CONFERENCE TO EXAMINE ROLE OF THE ARTS IN THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY
A conference entitled 'The Economic and Social Significance of the Performing Arts' will take place in Dublin on Thursday 6th October to debate the increasing importance of the arts in terms of employment, economic growth and urban regeneration. Hosted by the Dublin Institute of Technology, in association with the Forum for Music in Ireland, the conference will consider not only the challenges but also the opportunities currently facing the arts sector in Europe, and in Ireland in particular.
The conference proposes to look at the dual role of the performing arts - cultural and economic. Putting the issues in context, Dr. Ellen Hazelkorn, Director and Dean of the Faculty of Applied Arts at DIT, estimates that today over 30,000 people in Ireland are employed in the creative industries - including the performing and visual arts; publishing and multimedia; audio-visual, phonographic and cinematographic productions, crafts and design, architecture, advertising and sports. Dr. Hazelkorn said "This sector has become central to the formation of a knowledge society, and therefore to Ireland's strategic development. I don't suggest that performing arts are not valued in Ireland, but that the full economic importance and potential of these areas have not been fully recognised."
Sir Ken Robinson, who will be a keynote speaker at the conference, believes that in a world that is changing faster than ever before, our long-term success will depend on 'continuous creativity and consistent innovation'. Now Senior Advisor to the President of the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles, Sir Ken Robinson received a knighthood for his outstanding achievements as a leader in creativity, education and the arts in Britain and is renowned as an inspirational speaker on his subject.
The conference brings together national and international speakers, with both practical and policy experience across the performing arts. The aims are to set the issues in context by looking at experience elsewhere, to look at how policy needs to be updated to take account of changes in society, and to address the educational and facilities infrastructure that are required to underpin growth in the area.
The one-day event will take place in the appropriate setting of the National Gallery of Ireland on Merrion Square. It will be opened by Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr. John O'Donoghue TD and speakers include Dr. Marilyn Wedgwood, Pro Vice Chancellor, Manchester Metropolitan University; Fintan O'Toole, columnist with the Irish Times, Einar Solbu, Chief Executive of the Norwegian Concent Institute, David Price, Arts Education Consultant, Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts and Theo Dorgan, poet, and literary editor and member of the Arts Council. The morning session will be chaired by Myles Dungan, broadcaster and author, and the afternoon session by Brid Grant, Head of the Conservatory of Music and Drama.
Participants at the conference will include policy makers from cultural organisations, performance artists, politicians, civil servants, entrepreneurs, educators, economists and commentators.
