Andy in Guadalajara

Andy was invited to Guadalajara by the Mexican Minister of Culture Ernesto Miranda Trigueros to share his insights on urban policies of the cultural and creative, and digital industries.  Andy attended two days of a conference ‘Ingenio: fora internacional de industrial creatives digitales’ on 27/28 April. Andy gave the keynote ‘The Creative Industries: Learning from the successes and failures of UK and European initiatives’. The event was live-streamed, and reported on local TV channels. Later Andy discussed the ‘Road map for the digital and creative industries in Mexico’ with the Ministry.

Andy has visited Guadalajara several times, first at the invitation of the British Council at the international book fair; second, for UNESCO as part of an expert team assisting the development of a exemplar sustainable cultural policy in Zappopan (the co-located city with Guadalajara); third, Andy also visited Mexico City to advise the City on experimental cultural policy.

The conferences was held in a wonderful building that is both a creative hub, and the home of the city’s department of culture. Guadalajara has just been designated and ‘UNESCO Creative City’, and there is a hugely ambitious physical redevelopment of the city taking place; Andy was taken on a tour of the new area and the in progress building works (see picture; both the old facade, and the two tower blocks, and a whole street of workshop premises. This linked with a number of pedestrianisation programmes is totally transforming the city.

In addition to contacts in the twin cities, and with the federal ministry, and the local university, Andy was happy to meet policy makers from regional national governments Chile, Colombia and Peru) to discuss ‘creative employment mapping’