UNESCO-supported project to boost Georgia's creative industries
The initiative aims to identify prospects of boosting sustainability of artistic and cultural institutions and individuals, and present a programme to facilitate the support.
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A UNESCO-supported project by Georgian professionals of the culture field will be unveiled this week to present a vision on boosting sustainability of artistic and cultural organisations and individuals in the country in the coming years.
Led by Creative Georgia, a culture agency working to support creative industries in the country, the project is benefiting from becoming the first initiative in Georgia to be funded by the UNESCO's International Fund for Cultural Diversity.
Entitled Creative Twist: Boosting Economic Capacity of Creative and Cultural Industries in Georgia, it is also supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Youth of Georgia and aims to study areas of prospective support for local institutions and artists and present a programme for enacting the vision.
The professionals involved in the project have been working in "research and mapping phases" for identifying elements of sustainability for the creative sector, with a campaign for raising awareness around the issue, and a five-year strategy and action plan for the industry to follow.
For highlighting the initiative and involving relevant individuals and institutions in discussions on the subject, Creative Georgia will host an online presentation of Creative Twist on Friday.
Beside an introduction of the project to a wider audience, the online event will also involve a panel discussion on "creative economy and importance of the interdisciplinary cooperation", a preview from organisers said, with a Q&A session also planned.
Both state- and non-governmental work on developing economic sustainability and opportunities for creative industries have kicked into a higher gear over the past few years in Georgia, particularly with the challenges posed to the sector by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The latest initiative comes from the 2017-founded Creative Georgia, with a budget of over $88,000 from the UNESCO fund. The international body has said Creative Twist will look to "[contribute] to a sustainable system of cultural policy in Georgia" and "[strengthen] the role of civil society in the implementation of Georgia’s cultural policy".
Georgia's Black Sea city of Batumi will join locations across all five continents that form the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, a project celebrating hotspots of creative industries and offering opportunities for experience-sharing and collaboration throughout the globe.
A brand-new initiative in Georgia’s capital is launching a business incubator at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts to help the state institution’s students develop their projects and learn skills for promoting their work.
Georgia’s culture ministry has announced it will establish a national fund of culture to support financing of cultural projects, develop creative industries and contribute to Georgian artists’ participation in international platforms, as part of a large-scale reform of the cultural field.
Georgian state cultural agencies' efforts in keeping up cultural projects and activities during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown have drawn praise from the cultural policies platform Compendium.
Researching and preserving monuments of cultural heritage in Georgia and abroad, developing a structured cultural education, and supporting artists and institutions of creative industries with programmes were revealed as part of plans of the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Youth for the next decade, presented by minister Thea Tsulukiani in Tbilisi on Wednesday.
Georgia's capital Tbilisi and the Black Sea coastline city of Batumi are two of the 49 most recent cities to join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, an initiative aiming to stimulate creative industries and showcase cities supporting them.
Three locations in Georgia's west - the Black Sea port city of Poti, Imereti provincial capital Kutaisi, and Zugdidi in the Samegrelo region - will receive up to €30,000 in European Union funding to develop strategies for their cultural and creative sectors, as part of the EU4Culture project launched this year to support Eastern Partnership countries.