Value of Culture – Mohile Parikh Center

Instructors: Arjo Klamer, Anna Mignosa, Priyateja Kotipalli, Lyudmila Petrova, and Arundhati Ghosh
In collaboration with CREARE, Netherlands

December 15 to 19, 2012 | 9.30 am to 5.30 pm
Studio X, Kitab Mahal, Fort, Mumbai

The Value of Culture course, developed and implemented by the Centre for Research in Arts and Economics (CREARE), Netherlands, will be offered in Mumbai (India) in collaboration with the Mohile Parikh Center (MPC), Mumbai.

The arts play an increasingly important role in modern society while creativity is becoming a driving force. Organizations want to be creative, professionals seek creative work and the economy of the future has to be a creative economy. A new world asks for a new perspective, and to understand the role of the arts, implies an awareness of the value that creative industries play in our contemporary times.

In the context of developing countries, there is a lack of basic infrastructure and financial support, with culture being relegated to a subsidiary issue in economic policies. Strategies and programmes take a rather static approach while budget allocations for culture are a fraction of national budgets and often ineffectively utilized or underutilized. At the same time, support from the private sector to culture is time limited and necessarily selective. Also, there is a limited exchange between cultural actors and stakeholders and most function out of isolated positions rather than as networked systems.

Even in developed nations, the funding models and support to arts and culture have undergone radical cuts given the global economic crisis. For arts and cultural organizations to sustain themselves and continue to offer creative programs, they are forced to think differently and act otherwise. A dynamic relationship between cultural entrepreneurship and sustainability, the role of new technologies, creating innovative and socially relevant products, services and working processes seems to be the way forward to manage this crisis. To do so, art and cultural practitioners and managers need to grasp a better understanding of the manner in which the cultural sector operates, especially how it relates to the society and economy.

This short, five days intensive course offers the cultural economic perspective. It introduces new concepts, other ways of thinking that students in a variety of disciplines can apply in their study and from which practitioners in the cultural sector can benefit. It will explore the characteristics of cultural industries and environments that foster creativity in economy and society as a whole. One of the questions addressed is how all these aspects of creativity can contribute to better government policies and better leadership in professional organizations. The course, for 15 selected participants, will provide both theoretical and practical knowledge. As part of the process participants will learn by interacting with texts, teachers, and with each other.

Arjo Klamer is professor of Cultural Economics at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam. Before that he taught at various universities in the US. He is often invited as a guest lecturer at universities in the Netherlands and abroad, as well as for talks for business groups, government organizations and the general public. His research focuses on the relationship between culture and the economy. One of his major research topics is the value of culture. He conducted a research project on behalf of the European Parliament on ‘The financing of art and culture in Europe”.

Lyudmila Petrova graduated in MA in Cultural Economics and Cultural Entrepreneurship at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, Rotterdam. She is in the last year of her PhD research at the same department. She is teaching on ‘Creativity and economy’ at various international programs. She worked on international researches, among the others a research project commissioned by the European Parliament on “The financing for the arts and culture within the EU”. Her research interests include the economics of arts and culture, international perspectives of cultural policies, financing the arts and interdisciplinary aspects of creativity.

Anna Mignosa studied Economics at the University of Catania. She took her PhD at the Faculty of History and Arts Erasmus University, Rotterdam. She teaches and conducts research on cultural policies, economics of cultural heritage, and economics of the art markets. Since 2010 she is a member of the board of the Association of Cultural Economics International (ACEI) and she is a Canon Foundation Fellow for the year 2007. She conducted a research project on behalf of the European Parliament on “The financing of art and culture in Europe”.

Priyateja Kotipalli hails form Mumbai, India. His work focuses on formulation of policy and the role culture and heritage have for economic development. Before becoming a PhD candidate at Erasmus University he was working as Sr. Lecturer in the area of Strategic Management and Research Methods at ITM Group of Institutions. He holds a Masters in Business Administration from the National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality and a bachelors degree in Heritage Management from K.C College, University of Mumbai.