 Good afternoon, welcome to the closing plenary of the 2016 Edinburgh International Cultural Summit. As we come to the close, we are going to begin by inviting our three rapporteurs to report back on the three themes, starting with Catherine Holden on culture and heritage. Catherine has now successfully launched a career as a cultural consultant following a prominent career in museums across Britain. Catherine, over to you. I thank you very much. Heritage is long and life is short. 350 million years ago, where they're about. The rocks deep beneath our feet here were molten lava. Two million years ago, a glacier crunched past us, carving out the landscape and exposing the rocky crags that overlooked this building. Byddwch i'r cyfnod, cyfnodau cyflwyno yn ymddangos i'r holl, ac yn ym 700 oed, y byddai'r cyfnodd ar y palys yng Nghymru, ac mae'r cyfnodd yma yn ymddangos i'r stori. Mae'r ddweudio ar y cwrsau arall yn y ffrindiau yn ymdweud ymdweud, mae'r ddweudio ar y gweithio'r legosi. a'r lleis o'ch cyfnogaeth a'r mynd yn ei chlyf yn gwneud ddweud ac yn dweud i'r ffordd i'r hynny. Mae'n amlwg erioed i'r seisiwn i'r hynny sy'n iawn gyda'r cyfnodol yma, i gael gwyrddol i'r cyfnodol i'r byw i'r hynny, ond yr hynny'n ddweudio i'r cyfnodol i'r cyfnodol i'r cyfnodol. Felly mae'r ffordd ydym ni'n gwirionedd, y turism, y cyfnodol a'r reall a'r gweithio a'r gwirionedd yw'n gwirionedd. Rwy'n gallu'n gwirionedd a'r cyfnodol i'r ddiolch yn ei lleoli. Fel ydw i'n cyfnodwch ar gyfer y gwirionedd yn dda, ddramrull, erbyn clywed o'r gyfnodol, ddyn nhw'n gwirionedd o'r cynnig, o'r ffordd i'r wneud o'r ffordd i'r ffordd i'r hordaethau. Mae cwestiynau beryddio'r platform ac yn ein ffordd i'r hyn o'r rhanio'r ffordd. Fy llwyddoedd, sy'n gweithio i'r llwyddoedd a'r llwyddoedd. Fy llwyddoedd, gyfnodol, cyfreidwyr i'r ffyllwn. Mae cyfnodol yn yr wyf, lle yw yw ddurdodd o ddurdodd a ddurdodd y peth. cyhoedd Cymru gyda'r llwyth, eu gyfrodd cael eu pethau, a'r unrhyw i bryd, dim naeith criminalsia ar hyn. Gydweithiol llwythu o gyrd yr unrhyw, o'r gwneudio'r llwyth i'r ardal, a'r gwneudio'r gwneudio, ar gyfer amser y meist. Alun i'r llwyth clywio, ac oedd yn gwneudio'r gwneudio'r gwneudio. I hail oaf ddraenol, sy'n gyfodol o'r holl, Felly, fy enw i'r cyfrannu, ar gyfer cyfrannu a llwyddoedd yn bwysig, dwi'n ddweud y cyfrannu cyfrannu i gael eu cyfrannu, dwi'n ddwylo'n ymddangos i'r cyfrannu cyfrannu o'r cyfrannu cyfrannu. Yn ymgyrch, rydyn ni wedi cyfrannu cyfrannu cerdd, cyfrannu cyfrannu cyfrannu cyfrannu cyfrannu, cyfrannu cyfrannu cyfrannu cyfrannu. ac y trofnol cyflwyn i gael o'r rhan o'r colli. Mae cyflwyn o'r cyflwyn eraill yn wirio gysylltu i fyfyrdd rhan o'r planetau ac yn gweithio'r rhan o'r cyflwyn. Felly, mae'r hynny'r hyn sy'n gyntaf i gael ei ddechrau. Mae'r hynod o'r dechrau yn ysgol i'r eich cyflwyn, a'r thaw lŷn o'r gwyllwyr wedi'u gynnig o'r cyflwyn i gael. We learnt the successful destination, drumroll 2, will use technology ingeniously to manage the challenges of marketing, choice, time and space. We'll look after its home team, the local citizens who constitute the culture, the welcome, the experience, yet can too easily feel swamped or resentful when the tourists arrive. We'll understand that this visiting team is no more homogenous than their own citizens and in fact brings diversity to a place, and as a result they will use the power of cultural experiences like festivals to create a spirit of exchange beyond the one-way gaze of the clicking camera lens. Speakers warned of an over-reliance on top 10 tourism icons, which leads to overcrowded bottlenecks and narrow perceptions of the place. A successful destination will go beyond a tick box, listical approach to tourism and create new stories with their people honouring geographical and conceptual fringes, and we meet here in a city which knows how to love a fringe. We range then from tourism to trauma, from leisure to horror. Our session on cultural heritage in crisis explored both the all too obvious and also the less recognised implications of this for a place and its people. Interestingly, speakers expanded the focus from awful physical destruction, which is highly visual and so tends to grab our screens and our front pages to emphasise the arguably larger issues of illicit trade supported by global underground criminal networks and the mass displacement of people whose loss tears the heart, the voices, the stories out of a place. There were, however, positives. We heard that cultural protection was not formally in the terms of reference for UN peacekeeping forces or for the military, hence those scenes of museum looting in Baghdad back in 2003 when soldiers stood by looking on. But, country by country, this is being addressed with new terms introduced and supporting training to ensure they're applied. Many nations have still not signed the 1954 Hague Convention, including amongst them the UK, but at least one delegate in the room yesterday resolved to take this issue home and provide that vital signature. A Japanese colleague reminded us that the remarkable treasures of the beautiful city of Kyoto were not destroyed in the world war which prompted that Hague Convention, a conscious decision which gives us hope amid the darkness. Finally, our workshop with heritage sites from post gold rush Australia to China and here in Edinburgh, who are taking practical steps to absolutely connect the historic protection with contemporary development. For example, and this is the final