Realising the growing potential of cultual and creative industries (CCI)
According to the mappings (latest research is published 20094) the potential of Estonian CCI sector is remarkable: sector accounted for 3% of the Estonian economy in 2007, just as it did in 2003. For the period of 2007-2013 European Union structural funds gave Estonia the opportunity to support the horizontal development of the sector and implement measures that meet the potential witnessed in different studies. These measures cover three strategic directions:
Awareness raising initiatives. Since the awareness about the sector and its characteristics was still rather heterogeneous at the beginning of the programme, this kind of activities was a logical point to start. The most visible result of these efforts in any sense is Creative Estonia platform: “Creative Estonia, which is a national umbrella programme for all the CCIs related awareness-raising activities, e.g. web portal, newsletters, seminars, conferences, publications, studies, networking, matchmaking activities and PR-support for creative industries etc.”
Support for creative incubation: “The Estonian national strategy for the use of Structural Funds 2007-2013 identified creative incubation as one of the key elements in fostering entrepreneurship in the cultural sector and creating favourable conditions for start-up companies. Creative incubators are created and operated by the local municipalities or educational institutions. The EU funding covers investment into infrastructure, equipment and part of running costs.” There are two larger creative incubators operating at the moment:
Tallinn Creative Incubator and Tartu Centre for Creative Industries, both founded in 2009. Tallinn Creative Incubator was awarded the second Best Science Based Incubator 2010 for Combining Entrepreneurship with Creativity and Culture (9th Annual Conference on Science Based Incubation of The Technopolicy Network).
Support for development centres and export related activities. There are several development centres operating (e.g. Estonian Design Centre, Estonian Architecture Centre, Estonian Music Development Centre, Estonian Theatre Agency, Estonian Film Foundation) to make the cooperation in the sector more efficient and initiate joint strategies or action plans. One of the priority areas of the development centres is export and all related initiatives to enhance internalisation.