Art and Culture will help Denmark

The former Culture Minister of Denmark and just resigned Per Stig Moeller agreed on the fact that the 50-year-old Ministry plays a very important role in the country. The new Minister of Culture, Uffe Elbaek (born in 1954, holds the position since 3 October 2011), also got some advice.

“Culture and art are ones of the most important things in our life. We must preserve them”, Per Stig Moeller said in connection with the 50th anniversary of the Ministry of Culture on 19 September 2011. This speech did not seem to be unexpected.
 
“It is to the credit of the Ministry of Culture that we have got our own cultural policy. And this is what matters. Cultural policy encourages people to create and protects their creations. The museum is full of things which our generation grew up with, chairs, tables, pictures, pots, and frying pans. We have responsibility for all this to future generations, as well as to the past one”, Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen, former Culture Minister says. Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen held the position when Poul Nyrup Rasmussen was the Prime Minister of Denmark in 1998, up to 2001 elections. Today, ten years later she still works in the same field, as the Principal at Kolding School of Design. She also comments on the importance of cultural policy. “Our art educational system sustains life in some design techniques which nowadays are almost forgotten. When I show people around the School they often ask me, for example, why we need old weaving and knitting machines. But suddenly there is a student who finds out that these machines can help solve a problem”, she says.

At the moment and for a short period longer in future it is Per Stig Moeller who is the Culture Minister. He has held the position for one and a half year, after the rearrangements in the ministry made him move from the Foreign Ministry to the Ministry of Culture.
 
“In foreign policy there are such notions as “hard power” and “soft power”. Culture is a soft power, and therefore its influence cannot be evaluated in terms of money. Aspects of culture can always be found in art, theatre, literature, and sports. It cannot be evaluated in terms of kroner and oere”, former minister says about the Ministry he will soon leave.

Yet his predecessor believes it is quite possible. Above all else, Danish art attracts tourists and investors to Denmark. “For example, we know that companies employing creative people have bigger exports. Culture and art can ensure that we have our bread and butter and help finance welfare”, Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen says.

“Culture and art are able to contribute to economic development but we do not always succeed in delivering this idea. The better we can put the message and deliver it to people, the better will it be”, she says about the goals set for the Ministry of Culture.

Per Stig Moeller also gives quite clear ideas on the future requirements for the Ministry. “It is necessary to maintain the policy I conducted. It is based on consideration of the importance of culture. Denmark is a small nation, and we would be nothing without our culture. That is why it is important, even in our globalized world. Surely we can find artists abroad, but we would be a poor nation without our own artists”, he says.

 

 

Original text: Berlingske Tidende

Photo (Uffe Elbaek):  http://www.denradikaleuffe.dk/