drum roll, engaging businesses, both small and large, to first take an interest in and then invest in heritage. Resisting the vested interests of the privileged who may seek to monopolise the opportunities and the narrative of their heritage. Creating a positive cycle where the profits of tourism are used to pay for the maintenance and renewal of the cultural assets which that tourism relies on. That numbers are vital in influencing the economic case speaks, but also that numbers are not all. These sites were asking people who live and breathe their places what they see as precious and how to engage others in those stories. Contributors acknowledged it's hard to involve communities with all their exciting and sometimes infuriating diversity. People are likely to disagree. So, participants discussed how to engage and what the right questions were to ask. And finally, the workshop proposed recasting the word heritage itself. Instead of a noun decoding a set of fixed things and objects, they proposed this as a verb, a dynamic human process of exploration, interaction and reinterpretation of the past into the present and into the future. So, let's heritage ourselves. One of our speakers invited us to close our eyes for a moment and think back 25 years, remembering a place we had known since 1991 and reflect on how much it had changed since then. I now invite you to close your eyes for a moment, if you wish, and connect the past with the present and beyond. To think forward 25 years, imagining how your place, how this place, how the world around us might look if we truly committed to putting heritage at the heart of our future. Thank you, Catherine. Now I may ask Sir Paul Gries to summarise the conversation on culture and economics. Paul, as you may know, is the chief executive of this Parliament, so he is in fact one of our key hosts. But he also agreed, in fact, volunteered to be one of the key participants. Thank you, Presiding Officer. So, this is a report back from the roundtables considering scenarios for cultural sustainability and indeed taking on boards and points from the workshop on entrepreneurial skills. If I could start, if I may, by thanking the chairs, presenters and my fellow rapporteurs, as well as all those who contributed. In one of the groups, it was actually dominated by a very passionate debate on a challenge to the assumption that of a benign circle between government, economy and culture. In many countries, the contemporary reality is that the role of culture is to counterbalance divisive political forces, in countries and between countries. And this poses a challenge to the cultural sector and it particularly raises the question of whether we're at the risk of contributing that to that diversiveness rather than tackling it by not doing enough to counterbalance. But in other roundtables, there was discussion on the interrelationship between culture and communities at all levels from the state to local. On the one hand, the role of government and its agencies in supporting culture. On the other hand, the critical role of culture and specifically rediscovering and exploring heritage such as language can have in a nation building and indeed helping to rebuild communities. And we had practical examples from Singapore and indeed some of the reservations in the United States of America. It was clear from all around tables that different political and economic contexts exist across the world. It's an obvious point, but highly relevant as we look to take forward ideas from this summit and look to translate them into action. Where government is able and willing to provide support, that is good. And there are many examples which could, I think, be synthesised of where and how this is done successfully. For example, a key role government can and does play is in providing infrastructure. But an important question then is do we have the right infrastructure? And this is a very broad issue. In a physical sense, this could relate to space and facilities. But is it the right type of space in the right places? It certainly covers digital access and there is a strand around the skills and creative talents of cultural entrepreneurs. But it's also clear that government is not the only player indeed in some context it is not a major player in terms of providing direct support at all. Many examples emerged across the round table. So where the private sector alone are in partnership at different scales can enable cultural activity to thrive. For example, the Nigerian film industry in Sri Lanka, in India and in the United States of America. Indeed asset based place market making model is a practical suggestion of a new way of doing things. And indeed complex related issues such as crowdfunding and new investment instruments were discussed. And again, Jonathan, I think there's a piece of work that could be done here to bring together in an accessible format practical examples, both to inspire and to guide. Inclusiveness came out as a theme. Questions were raised about who benefits from investment and I think public investment in particular. In terms of consumption, if that's a term we're allowed to use, whether in people's propensity or ability physically to attend say performances. Or more likely in our days the risk of digital exclusion at a time when culture is increasingly disseminated through digital platforms can sometimes be very exclusive. And it was also noted the arts can sometimes be competitive and siloed and that