At the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission in Ispra we have developed the Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor, a new tool to monitor and assess the performance of 'Cultural and Creative Cities' in Europe vis-à-vis their peers using both quantitative and qualitative data.
On 8 October, the European Commission released the second edition. After the success of the first edition in 2017, the 2019 release presents an updated portrait of Europe's cultural and creative richness in an extended sample of 190 cities in 30 countries (+22 compared to the 2017 edition), including Norway and Switzerland. The Monitor was created by the Joint Research Centre, the Commission's science and knowledge service, and is accompanied by a revamped online tool which enables cities to add their own data for more in-depth coverage and benchmarking.
Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth, Sport, and responsible for the Joint Research Centre said: "The first edition of the Cultural and Creative City Monitor proved to be a success, enabling cities across Europe to boost development by better harnessing their cultural assets. I am confident that the second, expanded edition will be equally useful for city authorities, the cultural and creative sectors, and citizens themselves. The Monitor is an excellent example of how the Joint Research Centre can empower policy-makers and help improve citizens' quality of life through concrete, evidence-based tools."
The first edition of the Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor has inspired local governments across Europe. For instance, Madrid (Spain) used evidence included in the Monitor to understand which cultural and creative assets, such as monuments, museums, cinemas, theatres and art galleries, the Spanish capital should focus its branding strategy on to improve its international ranking. As a result, Madrid published a new leaflet “Madrid - Facts and Figures 2018” promoting the city's rich cultural venues. The Monitor also helped Győr (Hungary) analyse future investment needs and provided evidence to support the city's decision to adopt a 2019-2028 cultural and creative economy strategy which identifies key measures to be implemented such as the creation of creative spaces for artists and a design incubation centre. Umeå (Sweden) used the tool to raise awareness among local stakeholders of the role cultural investments have to play in fostering sustainable growth.
Key dissemination activities and uptake (last update: 22/11/2019)
The Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor 2019 is gaining attention across Europe and beyond, notably:
Press, media & specialised outlets
The Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor made it on BBC News, La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera (printed edition).
The Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor was covered by Radio Capital, counting an average of over 1,5 m listeners every day (min. 17:37)..
Nearly 60 articles in 14 EU countries mentioned the Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor, with half released in the launching week.
The Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor featured in various art- and culture-focused periodicals and bulletins across Europe such as Artribune and (twice) on AgCult (1 & 2) as well as the socio-economic periodical Eticaeconomia.
The Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor online attracted more than 3 553 page views in the week of the launch, namely +1 000% more over the previous week, and generated close to 4 000 downloads (summing up policy report, methodological annexes, infographics and factsheets with key findings).
(Upcoming) presentations & cooperation
The Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor’s tour has just started: after the official launch in Brussels during the European Week of Cities and Regions 2019, the Monitor has been presented to two city delegations coming from Bratislava (Slovakia) and Mantua (Italy), at the CultureInvest! Congress (Essen, Germany) and at the JRC Week on Composite Indicators and Scoreboards bringing together over 100 academics and analysts with a common interest in multidimensional indicator frameworks to inform policy making (JRC-Ispra, Italy). But much more is to come!
The Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor will be presented at high-level policy gatherings, including the next Cultural Affairs Committee - Council of the EU meeting, upon invitation of the Finnish Presidency of the EU (Brussels, Belgium, 10.12.2019); the 4th UNWTO/UNESCO World Conference on Tourism and Culture (Kyoto, Japan, 12-13.12.2019); and the World Urban Forum (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 8-13.02.2020 (tbc)).
The Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor has also been hosted (or will be soon) by city authorities, local NGOs and universities in the context of policy and research-related events across Europe such as the Electropark festival (Genoa, Italy, 14.10.2019), the annual cultural policy gathering ‘Strati della Cultura – Arci’ (Cesena, Italy, 29.11.2019); the academic seminar ‘Culture and Territory. Cultural Activities in Medium and Small-sized cities’ organized by the University of Zaragoza and Huesca Province with a view to design a monitoring tool for small cities inspired by the Monitor (Huesca, Spain, 29-30.01.2020); as well as the Torino Digital Days (Turin, Italy, 12.02.2020).
Regional and local authorities such as the Tuscany Region (Italy), the City of Madrid (Spain), the City of Breda (Netherlands) and the City of Mannheim (Germany) approached the JRC team either to explore the possibility to add new cities to the Monitor (Tuscany, Breda), to use the new data to develop an internal ranking report (Madrid) or to organise a presentation to local stakeholders as an input to local development strategies (Mannheim). In addition, we are in touch with the European Travel Commission who is interested in promoting the Monitor as a self-assessment tool for cities to support a new international campaign promoting Europe as a creative travel destination.
Background
Launched in July 2017, the Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor uses quantitative and qualitative information to measure cities' cultural and creative potential. The Monitor's quantitative information is captured in 29 individual indicators relevant to nine policy dimensions, which reflect three major facets of a city's cultural and socio-economic vitality:
‘Cultural Vibrancy’ measures a city's cultural ‘pulse’ in terms of cultural infrastructure and participation in culture.
‘Creative Economy’ captures the extent to which the cultural and creative sectors contribute to a city's economy in terms of employment and innovation.
‘Enabling Environment’ identifies the tangible and intangible assets that help cities attract creative talent and stimulate cultural engagement.
New features of the 2019 edition include:
22 European cities from 14 Member States have been added, taking the total to 190;
New sources of web data (OpenStreetMap) have been used to better grasp Europe's cultural vibrancy in a more dynamic way;
Novel findings from the spatial analysis of cultural venues help to put the social inclusion perspective at the core of the research alongside economic wealth;
The Monitor supports EU policy on culture: it was a basis for the economic impact assessment underpinning the 2018 ‘New European Agenda for Culture', and is one of the actions included in the ‘European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage' to help ensure that the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 has a lasting impact.
The Monitor is expected to be updated every two years.
Visit the online tool to download:
The full Report 2019 - How to cite: Montalto V., Tacao Moura C. J., Alberti V., Panella F., Saisana M., The Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor. 2019 edition, EUR 29797 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2019, ISBN 978-92-76-08807-3, doi:10.2760/257371, JRC117336
Peer reviewed article - How to cite: Montalto, V., Tacao Moura, C.J., Langedijk, S. and Saisana, M., "Culture counts: An empirical approach to measure the cultural and creative vitality of European cities, Cities, 89, 167-185. (Open source!)
The infographics with Concept, Key Findings and Main novelties
Annex A with a description of the methodology used to create the Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor
Annex B with an explanation of the adjustments made and year-on-year comparability
Annex C with a statistical assessment of the Cultural and Creative Cities Index
Annex D on the methodology followed to study the spatial distribution and accessibility of cultural venues
Annex E with the comprehensive set of data compiled for the Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor 2017 and 2019
Country fact sheets (all EU countries)