Creative Europe: Commission unveils plan to boost cultural and creative sectors
Brussels, 23 Nov 2011 – Thousands of people working in cinema, TV, culture, music, performing arts, heritage and related areas would benefit from increased EU support under the new 'Creative Europe' programme unveiled by the European Commission today. With a proposed budget of €1.8 billion for the period 2014-2020, it would be a much-needed boost for the cultural and creative industries, which are a major source of jobs and growth in Europe.
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Climate change, ethical issues raised by the boom in biomedical and digital technologies, and the ongoing economic and political crises are all threats hanging over the future of mankind. If it is to rise to these global challenges, 21st century humanism will have to be based on principles of interculturality, say the specialists. Mireille Delmas-Marty, Mahmoud Hussein and Sanjay Seth are just a few of the specialists who provide an informed insight into various aspects of the humanist project which, for the first time, has acquired a universal dimension. Alongside the main feature, Antonio Skármeta shares his ideas on the future of the book. Our guest, Forest Whitaker, talks about his commitment to the cause of child soldiers.
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It's a time of social change.
Our social institutions, social behaviours and social relations are changing. We are in the middle of a sociocultural evolution forced by the economic crisis and our growing awareness of the environmental issues which threaten our health and future. It's a change we all feel worldwide.
Social development
The basic mechanism driving social change is increasing awareness leading to better organization. Life evolves by consciousness and consciousness in turn progresses by organization. When society senses new and better opportunities for progress it accordingly develops new forms of organization to exploit these new openings successfully. The new forms of organization are better able to harness the available social energies and skills and resources to use the opportunities to get the intended results.
Development is the result of society's capacity to organize human energies and productive resources in order to meet the challenges and opportunities that life presents society with all the times. Society passes through well-defined stages in the course of its development. They are nomadic hunting and gathering, rural agrarian, urban, commercial, industrial and post-industrial societies. Pioneers introduce new ideas, practices and habits etc which are resisted in the beginning by the conservative element in society. At a later stage the innovations are accepted, imitated, organized and made use of by other members of the community. The organizational improvements introduced to support the innovations can take place simultaneously at four different levels—physical, social, mental and psychological. Moreover four different types of resources are involved in promoting development. Of these four, physical resources are the most visible but the least capable of expansion. The productivity of resources increases enormously as the quality of organization and level of knowledge inputs rise.
The pace and scope for development varies according to the stage that society is in during the developmental process. The three main stages are physical, vital (the term vital refers to the dynamic and nervous social energies of humanity that propel individuals to accomplish) and mental and all these three have their own unique characteristics.
Terminology
Though the use of the term "development" is usually confined to economic progress, in reality the term applies to political, social and technological progress as well. All these various sectors of society are so intertwined that it is difficult to neatly separate them. Development in all these sectors is governed by the same principles and laws and therefore the term can be applied uniformly to all these fields.
Economic development and human development need not mean the same thing. Strategies and policies aimed at greater growth may bring greater income to a country without bringing about an improvement in the living standards of the population. This is what happened in the case of oil-producing Middle Eastern countries where a surge in oil prices boosted the national income of these countries without much benefit to the poorer sections of the people living there. Conversely people-oriented programs and policies can bring about an improvement in their health, education, living standards and other quality-of-life measures without any special emphasis on monetary growth. This has been observed in the 30 years of socialist and communist rule in Kerala in India.
A distinction needs to be made between four closely related terms and phenomena that form successive steps in a graded series: survival, growth, development and evolution. Survival refers to a subsistence way of life without any marked qualitative changes in living standards. Growth refers to horizontal expansion in the existing plane characterized by quantitative expansion such as a farmer increasing the area under cultivation and a retail businessman opening more retail outlets. Development refers to a vertical shift in the level of operations that brings about a qualitative change such as a retailer turning into a manufacturer and an elementary school turning into a high school.
