Is Creativity the Sine Qua Non of a Creative City?

Abstract

There has been immense talk of creativity in organisations such as the WTO, UNESCO and EU but as yet no common definition has been agreed by them for the cultural and creative industries. Can the creative community take a more prominent role in this process? A backlash from the creative community has started against creative industry and city definitions. This turn of events is especially ironic since the term cultural industries was first used by Adorno and Horkheimer in a derogatory sense in their essay the age of enlightenment which set out a series of arguments against the commercialisation of culture. In the future, the general public or ‘creative citizen’ could and must play a much bigger role within creative industry and city initiatives if they are to be truly successful. Therefore the connection between creative spaces and the community becomes key. The voice of creative catalysts and other organisations similar to Transforma are muted voice within the creative and cultural industry lobby. Such agents of creativity are absent from recent creative industry definitions and thinking. Could Transforma change that state of affairs? The Anglo-Saxon approach to the commercialisation of culture and creativity depends on an entrepreneurial spirit across society and strong connections between academic institutions and commercial companies across all sectors. These connections are not always present in smaller and developing economies and this fact may inhibit their appropriation of creative and cultural industry policy making. Can Transforma be catalysts for a new luso-friendly definition of creativity? Is there is an opportunity in Portugal and abroad for Transforma to make a creative difference via their unique connection with the city and to ‘test’ forward thinking creative policy and initiatives that engage creative spaces, creative community, creative catalysts and the creative citizen or public at large?