Canada must refuel for cultural creativity

A new strat­egy is needed to con­nect cre­ative tal­ent with busi­ness and technology

From the op-ed page of The Globe and Mail/September 4, 2012-Page A17

Cul­ture is lost at Canada’s eco­nomic cross­roads. The Massey Report of 1951 cre­ated our first cul­tural “Road Map” by boldly rec­om­mend­ing the estab­lish­ment of a Canada Coun­cil to sup­port our cre­ative and inter­pre­tive artists.

Its rec­om­men­da­tions also strongly encour­aged a National Library and the growth of our core national cul­tural insti­tu­tions: CBC-Radio Canada; the National Film Board; our archives and muse­ums and sci­en­tific research. It affirmed the impor­tance of cul­ture to Cana­dian soci­ety and linked the devel­op­ment of a dis­tinc­tive Cana­dian cul­ture to our sov­er­eignty and survival.

These rec­om­men­da­tions pro­duced remark­ably pos­i­tive results. How­ever, cul­ture has since been rel­e­gated to “niche” sta­tus under suc­ces­sive gov­ern­ments, and the cul­tural sec­tor as a whole has been rel­e­gated to the periph­ery of gov­ern­ment policy-making.

Now, as we face the chal­lenges of a highly com­pet­i­tive global dig­i­tal econ­omy,  Canada’s under-capitalized but lively and diverse cul­tural and cre­ative resources could become impor­tant strate­gic inno­va­tion assets.

Gov­ern­ments, fed­er­ally and provin­cially, have been search­ing for the magic ingre­di­ent that will unlock the secret of inno­va­tion. The issue is crit­i­cal and urgent. The Con­fer­ence Board of Canada, mea­sur­ing inno­va­tion in 17 peer coun­tries, has ranked Canada as a woe­ful 14^th.

Last Octo­ber, “Inno­va­tion Canada: A Call to Action”, an influ­en­tial report,  pre­pared under the Chair­man­ship of OPEN TEXT’s Tom Jenk­ins, empha­sised the cen­tral­ity of inno­va­tion as “the ulti­mate source of the long-term com­pet­i­tive­ness of busi­nesses and the qual­ity of life of Canadians”.

The mobile dig­i­tal tech­nol­ogy explo­sion has already trans­formed many aspects of  our daily lives. It has dra­mat­i­cally changed our work­places. Old busi­ness mod­els and habits are being chal­lenged, new forms of expres­sion are emerg­ing and our chil­dren, the dig­i­tal natives, are func­tion­ing in new ways.

It has rad­i­cally altered how we com­mu­ni­cate with fam­ily and friends, and how we relate to our cul­tural assets: how we lis­ten to music, how we cre­ate and read books; how we dis­trib­ute and view films; how we use libraries and find infor­ma­tion; even how we expe­ri­ence the­atre, opera and ballet.

In order to surf this dig­i­tal tsunami, we need to under­stand the broad role of the cre­ative sec­tor in the inno­va­tion agenda, and con­sider how we man­age the changes, chal­lenges, and oppor­tu­ni­ties that will be ben­e­fi­cial to our lives as Canadians.

Through­out his­tory, cre­ative com­mu­ni­ties and orga­ni­za­tions have been in the fore­front of envi­sion­ing what might be, ven­tur­ing beyond tra­di­tional boxes, and test­ing bound­aries. They are key ele­ments in any mea­sure­ment of the qual­ity of life. They nour­ish and inspire innovation.

Canada needs a new inno­v­a­tive eco­nomic “Road Map” firmly link­ing dynamic cre­ative and cul­tural sec­tors with open and wel­com­ing busi­ness and tech­nol­ogy  sec­tors. This col­lab­o­ra­tion is essen­tial to our achiev­ing the Canada we want to be.

Our inno­v­a­tive arts, cul­ture and her­itage sec­tor already gen­er­ates over $46 bil­lion for the Cana­dian econ­omy and employs over 600,000 peo­ple. These fig­ures alone sug­gest that gov­ern­ments and the busi­ness com­mu­nity should rec­og­nize the poten­tial of this sec­tor to be mobi­lized and to play an evolv­ing role in point­ing the way to a suc­cess­ful inno­va­tion strategy.

Cana­di­ans should be made more aware that there is a much broader cre­ative  con­stituency than just those in the tra­di­tional visual and per­form­ing arts. Cre­ativ­ity is nur­tured within many pro­fes­sional sec­tors:  archi­tects, graphic artists, fash­ion and indus­trial design­ers, video games cre­ators, jour­nal­ists, broad­cast­ers, research sci­en­tists of all kinds, health care pro­fes­sion­als, aca­d­e­mics, teach­ers – and many oth­ers – par­tic­u­larly among those involved in our dynamic dig­i­tal tech­nol­ogy sector.

One can only begin to imag­ine the incred­i­ble eco­nomic ben­e­fits for Canada from a “coali­tion of cre­ators”, encour­ag­ing the nim­ble minds from the vital cul­tural sec­tor to col­lab­o­rate with other cre­ative design sec­tors, and the bur­geon­ing dig­i­tal tech­nol­ogy sec­tor. Together, they could pro­vide inno­v­a­tive fuel for all of our new media plat­forms and become effec­tive dri­vers for fresh sus­tain­able growth.

With new con­nec­tiv­ity tools already embed­ded in nearly every home, busi­ness and insti­tu­tion, the essen­tial infra­struc­ture is already in place for gov­ern­ments to launch a com­pre­hen­sive national, cul­tur­ally inclu­sive, dig­i­tal inno­va­tion strategy.

In doing so, this fresh eco­nomic par­a­digm will undoubt­edly lead to a renewed focus on shared val­ues and sub­se­quently to the cre­ation of a new, vibrant and inspired cul­tural “Road Map”.  An updated Massey Report would build on the close inter­de­pen­dence of inno­va­tion, eco­nomic pol­icy, arts, cul­ture and the broad cre­ative sec­tor to estab­lish a resilient frame­work for a more dynamic society.

Time is crit­i­cal and oppor­tu­ni­ties fleet­ing. Our econ­omy, our cul­ture and our rep­u­ta­tion as an inno­v­a­tive and cre­ative nation depend on it.

 

Edgar A. Cowan

John Hob­day, CM

Ian E. Wil­son, CM

 

Edgar A. Cowan is a media con­sul­tant (arts and digital

John Hob­day is a for­mer Direc­tor, Canada Council

Ian E. Wil­son is a for­mer Librar­ian and Archivist of Canada

 

Sub­mit­ted to The Globe and Mail by: Edgar (Ed) Cowan

416–934-1557 / edgarcowan@hotmail.com