Friday, February 05, 2010

Oscar nominations show creative potential can be key to city's economic recovery says Lord Mayor

Dublin’s Lord Mayor Cllr Emer Costello would like to congratulate the three Ballyfermot College graduates who worked on projects which received Oscar nominations.

Lord Mayor Costello says “Nicky Phelan, Tomm Moore and Richard Baneham are obviously very talented and creative individuals and it is wonderful to see their work receive the recognition it deserves. Our talent and creativity is our international unique selling point and potentially our winning card when it comes to economic recovery.

The Lord Mayor’s Commission on Employment which I established last year identified the creative industries as having enormous potential as drivers of economic recovery. As part of the Commission’s work programme, we hosted a workshop on the ‘Creative and Cultural Industries & Innovation’ last week to discuss how best to harness the talent and creativity of our City.

We looked at how city leaders, entrepreneurs and creative people might create the right environment and infrastructure to support innovation in the entertainment and artistic industries here in Dublin and I believe that there are specific steps that we should now take in this regard.

These would include:

Using the IFSC model for creating an international hub in Dublin for the Creative Industries
Better sharing and dissemination of information on events and developments
Establishing a Rapid Taskforce to identify empty space and to match those with needs and opportunities in the sector

“Brown Bag Films” is a shining example of the potential of the animation and film industry with the creation of 50 jobs in Smithfield. It is my belief that their success will inspire and encourage confidence in the development of a vibrant creative industries sector in Dublin.

I also want to congratulate Ballyfermot College of Further Education for their pioneering work in the area of providing courses in animation – indeed it is not the first time graduates of the college have been given international recognition.

The Oscar nominations show just how much potential there is and I wish Nicky, Tomm and Richard well at Oscar Night in Hollywood


ENDS

Click here to read the workshop report:





Notes to Editor:

The Lord Mayor’s Commission on Employment was established in September 2009 to examine how Dublin City Council can facilitate growth in the local economy. It is working to identify and make recommendations on relevant issues of unemployment and employment; business, entrepreneurship and finance; education, skills and training; volunteering and the social economy.
In September a Call for Ideas from the public was also launched which has been tremendously responded to with over 100 submissions received from businesses, organisations and individuals. The Commission is currently working through these submissions but have identified two strong themes emerging in its work to date that warrant further and immediate dialogue with stakeholders to help inform it further, namely ‘Dublin as an International Student Destination’ and the ‘Cultural and Creative Industries and Innovation in Dublin’.
Two Issues Papers on these topics were prepared and following consideration of these the Commission organised two workshops to solicit further dialogue from all stakeholders and perspectives. Listed below is summary report and issue paper on “cultural and Creative industries and Innovation Workshop held on Tuesday 19th January 2010.

No comments: