Creative Industries in Finland Creative Clusters in the Life of Culture and the Life of the City St

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Creative Industries in FinlandCreative Clusters
in the Life of Culture and the Life of the City
St Petersburg 19.3.2005

• Timo Cantell
• Sibelius Academy
• timo.cantell_at_siba.fi

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Creative City

• Åke E. Andersson suggests four important Ks
  that will characterise cities in the future
• - Kultur
• - Kreativitet
• - Kommunikation
• - Kunskap (knowledge)
• Anderson, Åke E. 1985. Kreativitet - StorStadens
  Framtid. Värnamo Prisma.

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Boom of reports and strategies in Finland

• National level
• Ministry of Trade
• Ministry of Culture
• Regional level
• 5 regional bodies
• 15 sub-regional authorites
• Municipal level
• All major cities and urban areas

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Boom of reports and strategies in Finland

• Ahokas, Anne (2003). Pohjois-Savon
  kulttuuriklusteri. Kulttuuriklusterin
  nykytilaselvitys. Kuopio Pohjois-Savon liitto.
  http//pohjois-savo.ip-finland.com/assets/pdf/Kult
  tuuri.pdf
• Alueiden vahvuudeksi (2003). Kulttuuri-,
  liikunta- ja nuorisopolitiikan aluekehittämisen
  toimenpideohjelma linjauksia ja painopisteitä
  vuosille 2003-2013. Helsinki Opetusministeriön
  julkaisuja 200322. http//www.minedu.fi/julkaisut
  /kulttuuri/2003/opm22/aluestrategia.pdf
• Askelmerkit tulevaisuuteen (2003). Suomi 2015
  ohjelman loppuraportti. Helsinki Sitran
  raportteja 34.
• Kulttuurin aika (2003). Kulttuurin ja
  kulttuuripolitiikan merkityksestä yhteiskunnassa.
  Helsinki Opetusministeriön julkaisuja 200313.
  http//www.minedu.fi/julkaisut/kulttuuri/2003/opm1
  3/opm13.pdf

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Boom of reports and strategies in Finland

• Haajanen, Marko Sokka, Sakarias 2002. Kulttuuri
  maakuntien vahvuutena. Selvitys maakuntien
  liitoista alueellisten kulttuurilinjausten
  määrittäjänä. Helsinki Opetusministeriö,
  Kulttuuri-, liikunta- ja nuorisopolitiikan
  osaston julkaisusarja, 7/2002.
• Himanen, Pekka 2004. Välittävä, kannustava ja
  luova Suomi. Katsaus tietoyhteiskuntamme syviin
  haasteisiin. Helsinki Eduskunta,
  tulevaisuusvaliokunta, teknologian arviointeja
  18.
• http//www.eduskunta.fi/fakta/julkaisut/ekj4_2004
  .pdf
• Koivunen, Hannele 2004. Onko kulttuurilla
  vientiä? Opetusministeriön, ulkoasiainministeriön
  ja kauppa- ja teollisuusministeriön
  Kulttuurivienti hanke. Selvitysmiehen raportti.
  Opetusministeriön julkaisuja 200422.
• http//www.minedu.fi/julkaisut/kulttuuri/2004/opm
  22/opm22.pdf

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Strategies have lead into

• Increased understanding of the importance of the
  creative economy in the public and private sector
• Co-operation between the public and the private
  sector
• Increased private sector initiatives and funding
• Urban policies where the creative economy is
  taken seriously
• MUSEX Finland Music export organisation
  supporting Finnish music business

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Greater Helsinki Region within the context of the
Baltic Sea Region
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Greater Helsinki Region and the functional urban
regions of over 150 000 inhabitants in Finland
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Greater Helsinki Region
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Population

• City of Helsinki 560 000 inhabitants
• Helsinki Region
• 12 municipalities
• 1,2 million inhabitants
• 680 000 jobs
• The region's share is 23 of the population and
  29 of jobs in Finland
• One of the strongest population growth rates in
  any European cities in the period of 1995-2001

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Economic base

• 33,6 of Finlands national product is produced
  in the Helsinki region
• Value added per capita 147,6 in the region (EU
  average 100)
• Specialised in
• business and financial services
• trade and logistics
• culture and leisure services
• research development
• high technology manufacturing and services
• higher education
• national level administration

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Economic changes in the 1990s

• Recession 1991-1993
• Worst recession in OECD countries
• Helsinkis unemployment up to 20 per cent
• 50 000 unemployed
• problems with long-term unemployment
• Growth 1993-2001
• One of the fastest growth rates in Europe
• New jobs especially in the ICT sector
• Dominated by Nokia, telephone operators and
  subcontractors

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Helsinkis strategy since 1994

• Developing Helsinki as a centre of science and
  research and the new knowledge-based industries
• Improving traffic and telecommunication links
• Consolidating the cultural profile of the city
• Developing a high-quality urban environment
• Promoting the city internationally and creating
  new international networks

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Why culture gained significance in Helsinkis
strategy since 1994

• 1. International discussion on the economic
  impact of the arts was introduced in the Finnish
  scene in the early 1990s
• Authors such as Myerscough (1988) and van
  Puffelen (1986) were quoted and findings from
  various impact studies referred to.
• Some politicians who adopted these findings
  started to use impact study examples in arguing
  for a higher profile of the culture sector. Their
  interpretations were partly misjudged.
• Instrumental reasons were at the forefront, i.e.,
  tourism income, various economic gains, enhancing
  the citys image etc.

