Ilze Gailite-Holmberg (Senior Adviser of ND Partnership on Culture), what does the future look like in cultural and creative industries in the Northern Dimension area by 2030?
Photo: Senior Adiser Gailite-Holmberg with Northern Dimension Business Council member Pavel Isayev during ND Day.
Personally, I think that the CCIs will develop increasingly towards the necessity for multi-tasking and cross-sectorial trends. The CCIs will move out of their old “comfort zone” of pure culture and spread into other businesses and spheres of life, giving these other businesses added value of art and creativity. At the same time they are also growing their own skills by cross-feeding with other businesses. We should facilitate the entry of CCIs to the so called conventional businesses as it helps the development of new products, services and innovations as well as helps to raise professionals with a broader mindset and perceptions. Development of CCIs will also facilitate social inclusion and sustainable growth in the wider society. For example, the CCIs will play more important role in provision of design and digital solutions for learning, social development, and health. Undoubtedly, digital culture contents will see growth in many spheres of life, but this will also demand new solutions in terms of IPR issues.
How does the NDPC address these trends and challenges?
At the moment, we’re in the middle of a strategy process, which is based on discussions within the NDPC, on consultations with CCI experts as well as regional policy documents. Our new strategy for 2017-2020 will have strategic aims towards cross-overs between CCIs and other sectors. Also, the recent events we have organized have focused in the direction of seeking touching points on how CCIs can cross-fertilize with other businesses, looking for case studies and examples of best policies. For example, digital contents and accessibility of culture, digitization of cultural heritage, advantages of creative clustering when developing CCI businesses, cultural tourism, as well as creative gastronomy as potential driving force for regional development, have been set on our agenda.
It should be said, however, that the developments in CCIs are quite dynamic. The CCIs and businesses “on the ground” develop new innovative trends and methods often before any policies can be developed. Therefore – if talking about challenges of 2030 – the NDPC as a mostly political instrument will also follow the developments in the CCI environment and shape the actual strategies not only in the mid-term but also shorter-term.
