part of a broader vision to enhance the amenities of the city and its attractiveness.
As important as cultural investment, it is the investment in other aspects that has
proved to be essential to enhance the attractiveness of a territory: quality of life,
transportation, offer of services, etc.
This means in order to build such a local strategy silos should be broken inside the
administration. In order to embed culture in local development strategies there is a
need to have different departments –culture, industry, social caring, working together.
This is also the way to foster transversal rather than sectoral policies and ultimately
to encourage cross-overs... Harmonised and comprehensive strategies intertwining
culture, economy, innovation, urbanism, and transport will multiply the effects of the
action within the territory and its community.
2. Put the cultural and creative sectors’ needs at the heart of the initiatives
As this study highlights, the CCS have an instrumental role to play to address
contemporary challenges in SMSC and to foster their urban, social and economic
development. Nonetheless, for such potential to be unlocked, their features, needs
and challenges should be addressed in the first place. This means to address the
challenges identified in the first section of this study as well as the design measures
that fully take into account the main features of the sector composed by a myriad of
organisations, many of them passion-driven micro-entities or working on a free lance
basis, with a level of risk and uncertainty as regards final creation. Investing in the
CCS means to accept such level of unexpectedness to benefit the artists, to prioritise
quality while preserving local identity, to provide soft and hard measures that fit those
small structures.
Cultural operators recurrently refer to formalism and difficult administrative
procedures (in particular at the EU level) to submit projects. Minimising formalism
and easing administrative norms for creative projects will facilitate the generation of
initiatives that currently do not have the means or the skills to apply for European
funding.
3. Better advocate
To trigger interest in the cultural sector and create engagement, projects have to be
taken to the local population and policy-makers. Consistently communicating about
processes and initiatives, explaining the value of the work undertaken by cultural
organisations will help to raise people’s and politicians’ awareness about visual arts
and bring about more investment in related activities.
Promoting the project among politicians prior to implementation and promoting
transparency in the use of public funds will ease the relationships between the two
parties. SMSC present favourable conditions for such cooperation and connections
to take place thanks to their close-knit communities and less complex governing
structures in comparison with bigger cities.
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