Will Culture & Creativity miss out again?

The cultural and creative sector in the Northwest has until 19 February to respond to the draft Operational Programme for the new EU Structural Funds in the Northwest - a document that conspicuously fails to place any significant priority on support for culture and creativity.

Your voice needs to be heard. To help you understand the background and potential for the cultural sector, and to help you prepare your response, EUCLID, the EU Cultural Contact Point for the UK (and who is based in the Northwest), is running 5 special workshops across the Northwest at the beginning of February (dates and details below).

In the last round of the Structural Funds (2000-2006), well over 600 projects in the creative and cultural sector across the UK benefited from over £2.5 million from these Funds. Though there is considerably less available in 2007-2013, there are still significant opportunities for the sector.

It is ironic that at the same time as a consultation document is published for the Northwest which virtually ignores potential support for culture and creativity, the European Commission has just published a key report, "The Economy of Culture in Europe" (download details at end), which highlights, amongst other facts and figures, the following:

• The sector turned over more than 654 billion Euros in 2003.
• The sector contributed to 2,6% of EU GDP in 2003.
• The overall growth of the sector's value added was 19,7% in 1999-2003.
• In 2004, at least 5,8 million people worked in the sector, equivalent to 3,1% of total employed population in Europe.

This report highlights the ways in which the creative and cultural sector can positively contribute to the goals of the "Lisbon Agenda", which is currently the main set of goals driving the activities of the EU. The Lisbon Agenda states that the main target for the EU is to become "the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world" and it is clear that the cultural sector, and particularly the creative industries, have a significant potential role to play in delivering this target.

As far as culture and creativity are concerned, the Northwest draft Operational Programme provides many causes for concern:

• in 160 pages, the word "creativity" does not appear at all, and the word "creative" just 13 times
• the word "arts" appears just twice and the word "heritage" a total of 21 times (6 of these being in the phrase "natural heritage" or similar)
• though the word "culture" appears 20 times in the main report, 15 of these are as part of the title "Liverpool Capital of Culture" or in phrases such as "enterprise culture"
• similarly, the word "cultural" appears 19 times in the main report, but 5 of these are in phrases like "cultural change" referring to a need for a more entrepreneurial approach - the phrase "cultural regeneration" appears just once
• the words "social inclusion" appears 11 times overall, and the words "social enterprise" just 5 times
• in the key table in Appendix G which sets out the "Categories for Expenditure", firstly, there are no references to specific spending on creativity or the creative industries
• though there are some references to possible spending on culture and heritage, these are nearly all linked to tourism, and, more importantly, the table clearly states that none of these have any relevance to the Lisbon Agenda (implying that there will be few funds allocated to these areas).

In other words, the Northwest has produced an economically-focussed Operational Programme to spend EU funds that ignores the potential of the creative and cultural sector to deliver goals that the EU has itself endorsed as key to the future economic development of the EU.

However, this is a DRAFT Operational Programme, and anyone can respond between now and 19 February 2007. We urge you to do so. To help you respond, EUCLID is organising a series of "no-frills" half-day workshops across the region from 5 - 8 February 2007 as follows:

• Manchester: 5 February (2.00-4.30pm)
• Liverpool: 7 February (9.30am-12pm)
• Chester: 7 February (2.00-4.30pm)
• Kendal: 8 February (9.30am-12pm)
• Preston: 8 February (2.00 - 4.30pm)
  

These workshops will be jointly presented by Geoffrey Brown and Keith Hackett, who have been working in EU funding, and specifically on the Structural Funds, since the early 1990's. The workshops will cover the following:

• background to the Structural Funds
• a summary of the function and detail of the draft Operational Programme (OP)
• an analysis of the possible opportunities for the cultural sector hidden within the OP
• a focus on the key gaps in the Operational Programme
• some guidance and suggestions about making a response

There will be a small charge for this workshop, which must be paid in advance. You can book online and pay by credit card. We can send you an invoice but this must be paid before the workshop. You can also pay in cash on the day (but you must book in advance). The cost is £34 + VAT (£39.95).

Please note that the full consultation documents (160 pages) will NOT be distributed at these workshops. These can be downloaded from either of the following websites:
www.gos.gov.uk/gonw/EuropeanFunding/StructuralFunds0713/ConsultationEuropeanProgrammes/
www.nwda.co.uk/RelatedContent.aspx?&area=100&subarea=491&item=20068044803297276

"The Economy of Culture in Europe" report can be downloaded from:
http://ec.europa.eu/culture/eac/sources_info/studies/economy_en.html