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The Minister for Culture of Latvia Ms Dace Melbārde, the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Mr Tibor Navracsics, and the Head of the State Inspection for Heritage Protection of Latvia Mr Juris Dambis, expressed their confidence that the Member States have all the preconditions required to promote creative crossovers and interaction between different sectors.
"Europe is one of the most innovative and creative continents in the world. We have long traditions of innovation and creativity, social progress and economic dominant position and we would like to preserve this position. That is why we have to improve our competitiveness. We have to use our spare forces of culture and creativity," stressed the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Mr Tibor Navracsics.
The Commissioner emphasised that the international conferences organised by the Latvian Ministry of Culture correspond to the very essence of European identity. He was also very appreciative of the initiatives organised as part of the “radi!” (create!) Creativity Week. During his visit in Riga he visited the “Lieta Nr. 1914/2014” exhibition at the Stūra māja.
This year's “radi!” Creativity Week provides a common platform for policy events concerning the cultural and creative industries during the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. It also promotes the values of the Latvian Presidency – involvement, growth and sustainability.
“We have set three main priorities for our Presidency in the area of culture. These are: the promotion of cultural and creative crossovers; the interaction of heritage, contemporary architecture and design; and the future regulatory framework for European audiovisual policy. These priorities are directly linked to each other. They are all aimed at encouraging action to support and strengthen Europe's cultural and creative industries,” highlights the Minister for Culture, Ms Dace Melbārde.
On 9–10 March the international conference “Strengthening the European Audiovisual Media Market for the Development of the European Identity” raised a European-level discussion on how to respond to the media challenges of the 21st century.
Creativity and cross-sectoral partnerships are a prerequisite for the future development of society, especially in the digital age. This was the main conclusion reached by leading experts at the international conference "Cultural and creative industries transfer process" which took place in Riga on 11–12 March and involved 317 delegates representing 32 nationalities.
Conference on „Cultural and creative corssovers”. Photo: Eduards Kapša
At this conference, the Director-General of the European Commission Directorate-General for Education and Culture, Mr Xavier Prats Monné, stressed the great potential of the cultural and creative industries sector, which is the third-largest in terms of employment after the construction and food industries. The Senior Strategy Executive at “Creative England”, Ms Johanna Bolhoven, pointed out that the creative industries contribute 71.4 billion pounds (around 101.5 billion euro) to the UK national economy and provide 1.68 million jobs – 5.6% of the total UK labour market. The Programme Director of the "Impulse Programme", Austrian expert Ms Doris Fröhlich, indicated that the situation is similar in the European labour market, providing proof that creativity is a driving force for development. In Austria, the creative industry makes up 10.4% of the total economy.
"After five years of “radi!” Creativity Weeks in Latvia, it is clear that we have a host of positive and practical examples, but further work needs to be done because many obstacles can still be found in traditional management systems. My Finnish colleague, the founder of Snowcone & Haystack Marco Steinberg, made the excellent point at the conference that management systems created in the 18th and 19th centuries are no longer applicable for the dynamic changes of the 21st century. We have to think creatively about revising our day-to-day management models. While we may manage to write good cross-sectoral policy documents, we are not always as successful when it comes to implementing them, as all the implementation mechanisms are developed within the different sectors. We therefore need to look for new synergies between different sectors,” said the Minister for Culture of Latvia Ms Dace Melbārde.
Conference on „Cultural and creative corssovers”. Real taste of Latvian creative industries – Fusion Show at Latvian Railway History Museum in Riga. Photo: Eduards Kapša
On 12-13 March, the international conference “Heritage, Contemporary Architecture and Design in Interaction” concludes the “radi!2015” Creativity Week.
"Architecture is the art that creates high-quality living space for human beings. Good modern architecture does not destroy our cultural and historical heritage. And good policy on the conservation of our cultural heritage is one that supports quality. Good modern architecture will become the cultural heritage of the future. We must therefore find ways to ensure the co-existence of cultural heritage and modern architecture because every era has its own face and different eras can live together. We have to build a bridge between cultural heritage, contemporary architecture and design. This is the only way we can give a much more professional and socially acceptable presentation of the values of cultural heritage,” said Mr Juris Dambis, the Head of the State Inspection for Heritage Protection of Latvia, in introducing the main theme of the conference.
More than 160 heritage experts, architects, designers, planners, representatives of local and national governments and owners of cultural heritage objects from almost all EU Member States are taking part in the conference. The speakers include such experienced experts as the German architect of Latvian origin, Mr Meinhard von Gerkan, the director of the Museum for Europe and the Mediterranean and coordinator of Marseille's European Capital of Culture 2013 project, Mr Jean-François Chougnet, and architect Ms Marianne Sætre from Norway, representing the Snøhetta architects’ bureau that designed the Oslo Opera House. The working documents and live online streaming of the conference can be found on the www.heritageriga2015.lv website.
The “radi!” Creativity Week was initiated by the Ministry of Culture of Latvia and the British Council. More information about “radi!” can be found on the www.radilatvija.lv and the Draugiem.lv, Twitter.com, Facebook.com social networks.
