AVS. Arkitektúr verktækni skipulag - 01.06.2003, Síða 68

Stefán Jón Hafstein, Chairman of the Culture Committee
The Cultural Policy of
Reykavík
Menningarnótt, 2002, Ingólfstorg. / Reykjavik Cultural Night 2002, Ingólfstorg.
The written cultural policy of offi-
cial government bodies every-
where has tended to be a collec-
tion of beautiful thoughts about
the arts and their role in life. In
addition, that those government
institutions will support this great
beauty.
I think the time has come when it
is not necessary to state the obvi-
ous. Cultural life, in a broad
sense, is part of the social policy
of responsible political powers.
The cultural policy of the City of
Reykjavík is therefore no longer a
question of declared will, but
rather a question of realisation.
I am of the opinion that the reali-
sation of cultural policy must
increasingly be directed to a
comprehensive policy of quality of
life and society within the city lim-
its. Our cultural policy is therefore
not only visible in splendid cultural
institutions of the city or in
„grants" to artists. It is evident
everywhere, such as school inte-
riors where there is a flourishing
cultural life. It also exists in inte
actions with artists, institutions,
firms, interested people, and, in
some cases, the public at large.
I use the word interaction, but not
support. Interaction more than
support points to what official
bodies should be increasingly
concentrating on. Instead of mak-
ing do with limited grants that can
always be questioned, public
bodies should encourage and
attract many different people in
the city to further diversify cultural
activities. Not only in the city, but
also abroad. It is part of our
declared cultural policy that
Reykjavík should be an interna-
tional city. A small city, yet an
international city.
According to this, I do not look
upon the „cultural policy" of the
city as a blueprint of how grants
should be doled out. Culture is
part of the quality of life in the city
for the public. It is also part of the
labour policy of the city, because
jobs connected to cultural activi-
ties are fun, exciting and encour-
aging for young people. They
often create great opportunities
and even ways to make money.
Cultural life is an important foun-
dation for other activities, such as
tourism, which is one of the
largest economic sectors in
lceland. Then there is the ques-
tion of culture, self-image of the
city and its inhabitants. All this
revolves around the wonderful
fact that the human being is cre-
ative and the total environment
that I have been talking about
leads to more creation and enjoy-
ment of life than if people were
isolated.
This is how I would like to see the
cultural policy of Reykjavík carried
out: cooperation of many different
participants combined with capi-
tal and energy to create more,
bigger and more effective nets of
interaction for the creation of art
than limited grants for individual
projects can achieve. This is how
an effective framework will be
created which will outlast the
passing of time and daily politics,
independent of political caprices. ■
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