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Why culture gained significance in Helsinkis
strategy since 1994

• 2. A concrete high-ranking project such as
  European City Culture opened up opportunities in
  re-orientating for the future.
• City authorities, both political and leading
  bureaucrats, were at loss as to where to steer
  the city amidst the troubled times where
  depression was considered to hit the city not
  purely economically but it also had impacts in
  the way people perceived their future. A big
  project was expected to kick-start a new and
  brighter era for the city.

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Why culture gained significance in Helsinkis
strategy since 1994

• 3. City of Helsinki needed a focus for the
  future, a clear goal that would unite its
  citizens and its employees
• A large organisation like city of Helsinki needs
  common goals and targets and European City of
  Culture project provided just that. It seemed
  easy to find support for the project all over the
  Helsinki organisation as people could relate with
  that. These kinds of projects are hard to come by
  and therefore this was a good choice. Deputy
  mayor Antti Viinikka

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Why culture gained significance in Helsinkis
strategy since 1994

• 4. The culture sector offered means of marketing
  Helsinki cost-effectively and without great
  financial risks, i.e., even if the project could
  have failed, the financial consequences would not
  have been too great to bear.
• On the other hand, the project provided great
  potential in Helsinkis international marketing
  and re-orientation.

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Why culture gained significance in Helsinkis
strategy since 1994

• 5. In the process of Finland joining the European
  Union in 1995 Helsinki had to re-write itself on
  the European map.
• The culture sector with the City of Culture
  project could in part fulfil this expectation and
  draw energies together to image and realise such
  a goal. Therefore, by turning energies in this
  goal, the culture sector was allocated a major
  role in Helsinkis image campaign.

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Why culture gained significance in Helsinkis
strategy since 1994

• 6. The project proved to be a great urban policy
  tool in a way that with little effort it could
  achieve a lot by bringing together the city of
  Helsinki and the national government
  traditional rivals as well as the business
  sector and neighbouring cities. Eero Holstila, a
  leading Helsinki strategist.

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Goals of the city of culture

• Develop Helsinki and its surroundings areas to
  bring lasting improvements to the quality of life
  of the residents.
• Introduce Helsinki and the whole of Finland to
  the international public as a vibrant and
  versatile seat of culture and competition.
• Theme Information, Technology and the Future

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Further aims of the city of culture

• Future. Culture is an investment in the future.
  Events and projects having a lasting impact and
  significance are prioritised.
• Finding new. The city culture project is a
  process. The aim is to find projects and methods
  enriching and reviving culture.
• Being international. Finnish culture is made
  familiar to Europeans. Simultaneously, Finns
  become acquainted with multicultural Europe.
• An event for all residents. The year of culture
  will be visible and effective in everyday living
  environment of ordinary people. Residents are
  more than just consumers of culture, they also
  act on their own initiative. The goal is
  participation and responsible sharing.

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European City of Culture in Helsinki

• Shared together with 8 other cities
• 500 events/projects
• Budget 50 million euros
• Economic impact 67 million euros
• 5,4 million visits to events and projects
• Well-received by local population
• 43 of the Helsinki Region population took part
  in events provided for free, 21 in events with
  a cover charge
• 700 journalists from abroad

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Observations

• Engagement in the City of Culture process for
  Helsinki was a response to a particularly
  difficult economic recession.
• Partly the Year of Culture was used as a means of
  countering financially difficult times and
  bringing economic progress.
• More fundamentally, the process was used to
  negotiate major social and geopolitical changes
  that Helsinki encountered. In the 1990s Helsinki
  was in rapid transition in a multitude of ways
  and the culture sector provided a medium of
  understanding, representing and reacting to this
  situation.

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Observations

• Definition of culture
• 1. Way of life, anthropological
• 2. Arts activity
• Helsinki adopted broad understanding of culture
• In the administration and steering arenas of
  Helsinki 2000 representatives from the
  traditional arts sectors were consciously avoided

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Observations

• Transformative effects in terms of local
  identity, international recognition, financially
• Long-term effects partly unclear, partly
  unfulfilled
• Disappointment in the activity of independent
  production companies

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City of Culture is a good project, percentage
of those who agree with the statement, Helsinki
Capital Region
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Attitudes towards the goals of the Year of
Culture, important or very important, Helsinki
Capital Region