reconciling that with community ownership was a practical challenge. Inclusion was recognized as a genuinely difficult issue. And in my view such candor is an important starting point that would look at how it can be tackled. Returning to digital technologies, there are many examples where more sophisticated use and analysis of data for example from social media could enable more effective management and sustainability of cultural resources, whether natural or built. And alongside that I need to generate more appropriate metrics on how we measure them. I certainly for one learned a great deal in terms of how this institution looks to measure its success in this regard. An issue common to all around tables was that of measuring value and impact and this was a point which Catherine touched on. There was a strong argument that the economic value of the cultural sector was so easily demonstrated that we need to move beyond that. We can cite for example that the Sin industry in Nigeria will have a value of 8 billion US dollars by 2019. That the cultural sector in Mexico generates over 7% of GDP from 3.5% of the workforce or indeed a much closer to home. The Edinburgh festivals which were estimated to have generated over a quarter of a billion pounds of additional expenditure in the Scottish economy back in 2011. I personally think we think we would be unwise entirely to neglect the ability to converse in these narrow but well accepted economic terms. But there was a strong sense that we need to find new ways to tell the story of value. In this link back in my view to things like nation and community rebuilding and building. Have we sufficiently explored well-being and happiness and some of the related indices and in any event we must not fall into the trap of thinking about it only in terms of numbers. We need a narrative to persuade and influence decision makers and we need a narrative to persuade and engage the public. A key question at the heart of that is what does cultural benefit look like? What does it feel like? If we can nail that we'll be getting somewhere. And again I think there's some practical thinking that we can help on the back of the summit into that. And like many of the points raised across the workshops it comes down to leadership. And again and I think that was touched on in one of this morning's debate is there something around the training encouragement support we give to leaders in the cultural sector that can help address this. A simple but to my mind critical point was that in all our consideration of cultural sustainability we must not forget the importance of the artistic act itself. Investment must support that and policy must be built around it because it is that creative endeavour which produces a substance on which everything else is founded. And a related point and one of my favourite phrases of the summit is that of strategic modesty which I think means that those supporting culture and the art and I think this means public sector agencies in particular should not be ambitious for their own performance but within a vision be responsive to the performance of artists they aim to support. And in conclusion and I have to say presiding officer that strategic modesty is something we might reflect on as we return to our day job in a couple of weeks here in the Scottish Parliament. I made a note of that very phrase. And now we turn to the third, our final rapporteur, Julia Amour on culture and participation. And I'm delighted Julia is the director of festivals Edinburgh and I'm delighted you've been able to join us during this month of all months. Julia, thank you. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to applaud the very well crafted speeches of my colleagues and beg your indulgence for mine which has been constructed over the last hour and a half over a slightly soggy sandwich. So what can we learn as policy makers about culture and participation from this morning's sessions? Across all the plenaries and discussions I was struck by the rich picture we were collectively building about the need to understand the impacts that cultural participation can bring at four different levels, the individual, the social, the civic and the intercultural levels. So those are the four lenses that I would offer for my remarks this afternoon. In the individual and social spaces we all heard wonderfully touching testimony this morning from David Leventhal and Matthew Peacock about the power of dance and music to restore a sense of pride, confidence and social connection. A key concept is that cultural participation enables people to focus on what matters to me not what's the matter with me. And this was expanded upon in the two workshops on performance science which brought forward the growing and very exciting body of evidence for the psychological, neurological and physical benefits for dancing and making music. Aaron Williamann spoke about drumming work with older people in Japan and Switzerland and the multiple small scale studies that now exist demonstrating the link between music and wellbeing. And the need for that research to scale up so that there is a good evidence base that we can translate into real life policy making. We learnt about the accepted research behind the five a day prescription for wellbeing. Connect, be active, be curious, give and keep learning and how well that maps on to what art and culture can mean in all our lives. Peter Lovett, who I should say is a regular participant