Home
Tom Fleming / Creative Consultancy (TFCC)
The TFCC are the leading international consultancy for the creative economy. It offers strategy and policy leadership across the creative, cultural and arts sectors. Through research, evaluation, collaboration and advocacy, TFCC is a ‘think and do’ tank for the creative economy. TFCC offers technical expertise, strategic thinking and the tools to position creativity to the heart of society.
http://tfconsultancy.co.uk/Towards an EU Strategy for International Cultural Relations (Joint Communication to the European Parliament and the Council. Brussels, 8.6.2016, JOIN(2016)29 final)
The document proposes an EU Strategy for international cultural relations to be discussed by the Council of the EU in autumn 2016. It outlines the guiding principles for EU action in this area and proposes a common strategic EU approach to cultural diplomacy and culture for development. The Joint Communication also focuses on advancing cultural cooperation with partner countries across three main strands: supporting culture as an engine for sustainable social and economic development; promoting culture and intercultural dialogue for peaceful inter-community relations; and reinforcing cooperation on cultural heritage. This new joint vision calls for increased coordination and cooperation between DGs, EU institutions and Member States as well as with other stakeholders, since the responsibility for implementing the strategy will be shared between the EU Member States and the EU institutions.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52016JC0029&from=ENTowards an integrated approach to cultural heritage for Europe (Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Brussels, 22.7.2014 COM(2014) 477 final)
This policy document states that the sector is at a "crossroads" with reduced public budgets, falling participation in traditional cultural activities and diversifying potential audiences due to urbanization, globalisation and technological change. The communication also highlights opportunities for EU Member States and stakeholders to work more closely across borders to ensure that cultural heritage contributes more to sustainable growth and jobs. It invites cultural heritage organisations to seize the opportunities of EU funding programmes and policies to help address the challenges facing the sector. The document calls for stronger cooperation at EU level to share ideas and best practice, which can feed into national heritage policies and governance. It encourages an approach to support heritage in broader policy-making at EU, national and regional levels and in the context of environmental issues in particular.
http://ec.europa.eu/culture/library/publications/2014-heritage-communication_en.pdfTowards more efficient financial ecosystems: Innovative instruments to facilitate access to finance for the cultural and creative sectors (CCS): good practice report (European Commission, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture. 2016)
This report looks at the innovative instruments which can facilitate access to finance for the cultural and creative sectors. Such instruments need to be part of well-functioning and efficient financial ecosystems. In an economy increasingly reliant on creativity and intangible assets, the cultural and creative sectors (CCS) are among the fastest-growing. However, most CCS Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) face difficulties in accessing finance and this is one of the main obstacles to their growth. Because of the intrinsic characteristics of CCS activities (including a lack of tangible assets, dependence on intangible assets, the consequent lack of collateral and highly uncertain market demand), creative SMEs seeking finance from private banks are likely to be turned down. The financier community, including banks, still seems to have a limited understanding of these characteristics. The CCS also face challenges in the form of a fragmentation of financial instruments, information asymmetries within the financial ecosystem, lack of information on available sources of funding and issues around the valuation of intellectual property (IP). The report addresses the challenges of the CCS institutions and enterprises, sets them against the background of innovative funding schemes made available to the CCS in the Member States and provides recommendations on overcoming the main bottlenecks. A set of 32 success stories is presented to illustrate how innovative funding can match CCS companies’ needs.
https://bookshop.europa.eu/en/towards-more-efficient-financial-ecosystems-pbNC0416091/Trans Europe Halles
A European-based network of cultural centres initiated by citizens and artists that brings together 59 cultural centres and 20 associated organizations all around Europe. The network includes members from Ukraine.
http://www.teh.netUdacity - Free Online Classes & Nanodegrees
Udacity web-resource proposes online free courses and Nanodegree (paid) programmes on Data Science, Web Development, Machine Learning, Software Engineering, and more. The courses designed for learners of different skill level – from beginners to advanced. The courses allow to master in-demand skills, build and design amazing projects, and earn a valued credential.
https://www.udacity.comUdemy
It is an online learning platform aimed at professional adults who want to add new skills to their resumes, or explore their passions. You can find paid courses on development, business, IT & software, personal development, design, marketing, office productivity, health & fitness, and music.
