content
LECTURE 3. “Key themes for contemporary cultural strategies”
No cultural strategy can be copy-pasted. Every country, city, institution or organisation needs to find their own structure, identify their own challenges and find their own solutions.

Generally, the key areas that most of the cultural strategies include, are:

  • Creation, production, dissemination and protection/preservation of cultural content – how do ensure vivid cultural life?
  • Content and infrastructure – how to balance between up-keeping cultural infrastructure and filling it with people and activities?
  • Cultural institutions and role of non-governmental sector – how to support national institutions while creating conditions for thriving private sector and independent activities?
  • Salaries and social guarantees – how to make sure the cultural professionals have opportunities to work and how to value their contribution?
  • Cultural funding mechanisms – how to fund culture and diversify funding sources apart of government funding?
  • Legal framework (both cultural specific and general laws and regulations) – how to support cultural development through creating a supportive legal environment?
  • Relationship between national, regional, local and private level culture – how to coordinate cultural development between public and private, national and local stakeholders?

In addition to general issues, contemporary cultural strategies across the world touch upon number of other critical issues:

  • Cultural diversity and diversity of cultural expressions;
  • Access to culture (participation in culture, disadvantaged groups, remote areas, equal access, etc.);
  • Cultural education (both access to culture for children and young people and higher education in culture);
  • Cultural and creative industries (mappings, awareness, entrepreneurship in culture, innovation and technology, creative incubators, capacity building, etc.);
  • Intellectual property rights, fight against piracy;
  • Access to finance and diversity of funding sources (private funding, European funding, cross-border funding, credit schemes, vouchers, investors, taxes, etc.);
  • Mainstreaming culture in other policy areas (cross-overs and spill-overs), including culture and sustainable development, education, regional development and tourism, economy and innovation, country branding, social innovation, etc.;
  • Culture and urban regeneration and quality of living environment;
  • Digital culture (digitalization of cultural heritage, new technologies in culture);
  • Cultural and creative exports and internationalization, cultural diplomacy;
  • Good cultural governance (transparency, rule of law, participation, accountability, pluralism).

Share with friends