A creative city is a better place to live, work and play. It is a city that appreciates the advantage of investing in entrepreneurship and innovation.
The main aim of Creative Cities – an international project that the British Council has launched in the spring of 2008 – is to give young, influential people the tools to transform their cities into better places.
The project aims to work in partnership with various private and public organisations and European cities who understand that innovation is the basis of sustainable development in the modern world.
The project seeks to identify one or two cities in the UK, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia that have the potential to become creative cities.
The young people will receive leadership and entrepreneurial training, and will acquire the knowledge and skills to enable them to participate in making decisions about public spaces, contributing to arts and social activities and influencing policies that bring more business to the city.
Throughout their involvement, cities will be able to establish a competitive advantage for themselves and attract creative talent to contribute to their cities’ future economic growth
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Creative Cities activities – an ongoing debate about the role creativity plays in urban development and the environments that support creativity. The British Council will be facilitating partnerships across countries in various forms including think tanks, arts led activities and awareness raising campaigns. Two current examples are: a) Creative Cities Competition – the on-line competition for best photographs and videos on creativity in the city. The winners were announced on March 15, 2008. creativecompetition.britishcouncil.org b) What Makes Cities Creative? (16-18 March 2008, Warsaw) - Creative Cities workshop for 30 ‘urban innovators’ and city partners from the participating countries were examining the people, places and practices that make cities creative places. Organised in Warsaw, March 2008, and led by Charlie Leadbeater, Creative Cities project consultant www.charlieleadbeater.net |
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Wiersze w Metrze – is a EUNIC-Warszawa cluster project promoting contemporary European poetry from 13 countries. It includes poems displayed in the Warsaw underground, author meetings, IV Spoke’n’Word Festival, “Haiku for Warsaw” competition and educational programme. For more details click here. |
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Future City Game – is a methodology used by city innovators to solve a problem of a city or a city district, It will be played in several cities across Europe and has already been successfully used for city planning in the UK, Norway and Columbia. a) Future City Game Master Training (16-18 September 2008, Kraków) - this event aims to train Future City Game
Masters who will be able to deliver the game in their own areas. Participants include British Council contacts from Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Slovenia.
b) Future City Game Łódź (22-23 October 2008) - in this first Future City Game in Poland three groups of participants representing city authorities, academia, local community, business and various creative industries competed to work out the best solution to the challenges Piotrkowska Street will face in 10 years’ time. The idea that won envisages future Piotrkowska as a green, ecological promenade allowing inhabitants and tourists to relax on public benches among trees and loans cultivated by the local community. |
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Urban Ideas Bakery – will be organised in many cities; a group of experts will travel to a city and will work on specific city issues. The project will be tested in 2008-2009. |
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