on the top of the creative regions in the world. Frank Dorpheide demonstrated the participants, how difficult it shall be to overcome in this competion and to manage this change successfully, but he also gave recommendations and solutions. Creativity needs engines like regional stars, a diversity of opportunities, products and services. He received applause while saying, the education system in Germany is still orientated on the industrial age, where the subject of algebra is said to be more important than music or art lessons.
Later the artist Jochen Gerz (Cologne) agreed with him: The Art serves the society as a power of its own and dont stop on the border to the working place. Job and leisure are getting closer to each other. Gerz: We also need a new type of citizen, who is creative! We dont need visitors just watching but people who play. The customer himselve can be a source of innovation. Altogether it were the statements and opinions of the creatives, which made the congress so interesting. Especially the highly motivated speech of Mrs. Gabriele Orsech should be mentioned in this context. Orsech is head of the Academy of Fashion and Design, located in Dusseldorf and Hamburg. Her example made so clear, which chances the creative economy has, if the right persons meet the concepts.
With the introduction of the so-called Essener Erklärung zur Kulturwirtschaft (Essen Declaration for Cultural Industries) a congress finished, which has made obvious like never before, which high ambitions in the creative economy the political class of the state North-Rhine Westphalia pursue. It was not surprising, how often comparisons has been made with Germans capital Berlin, because everybody can see the current competition between these two metropolitan areas. However, the question is, if the political plans are made with or without the creatives. Some days ago the 5th report on Cultural Industries (Kulturwirtschaftsbericht) in NRW has been published. With this report the high claims of the policy can be verified.
Related links:
http://www.kreativwirtschaft.nrw.de/kongress2007/index.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Rhine-Westphalia
http://www.china-nrw.de/about/about-nrw-germany/culture-of-the-highest-order
The most prominent guest speaker was Dr. Jürgen Rüttgers. The minister president of NRW refered in his address on the position, that the creative economy doenst mean the end of the industrial production - in difference to the current British opinion. He and his minister of economy follow the conception, that ideas and creativity are the goods, which in the 21st century help the entire economy to prosperity. The region around Rhine and Ruhr offers the best requirements to become one of the leading regions in Europe. 200 museums, 100 concert halls or 19 universities are an outstanding basis, which reveal the broad understanding of the creative sector by Mr. Rüttgers. He includes purposely science, research and especially aspects of education and knowledge, which is absolutely correct and necessary. The application for 2010 is an edge to kick off the beginning development, Rüttgers said. It would be necessary to get over the mentality of subsidies and rather reward competition as well as support start-ups. Anyhow about 4 billion Euro are available during the next years. Of course there would be also problems, but Rüttgers didnt matched them during his address, trying to develop a living debate about the best way into this deep economic change.
After this opening address, it was not easy for Christa Thoben to set own courses in her position as minister of ecomomy. She called attention to the fact, that it is not possible to displace creative milieus, networks or cultures. This might be a signal to the political class itself to be careful with active support in difference to the typical industrial policy. It depends more to let those networks and creative milieus growing, helping from time to time, but not to waste too much money for prestige buildings, which is lacking then for small creative structures and sustainable arts projects. Experiences from other countries, for example the vibrant art districts of New York, London or Krakow, brought evidence for this argument.
In particular Allen Scott responsed to this aspect. The author of the book The Cultural Economy of Cities is professor in Los Angeles und deals for many years with these questions. Scott spoke about two different strategies for cultural industries, the management approach and the urban approach. Driving powers for a prosper development like to be awaited for North Rhine Westphalia are networks of special producers, local labour markets with available professionals as well as the creative field the humus, as Michael Sondermann, the expert for cultural statistics, used to identify it in his studies. This creative field is characterized by a climate of learning and innovation. Prof. Scott illustrated this wvery good with maps of the Los Angeles region, where the creative sector is affected obviously by the movie industry. He spoke about a new balance between work, life and leisure in the city, which is to be seen in an increasing penetration of extended districts for production and an urban social environment. Scott recommended a bottom-up-strategy. This includes the opportunity to fail sometimes, but more trials will be successful. A setup of institutions for regional coordination is important as well as the care of cultural-social milieus. The dark side for those developments are an increasing number of illegal immigrants, the further diverge of wages (the elite sometimes earns more than a hundred of the income of the basis) and the reduction of public services.
Dr. Oliver Scheytt, president of the German Association of Cultural Policy and CEO of the Ruhr 2010 GmbH in Essen, underlined the broad understanding of culture in the concept for the culture capital year. The metropolitan Ruhr area wants to present itself in a global environment and show, how the people live in this region, Scheytt said. He aligned 3 thesis. First of all, it is necessary to deal with the customers and creative people, which is articulated, for example, with the topic of migration, one of 4 topics in the program for 2010. Secondly the organizers will include the existing cultural scene instead of establishing only new venues. The third aspect is the understanding of cultural policy as a policy of structure while combining activities like economic support, urban development and integration.
The first representative of the creative sector itself was Frank Dorpheide, chief creative of the agency Grey, the well known marketing communication company, which has 800 employees around the globe and hires mainly creative people. The topic would be much bigger than assumed, Mr. Dorpheide said, because creativity is the worldwide most wanted good. The borders are unclear facing global brands like Apple, Virgin, Red Bull or Nike, which cannot be reduced to just producers. Dorpheide explained, how tough and ruthless the search for creative talents nowadays is. He reported from NOKIA, who had difficulties with lure creative people to Finland, the home country of NOKIA, known for its cold climate and difficult language, and from NOKIAs final decision to move the headquarter to London. The two Asian cities Singapore and Shanghai received 73 billion dollars of investments in the recent years to get on the top of the creative regions in the world. Frank Dorpheide demonstrated the participants, how difficult it shall be to overcome in this competion and to manage this change successfully, but he also gave recommendations and solutions. Creativity needs engines like regional stars, a diversity of opportunities, products and services. He received applause while saying, the education system in Germany is still orientated on the industrial age, where the subject of algebra is said to be more important than music or art lessons.
Later the artist Jochen Gerz (Cologne) agreed with him: The Art serves the society as a power of its own and dont stop on the border to the working place. Job and leisure are getting closer to each other. Gerz: We also need a new type of citizen, who is creative! We dont need visitors just watching but people who play. The customer himselve can be a source of innovation. Altogether it were the statements and opinions of the creatives, which made the congress so interesting. Especially the highly motivated speech of Mrs. Gabriele Orsech should be mentioned in this context. Orsech is head of the Academy of Fashion and Design, located in Dusseldorf and Hamburg. Her example made so clear, which chances the creative economy has, if the right persons meet the concepts.
With the introduction of the so-called Essener Erklärung zur Kulturwirtschaft (Essen Declaration for Cultural Industries) a congress finished, which has made obvious like never before, which high ambitions in the creative economy the political class of the state North-Rhine Westphalia pursue. It was not surprising, how often comparisons has been made with Germans capital Berlin, because everybody can see the current competition between these two metropolitan areas. However, the question is, if the political plans are made with or without the creatives. Some days ago the 5th report on Cultural Industries (Kulturwirtschaftsbericht) in NRW has been published. With this report the high claims of the policy can be verified.
Related links:
http://www.kreativwirtschaft.nrw.de/kongress2007/index.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Rhine-Westphalia
http://www.china-nrw.de/about/about-nrw-germany/culture-of-the-highest-order
An article by Dirk Heinze, editor-in-chief
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