Human development
Development is a human process in the sense that it is human beings and not materials factors that are the driving force for development. The energy and aspiration of people who seek development forms the motive force that drives the development process. People's awareness may decide the direction in which development will take place. Their efficiency, productivity, creativity and organizational capacities determine the level of people’s accomplishment and enjoyment. What is called development is only the outer realization of latent inner potentials. The level of people's education, the intensity of their aspiration and energies, the quality of their attitudes and values, skills and information all decide the extent and pace of development. All these factors come into play whether it is the development of the individual, family, community or nation or even the whole world.
Education
One of the most powerful means of propagating and sustaining new developments is the system of education available in a society. Education is the means for organized transmission of society's collective knowledge to each next generation by the previous generation. It equips each new generation to face the opportunities and challenges of the future with the knowledge gathered from the past. It shows the young generation the opportunities that lie ahead for them and thereby raises their aspiration to achieve more. The information imparted by education raises the level of expectations of youth as well as their aspirations for higher income. It also equips them with the mental capacity to devise ways and means to improve productivity and enhance living standards.
Society can be conceived as a complex fabric consisting of interrelated activities, systems and organizations. Development occurs when this complex fabric improves its own organization. That organizational improvement can take place simultaneously in several dimensions.
• Quantitative expansion in the volume of social activities
• Qualitative expansion in the content of all those elements that make up the social fabric.
• Geographic extension of the social fabric to bring more of the population under the cover of that fabric.
• Integration of existing and new organizations so that the social fabric functions more efficiently.
Such organizational innovations occur all the time as a continuous process. New organizations emerge whenever a new developmental stage is reached and old organizations get modified to suit the new developmental requirements. The impact of these new organizations may be so powerful as to lead the people to believe that these new organizations are powerful in their own right. Actually it is society that throws up the new organizations required to achieve its objectives.
The direction that the developmental process takes is very much influenced by the awareness of the population as to what are the opportunities available in the society. Increasing awareness leads to greater aspiration which in turn releases greater energy that helps bring about greater accomplishment.
Education in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another.
The right to education has been described as a basic human right: since 1952, Article 2 of the first Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights obliges all signatory parties to guarantee the right to education. At world level, the United Nations' International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966 guarantees this right under its Article 13. |
Culture generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Cultures can be "understood as systems of symbols and meanings that even their creators contest, that lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another".
Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society." As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, norms of behavior such as law and morality, and systems of belief as well as the art. |
A Passion for Dance | Pina Bausch |
The Arts is a broad subdivision of culture, composed of many expressive disciplines. It is a broader term than "art", which as a description of a field usually means only the visual arts (comprising fine art, decorative art, architecture and crafts). The arts encompasses visual arts, literature, the performing arts, including music, drama, film, dance, related media, and by some definitions, other areas such as fashion. There are many more disciplines that are not listed above. The aforementioned are the major arts.
The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts (photography, video, and filmmaking) and architecture. These definitions should not be taken too strictly as many artistic disciplines (performing arts, conceptual art, textile arts) involve aspects of the visual arts as well as arts of other types. Also included within the visual arts are the applied arts such as industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, interior design and decorative art.
As indicated above, the current usage of the term "visual arts" includes fine art as well as the applied, decorative arts and crafts, but this was not always the case. Before the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and elsewhere at the turn of the 20th century, the term artist was often restricted to a person working in the fine arts (such as painting, sculpture, or printmaking) and not the handicraft, craft, or applied art media. The distinction was emphasized by artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement who valued vernacular art forms as much as high forms. Art schools made a distinction between the fine arts and the crafts maintaining that a craftsperson could not be considered a practitioner of art.
The increasing tendency to privilege painting, and to a lesser degree sculpture, above other arts has been a feature of Western art as well as East Asian art. In both regions painting has been seen as relying to the highest degree on the imagination of the artist, and the furthest removed from manual labour - in Chinese painting the most highly valued styles were those of "scholar-painting", at least in theory practiced by gentleman amateurs. The Western hierarchy of genres reflected similar attitudes.