https://www.udemy.com/courses/UK Creative Industries – International Strategy. Driving global growth for the UK creative industries (2014)
The strategy was produced by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) in collaboration with its industry-led Creative Industries Sector Advisory Group. It sets out a plan of ambitious targets that will drive growth and job creation in the UK’s creative sector. The five-year strategy was produced in close collaboration with representatives of the industry to ensure the UK’s creative industries can continue to compete in the global market.
http://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk/media/252528/ukti_creative_industries_action_plan_aw_rev_3-0_spreads.pdfUnderstanding the Impact of Digitisation on Culture
The Council of Europe, in partnership with its member States, develops policies in the area of digitisation of culture by offering a multi-stakeholder platform for the exchange of experience and good practice to policy makers, leading researchers, practitioners and civil society. The platform events produce insights for policy orientations and Council of Europe guidelines to ensure democracy and human rights for citizens in the digital era.
http://www.coe.int/en/web/culture-and-heritage/culture-and-digitisationUNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003)
The Convention intends to raise awareness about cultural manifestations and expressions that until then had no legal or programmatic framework to protect them. It defines the term of “intangible cultural heritage” and lists the instruments, goods, objects of art and cultural spaces inherent to intangible cultural heritage. The Convention also proposes a general policy aimed at highlighting the function of intangible cultural heritage in society. Along with other international instruments that protect cultural heritage, the Convention is purposed to safeguarding the uses, representations, expressions, knowledge and techniques that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals, recognise as an integral part of their cultural heritage. The intangible heritage is found in forms such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and universe, and traditional craftsmanship knowledge and techniques.
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=17716&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.htmlUNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005)
This Convention is a legally-binding international agreement that ensures artists, cultural professionals, practitioners and citizens worldwide can create, produce, disseminate and enjoy a broad range of cultural goods, services and activities. It recognise the distinctive nature of cultural goods, services and activities as vehicles of identity, values and meaning. It also stresses on the fact that while cultural goods, services and activities have important economic value, they are not mere commodities or consumer goods that can only be regarded as objects of trade. Recognizing the culture as a driving force for sustainable development, the Convention introduces a new international framework for the governance and management of culture by: encouraging the introduction of cultural policies and measures that nurture creativity, provide access for creators to participate in domestic and international marketplaces and ensure these expressions are accessible to the public at large; recognising the overall contribution of the CCIs to economic and social development; integrating culture into sustainable development strategies and national development policies; and promoting international cooperation to facilitate the mobility of artists as well as the flow of cultural goods and services. As a party to the Convention, the EU is committed to making cultural diversity an essential element of its external action and to developing a new and more active cultural role for Europe in international relations.
http://en.unesco.org/creativity/sites/creativity/files/article_18en.pdfUNESCO cultural conventions
You can find the links to all UNESCO conventions aimed to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage including ancient archaeological sites, intangible and underwater heritage, museum collections, oral traditions and other forms of heritage, and to support creativity, innovation and the emergence of dynamic cultural sectors.
http://en.unesco.org/themes/protecting-our-heritage-and-fostering-creativityUNESCO Culture for Development indicators
You can get informed on UNESCO Culture for Development Indicators (CDIS) on this web-page. It is an advocacy and policy tool that assesses the multidimensional role of culture in development processes through facts and figures.
http://en.unesco.org/creativity/cdisUNESCO Database of National Cultural Heritage Laws
Relevant legislations from 113 UNESCO Member States are available in their original language and in official English translations. This complete and easily accessible source of information is offered to all stakeholders involved – governments, customs officials, art dealers, organizations, lawyers, buyers. In the event of a legal question about the origin of an object, the database offers rapid access to the relevant national laws. The project for the development of the database is funded by the United States of America.
http://www.unesco.org/culture/natlaws/UNESCO Global Report 2015: Re-Shaping Cultural Policies
This Report presents the work of fourteen independent experts, as well as the Secretary of the Convention and the Principal Editor, who have analysed the implementation of the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. Its purpose is to move forward the process of monitoring the Convention’s implementation that was put in place by a mechanism of Quadrennial Periodic Reports approved by the Convention’s Conference of Parties in 2011. The contributors have consulted the 71 reports submitted by Parties, but have also used data derived from other, non-official sources and have drawn upon their own expert experience. The report proposes a conceptual framework for an indicator system to monitor the implementation of the Convention. It proposes the following four implementation goals derived from the Convention’s guiding principles: support sustainable systems of governance for culture; achieve a balanced flow of cultural goods and services and increase the mobility of artists and cultural professionals; integrate culture in sustainable development frameworks; and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms.
