Perspectives of Cultural Statistics

The National Institute for Cultura Research and Training and the Department for Studies, Forward Planning and Statistics (DEPS), Ministry of Culture, France, have agreed early this year on a common cooperation programme – Perspectives of cultural statistics.

The partnership between the two institutions involves the exchange of experience on methodological themes regarding the draw-up of the main indicators for cultural statistics and the cooperation within programmes and specialisations according to the European professional standards for the occupations in the field of culture.

Planned for a period of two years, this programme has the following goals: good-practice model exchange in cultural research, from sectoral and legal perspective, as well as in conducting cultural consumption studies; reviewing the definitions of the main cultural statistics indicators, of the cultural management strategies and legal framework; conducting studies on the occupational standards of the cultural specialisations and improving the ongoing training programmes for the occupations in the field of culture.

In the first half of 2019, the Season Romania-France 2019 provides this programme with the opportunity to strengthen the cooperation between the two institutions. Under the umbrella of the Season, in the period 10-12 April 2019 the first bilateral meeting between INCFC and DEPS took place, and the second meeting is going to be organised in Bucharest, on the 1^st and 2^nd of July 2019.

On the programme’s agenda there is also the launch of two studies, in Romanian and French. The 2018 edition of the study Cultural Vitality of Cities in Romania, conducted by INCFC and printed in Romanian and French, will be presented to the public on the 1^st of July at the National Library of Romania; the event is included in the official calendar of the Season Romania-France 2019.

The societies of the present are in a continuous dynamic on all levels – economic, social, political, moral and, last but not least, cultural. This is why it is important to see how we can characterise the cities of Romania from the viewpoint of the cultural vitality, in a context wherein the creative economy has an increasing significance for the manner in which the urban environment is developing.

Although conducted in 2018 and published in 2019, the study relates to the level of the year 2016, for which most of the data were available; the data were mainly obtained from the National Institute of Statistics, the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration, Borg Design and partially from internal collection. The used indicators refer to the cultural infrastructure, budgetary expenses for culture, specialised human resources within cultural organisations, population’s participation in cultural events, existing creative industries and cultural establishments.

Furthermore, INCFC has translated DEPS’s study Intermédiaires du travail artistique into Romanian. À la frontière de l’art et du commerce into Romanian; its launch will be announced in autumn this year.

More information on the Department for Studies, Forward Planning and Statistics can be accessed on the official portal of DEPS; details on the Season Romania-France 2019 are available on the site of the programme.

Having been generated by the historical and diplomatic relationships between the two countries, the Season Romania-France 2019 is meant to renew the two peoples’ image on each other, to strengthen the economic, scientific and cultural relationships – a bridge connecting Romania and France, through projects mutually agreed upon by the Romanian and French teams.

More information will be made available in the News section of INCFC’s site, as well as on social media and in the newsletter.