Art education is the area of learning that is based upon the visual, tangible arts—drawing, painting, sculpture, and design in jewelry, pottery, weaving, fabrics, etc and design applied to more practical fields such as commercial graphics and home furnishings. Latest trends also include photography, video, film, design, computer art, etc.
Historically, design has had some precedence over the fine arts with schools of design being established all over Europe in the 18th century. Education in art takes place across the life-span. Children, youth, and adults learn about art in community based institutions and organizations such as museums, local arts agencies, recreation centers, places of worship, and social service agencies among many other possible venues.
Within art schools "visual arts education" encompasses all the visual and performing arts delivered in a standards-based, sequential approach by a qualified instructor as part of the core curriculum. Its core is the study of inseparable artistic and aesthetic experience and learning.
Art therapy
According to the British Association of Art Therapists, “Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses art media as its primary mode of communication. It is practised by qualified, registered Art Therapists who work with children, young people, adults and the elderly. Clients who can use art therapy may have a wide range of difficulties, disabilities or diagnoses. These include, for example, emotional, behavioral or mental health problems, learning or physical disabilities, life-limiting conditions, brain-injury or neurological conditions and physical illness. Art therapy may be provided for groups, or for individuals, depending on clients’ needs. It is not a recreational activity or an art lesson, although the sessions can be enjoyable. Clients do not need to have any previous experience or expertise in art.”
The American Art Therapy Association describes it this way, "Art therapy is the therapeutic use of art making, within a professional relationship, by people who experience illness, trauma or challenges in living, and by people who seek personal development. Through creating art and reflecting on the art products and processes, people can increase awareness of self and others cope with symptoms, stress and traumatic experiences; enhance cognitive abilities; and enjoy the life-affirming pleasures of making art."
"Art therapy is a mental health profession that uses the creative process of art making to improve and enhance the physical, mental and emotional well-being of individuals of all ages. It is based on the belief that the creative process involved in artistic self-expression helps people to resolve conflicts and problems, develop interpersonal skills, manage behaviour, reduce stress, increase self-esteem and self-awareness, and achieve insight. Art therapy integrates the fields of human development, visual art (drawing, painting, sculpture, and other art forms), and the creative process with models of counseling and psychotherapy." |
The so called "Creative economy" is an evolving concept based on the potential of "creative assets" to generate socio-economic growth and development, in a globalized world increasingly dominated by images, sounds, texts and symbols.
At the heart of the creative economy lie the creative industries. Loosely defined, the creative industries are at the crossroads of arts, culture, business and technology and use intellectual capital as their primary input. Today´s creative industries range from folk art, festivals, music, books, newspapers, paintings, sculptures and performing arts to more technology-intensive subsectors such as the film industry, TV and radio broadcasting, digital animation and video games, and more service-oriented fields such as architectural and advertising services.
A new development paradigm is emerging that links the economy and culture, embracing economic, cultural, technological and social aspects of development at both the macro and micro levels. Central to the new paradigm is the fact that creativity, knowledge and access to information are increasingly recognized as powerful engines driving economic growth and promoting development in a globalizing world.
The emerging creative economy has become a leading component of economic growth, employment, trade and innovation, and social cohesion in most advanced economies. Unfortunately, however, the large majority of developing countries are not yet able to harness their creative capacity for development. This is a reflection of weaknesses both in domestic policy and in the business environment, and global systemic biases. Nevertheless, the creative economy offers to developing countries a feasible option and new opportunities to leapfrog into emerging high-growth areas of the world economy.
The Creative Economy Report 2010, produced jointly by UNCTAD and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), presents an updated perspective of the United Nations as a whole on this exciting new topic. It provides empirical evidence that the creative industries are among the most dynamic emerging sectors in world trade. It also shows that the interface among creativity, culture, economics and technology, as expressed in the ability to create and circulate intellectual capital, has the potential to generate income, jobs and export earnings while at the same time contributing to social inclusion, cultural diversity and human development. This report addresses the challenge of assessing the creative economy with a view to informed policy-making by outlining the conceptual, institutional and policy frameworks in which this economy can flourish. |
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