Sustainable eco-system for creative industries in Leitrim County Council
The Policy Learning Platform conducted a peer review for the Leitrim County Council, on 02-03 May 2024, in Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland.
The host region, Leitrim County Council, is full of cultural vibrancy. The region is home to remarkably more artists than the national average. Together with adjoining counties Sligo and Roscommon the counties have been active in supporting local small and micro businesses in the creative sector.
In collaboration with Mart Veliste and René Tönisson from the Policy Learning Platform, five accomplished peers participated in the review:
- Paolo Montemurro, Materahub Industrie Culturali e Creative, Italy
- Satu Miettinen, University of Lapland, Finland
- Luz Molina, Promálaga, Spain.
- Piotr Swiatek, PDR/Cardiff Metropolitan University, Wales
- Mara Tognon, Veneto Region, Italy
These peers shared their experiences and provided tailored policy recommendations to address the challenges faced by the Leitrim County Council.
A portion of the discussion focused on indicators for measuring the impact of CCI support programmes. Considering the peculiarities of creative entrepreneurs (many doing it a side hobby or part-time) it was recommended to use man months and share of work rather than full-time employment.
Other suggested indicators included “services offered by the creative sector”, “collaboration cases with other industries” and “income generated”. In addition, considering that CCI is a specific sector where the impact does not fit purely under economic KPIs it was recommended to use social and cultural indicators besides the economic ones.
Another set of recommendations were around internationalization and networking. Leitrim, Sligo and Roscommon counties were encouraged to become more active in European cooperation programmes and make use of the opportunities there. In addition, it was suggested to become part of networks of deign and film industry focused cities and regions. As a concrete action would be to activate short and frequent mobility programmes (in and out) for local designers and filmmakers.
Various examples and methodologies were also suggested on how the creatives could be linked with other sectors (e.g. Open Design School, design vouchers, etc). This could enable the creative professionals to create additional revenue streams while the other sectors would greatly benefit from the different perspective.
Read more about these and other recommendations in the follow-up report, to be published here soon.
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