Creativity is a right and should be an ambition for everybody. Creativity is a shared experience between those who manifest it artistically and those who experience it. It is a process which celebrates our cultural identity and which provides an extensive platform for innovation and change.
The state cannot create art; however, it can make possible measures that allow creativity to exist. We must move away from a top-down bureaucratic environment, to one which encourages creativity at grass-root levels. A government's major contribution to cultural affairs should be to activate the appropriate policies, backed by the necessary financial investments that would support healthy partnerships between public and private entities, NGOs and foundations. This is achieved through a decentralised process which empowers artistic organisations, local governments, private and public entities to develop the creative industries without the direct interference of the state, but through a common vision which is consolidated in the country's cultural policy.
This is why, from its inception, the newly established Valletta Creative Forum - a think tank for the arts - has aimed to provide a platform for artists, policy makers and other stakeholders, to address challenges and recommend measures through a decentralised shared experience.
During the first session of the Valletta Creative Forum, entitled Cultural Governance in Malta and Beyond, participants asserted that a strong culture sector requires effective structures, policies and leaders to motivate, direct, sustain and nurture creativity. Artists and decision makers voiced the need for cultural institutions to operate at arms-length from central government in order to create autonomy and transparency. This should be seen and felt from board level downwards.
Indeed, it was stressed that a lack of transparency and autonomy at the top level was highly detrimental to the proper function of these cultural institutions. Organisations such as the St James Centre for Culture and the Arts, the Manoel Theatre and Heritage Malta cannot work within a civil service environment. The specialised needs and constantly changing scenarios of the creative industries are out of synch with the more routine office environment found in government.
This lack of autonomy is hindering effective day-to-day management and long-term planning. On the other hand, as recipients of government grants they will have to be accountable to their funders and implement projects based on Malta's cultural policy. The shortage of funding for institutions and cultural events is also stifling the potential growth of artists and cultural organisations. With a national cultural spending of 0.35 per cent in last year's budget and a yearly investment by the state of 0.002 per cent for new artistic work, the creative industries are a long way from sustainability. The lack of funding also sends out the wrong message to private industries who find it more difficult to support innovative and creative, but possibly less popular, ideas if the state is not seen to take the lead. On the other hand, lack of funding will always be a comfortable excuse to do nothing.
A decentralised creative industry will ensure that every citizen and every organisation can be directly involved in the creative process. This is the vision which the participants of the Valletta Creative Forum are proposing and will continue to discuss in the coming months.
This vision can see our local councils as prime cultural operators in the development of community art; Our national curriculum advocating a stronger creative input; Our Maltese embassies as initiators of exchange and collaboration through an effective cultural diplomacy programme; Our business enterprises as creative partners and our health sector as the leader in arts therapy and arts-based projects. It can also see an increased political commitment, which not only talks of a creative economy but also injects more euros into it. The successful implementation of this vision depends on the investment, commitment and skill of all those who do and should own creativity.
Creativity is ultimately a contributor to our economy. A recent independent study for the European Commission reveals that the arts and creative industries in Europe employ 5.8 million people and in 2003 had a turnover of more than €654 billion. This is more than double the money produced by European car-makers, contributing more to the economy than the chemical industry, property or the food and drinks business. Jan Figel, the European Commissioner for Education and Culture, stated that: "The culture sector is the engine of creativity, and creativity is the basis for social and economic innovation".
The impressive growth of the creative industries and its untapped potential in Malta should motivate us all to be prime shareholders of creativity.
The state cannot create art; however, it can make possible measures that allow creativity to exist. We must move away from a top-down bureaucratic environment, to one which encourages creativity at grass-root levels. A government's major contribution to cultural affairs should be to activate the appropriate policies, backed by the necessary financial investments that would support healthy partnerships between public and private entities, NGOs and foundations. This is achieved through a decentralised process which empowers artistic organisations, local governments, private and public entities to develop the creative industries without the direct interference of the state, but through a common vision which is consolidated in the country's cultural policy.
This is why, from its inception, the newly established Valletta Creative Forum - a think tank for the arts - has aimed to provide a platform for artists, policy makers and other stakeholders, to address challenges and recommend measures through a decentralised shared experience.
During the first session of the Valletta Creative Forum, entitled Cultural Governance in Malta and Beyond, participants asserted that a strong culture sector requires effective structures, policies and leaders to motivate, direct, sustain and nurture creativity. Artists and decision makers voiced the need for cultural institutions to operate at arms-length from central government in order to create autonomy and transparency. This should be seen and felt from board level downwards.
Indeed, it was stressed that a lack of transparency and autonomy at the top level was highly detrimental to the proper function of these cultural institutions. Organisations such as the St James Centre for Culture and the Arts, the Manoel Theatre and Heritage Malta cannot work within a civil service environment. The specialised needs and constantly changing scenarios of the creative industries are out of synch with the more routine office environment found in government.
This lack of autonomy is hindering effective day-to-day management and long-term planning. On the other hand, as recipients of government grants they will have to be accountable to their funders and implement projects based on Malta's cultural policy. The shortage of funding for institutions and cultural events is also stifling the potential growth of artists and cultural organisations. With a national cultural spending of 0.35 per cent in last year's budget and a yearly investment by the state of 0.002 per cent for new artistic work, the creative industries are a long way from sustainability. The lack of funding also sends out the wrong message to private industries who find it more difficult to support innovative and creative, but possibly less popular, ideas if the state is not seen to take the lead. On the other hand, lack of funding will always be a comfortable excuse to do nothing.
A decentralised creative industry will ensure that every citizen and every organisation can be directly involved in the creative process. This is the vision which the participants of the Valletta Creative Forum are proposing and will continue to discuss in the coming months.
This vision can see our local councils as prime cultural operators in the development of community art; Our national curriculum advocating a stronger creative input; Our Maltese embassies as initiators of exchange and collaboration through an effective cultural diplomacy programme; Our business enterprises as creative partners and our health sector as the leader in arts therapy and arts-based projects. It can also see an increased political commitment, which not only talks of a creative economy but also injects more euros into it. The successful implementation of this vision depends on the investment, commitment and skill of all those who do and should own creativity.
Creativity is ultimately a contributor to our economy. A recent independent study for the European Commission reveals that the arts and creative industries in Europe employ 5.8 million people and in 2003 had a turnover of more than €654 billion. This is more than double the money produced by European car-makers, contributing more to the economy than the chemical industry, property or the food and drinks business. Jan Figel, the European Commissioner for Education and Culture, stated that: "The culture sector is the engine of creativity, and creativity is the basis for social and economic innovation".
The impressive growth of the creative industries and its untapped potential in Malta should motivate us all to be prime shareholders of creativity.