http://en.unesco.org/creativity/global-report-2015UNESCO Open Access Publications
In line with building peaceful, democratic and inclusive knowledge societies across the world, UNESCO though its Open Access Publications provides free access to scientific information and unrestricted use of electronic data for everyone. In this way UNESCO makes thousands of its publications freely available to the public. Open Access is also a way to provide the public with an insight into the work of the Organization so that everyone is able to discover and share what UNESCO is doing.
http://en.unesco.org/open-access/UNESCO World Forum on Culture and Cultural Industries
The UNESCO World Forum on Culture and Cultural Industries – also known as FOCUS - is a platform for bringing various audiences together to share ideas on different topics associated to Culture and Cultural Industries, which vary from one edition to the next one. The Forum’s objective is to illustrate the potential of creativity, innovation and expertise to nourish cultural industries. The Forum has been conceived in the framework of the high-level initiatives undertaken by UNESCO to ensure that culture is taken into account in international development policies and notably in ongoing negotiations, within the United Nations, to define the Post-2015 Development Agenda. FOCUS provides a unique opportunity for decision-makers, creators and the private sector to exchange their thoughts on the central role of culture in sustainable development. The Forum resulted in the adoption of the Florence Declaration, a strategic document putting forth the core principles and priorities for culture and cultural industries within the post-2015 development agenda and calling governments, civil society and private sector actors to take action in global partnership to promote creative environments, processes and products.
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/creativity/unesco-world-forum-on-cultural-industries/UNESCO: Protecting Our Heritage and Fostering Creativity
At this web-portal you can get informed on UNESCO approaches to culture and heritage and find links to cultural conventions aimed to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage including ancient archaeological sites, intangible and underwater heritage, museum collections, oral traditions and other forms of heritage, and to support creativity, innovation and the emergence of dynamic cultural sectors. According to UNESCO, heritage constitutes a source of identity and cohesion for communities, while creativity contributes to building open, inclusive and pluralistic societies. Both heritage and creativity lay the foundations for vibrant, innovative and prosperous knowledge societies. To ensure that culture takes it rightful place in development strategies and processes, UNESCO has adopted a three-way approach: it spearheads worldwide advocacy for culture and development, while engaging with the international community to set clear policies and legal frameworks and working on the ground to support governments and local stakeholders to safeguard heritage, strengthen creative industries and encourage cultural pluralism.
http://en.unesco.org/themes/protecting-our-heritage-and-fostering-creativityUnion des Théâtres de l'Europe (UTE)
The UTE is an alliance of European theatres, companies and artists that contributes to the development of international and transnational artistic collaborations within Europe and beyond. It is legally headquartered in France. It operates on a European scale, thanks to a decentralized structure made of an executive office in Germany, and nomadic offices in Austria, the Czech Republic and Greece.
http://www.union-theatres-europe.eu/UNIQ147802648118419/uteUnited Nations creative economy report: Widening local development pathways (2013 special edition)
The special edition of the Report focuses on creative economy at the local level in developing countries. It is co-published by UNESCO and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The Report is organized in two volumes: a policy report and a web-documentary that brings to life cases and trends, and opportunities and challenges of creative economy on the ground. The Report confirms the creative economy as one of the most rapidly growing sectors of the world economy and a highly transformative one in terms of income generation, job creation and export earnings. For unlocking the potential of the creative economy also means promoting the overall creativity of societies, affirming the distinctive identity of the places where it flourishes and clusters, improving the quality of life there, enhancing local image and prestige and strengthening the resources for the imagining of diverse new futures. The evidence provided demonstrates how the cultural and creative industries are at the core of local creative economies in the global South and how they forge “new development pathways that encourage creativity and innovation in the pursuit of inclusive, equitable and sustainable growth and development” that the UN System Task Team on the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda exhorts the international community to take. The results of the Report will inform international debates on the post-2015 UN development agenda and the role of culture in sustainable development. It speaks to decision-makers, demonstrating some of the key factors that make creative economy initiatives successful on the ground.
http://www.unesco.org/culture/pdf/creative-economy-report-2013-en.pdf