The city program in Guimarães

Carlos Martins

ADDICT – Agency for the development of the Creative Industries is based in Porto, we have more than 120 partners right now. It’s a private organization also supported by public partnerships. The reason for me to participate on Guimarães´s project was that we were developing the first Portuguese strategic mapping on creative industries and we encountered the need in Guimarães for opening perception of possibility of the European Capital of Culture in terms of the economic, social and regeneration legacy. That’s why we tried to bring some of this regional perspective of auto-developing creative economy to this project.<br><br>We don’t have a specific department of programming called creative industries. We have four great areas of programming - community involvement, arts program, city program and knowledge program. All these four areas touch fields close to creative industries but “the city program” is concerned the most about issues related to creative industries and it deals with three main topics: first is landscape - how to refurbish and reactivate empty spaces in the city, especially in former industrial areas. Another important topic is linked not just to the new economic system we can forge through the creative fields but also to linking with more traditional industries like textile, furniture or shoe making for instance. And the last dimension of “the city program” is about international collaboration, co-creation, co-production - how to link it to international networks, how to be part of new international platforms.&nbsp;<br>

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Carlos Martins

Carlos Martins

Chairman at ADDICT – Agency for the development of the Creative Industries in Porto, Portugal

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