The Culture Fix: Creative people, places and industries
Policies to capitalise on the potential of cultural participation at national and regional levels include: •
Broaden the scope of cultural participation policies by, for example, integrating cultural participation into wider policy agendas around health, societal changes, research and innovation, environment and education, while also promoting research on the causal effects of cultural participation on areas of social impact.
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Create new collaborations between cultural and non-cultural institutions - e.g. between museums or theatres and hospitals, between independent art spaces and urban planners - in the experimentation and implementation of crossover projects.
Financing of cultural and creative sectors should not be considered a cost but rather an investment, with the role of public, private and philanthropic financing continuing to evolve Investing in CCS is important due to the direct and indirect benefits they generate for the economy and society. Traditionally, cultural policies and public expenditure have promoted culture as a “merit good”, similar to education and healthcare. Greater focus on the economic impact of CCS has shifted the scope of spending beyond cultural policy to industrial policy approaches. Given the generalised reduction of public spending, governments are transforming their participation in the financial ecosystem of CCS from that of direct support, although it remains important for parts of CCS, towards more intermediation with the private sector and philanthropy. Partnerships and alliances (public-private, public-public and public-civic partnerships) are at the core of the emergence of new financial ecosystems for CCS. Government spending on cultural services has been decreasing, and represents, on average, 1.2% of total government spending across the OECD. The bulk of government spending on cultural services comes from subnational governments, accounting for almost 60% of total public expenditure in 2019. They also spend a far higher proportion of their budgets - 3% on average - on this category.
10 . THE CULTURE FIX: CREATIVE PEOPLE, PLACES AND INDUSTRIES
