Designing a creative cluster ecosystem in Georgia
The cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in Georgia are enjoying strong momentum. In 2016, the government adopted its Cultural Strategy 2025, which recognizes the potential of CCIs to contribute to economic growth. The year 2017 saw the development of a Roadmap for Developing CCIs and the establishment of LEPL Creative Georgia, a legal entity of public law within the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, whose mandate is to create a favorable environment for the development of creative industries through relevant policies, programmes, projects and grants.
The expertise provided by UNESCO aims to support LEPL Creative Georgia in creating a new regulatory framework. In particular, the project will produce a policy paper that describes best practices and innovative legislative frameworks, review the current national situation, and design new legal and fiscal measures for the establishment of a creative cluster ecosystem in Georgia. An action plan will also be developed and implemented to support the enactment of these new frameworks. The resulting ecosystem is expected to contribute to a growing creative economy where creativity, innovation, culture and ICT are interconnected.
The project responds to the following needs and challenges identified by LEPL Creative Georgia:
Challenges
- The significant lack of spaces that are accessible and affordable to CCIs and the continuous deterioration of industrial heritage sites that could be revitalized to serve as creative clusters
Needs
- Financial support mechanisms to create clusters aimed at launching and developing the activities of CCI start-ups
- Capacity building in the form of training of trainers (ToT) related to clustering in the creative field
The project includes the analysis of international and local best practices to develop a supportive mechanism aimed at accelerating the revitalization of non-functional spaces through transformations into creative clusters.
Newly developed policy paper and a two-year action plan will guide governmental and non-governmental actors through the initiation and implementation of fiscal and legislative reforms aimed at developing a creative cluster ecosystem in Georgia.
A conference/forum dedicated to raising awareness about the development of a creative cluster ecosystem will be organized in cooperation with the multi-stakeholder national team, interest groups and academia. Workshops for representatives of state and municipal agencies will raise awareness about the importance of creative hubs and clusters for sustainable development.
- October 2019: First expert mission to Tbilisi and large-scale kickoff conference for the project
- September 2020: Peer-to-Peer with Germany
- Autumn 2020: Virtual consultations at the local level through a virtual country tour involving 14 municipalities
- April to May 2021: Six peer-to-peer exchanges with municipalities from the EU-URBACT programme, as well as academics specialized in cultural clusters, and cultural clusters in Europe
- Autumn 2021: Toolkit development on how to support the establishment of cultural clusters on a municipal level (in rural areas)
- March 2022: Cross-sectorial Teambuilding
- Spring 2022: Finalizing Appendix of the Policy Paper: “Legislative Stimulation Mechanisms for Culture and Economic Justification"
- Spring 2022: Production of final policy paper with legal and strategic recommendations
- Spring 2022: Capacity-building with three of the fourteen municipalities consulted, presentation of documents and advocacy meeting
- May 2022: Official presentation of the project outputs to a wider audience during the final conference