at our Edinburgh International Science Festival and there we know him as Doctor Dance. He spoke about how rhythm is the very first thing that develops in babies before speech and so it's essential to wellbeing and we should be recognising and using that throughout life more. And two settings were highlighted where dance and music should be making a significant impact on our policy making in how we learn from a young age. So the need to reinvent the curriculum in the school day and think about how learners create and process memories that can be embodied in cultural activity that has meaning for them. So a practical example is how maths may in fact be easier to learn after you have danced. And also in restorative and protective applications for conditions like Parkinson's and depression. So where illness makes you feel disabled, people can feel re-enabled through dance to help choreograph their way through their disease. And we also talked about the need to constantly tie back policy to practice and compliment our lived understanding of how dance can be used in different places and spaces with our scientific understanding of its contribution. So although science and arts are often seen as polarities, they are absolutely complementary and we are on the threshold here of understanding that relationship much better. So moving through that idea of four levels of impact, the session on strategies for engaging diverse communities looked more I think at the social, civic and intercultural levels. Musical metaphors were also used to convey the way that arts and culture can foster an understanding that all our identities and communities are multicultural by breaking down the song, as the participants said, lyrically, melodically and rhythmically. The group also felt that culture needs to create connections between people and ideas, not melt differences, and that was likened to being at a mixing desk and crossfading to mix distinctive inputs together while retaining what is individual and original about each. And this means living on the borders, collaborating to activate ideas and having a mature understanding, as some of the other speakers have said, about how we can create risk leadership and collaborative leadership. So we need to make the borders porous across cultures and across sectors, and that means shaking up our institutions in the cultural space, in the corporate space and in other sectors. And they wished us to remember that a nuanced understanding is needed, that change often comes from individuals, from smaller organisations and from coalitions, who bring that outsider perspective that Jay Wang was talking about this morning. So common threads from these sessions in terms of future directions include the questions of scalability and sustainability, to connect our growing understanding of these benefits to public policy, and instead of them being patchy and pilot, how we make sure that these things that matter happen everywhere and always. Also the learning about cross-disciplinary and cross-sector models that breakthroughs in understanding innovation often come from cross-fertilisation across sectors. And an example was given of a virtual application to help musicians make small steps in building their confidence from a virtual rehearsal room to a virtual concert hall, and that these techniques have also been applied to surgery and lace making. That digital example brings us to the conversation that I personally was in this morning about digital platforms, where we characterised the story that we heard as one of optimism, anxiety and a quest for action. We heard a wonderfully optimistic vision from Suher Khan of the Google Cultural Institute about how new technologies can develop new audiences, provide global access and create new immersive and inspiring cultural experiences, bringing together bits of collections from around the world in impossible ways previously, archiving temporary experiences like festivals and providing new ways for professionals to engage with and understand cultural objects. Jay Wang helped us to diagnose the reasons for some of our cultural and digital anxieties around how we navigate the relationships between the physical and virtual worlds, and how in the digital space we process, create and retain cultural memories and cultural identities differently, which may explain why the craving for face-to-face experiences is increasing at the same time as we are immersed more and more in the virtual world. In many societies we have gone overnight, it seems, from information poor to information rich, and in the attention economy that we are now experiencing, we're seeing the nature of storytelling and visual culture changing rapidly, and we need the skills of arts and culture to understand that. We then turned to the quest for actions to respond constructively to this fast-changing reality and acknowledge that digital platforms would change our ways of learning and push us towards more and more identifying the truly human dimension to ask the questions that Google can't answer. We talked about people's need for engagement with values and not objects, and the artists' role in making online engagements meaningful, giving them a human voice and point of connection. We recognise that sometimes we cling to the illusion that sharing is participating, and that we need to understand how to move beyond that. And we talked about the emerging power dynamics of the information economy, the need for data to be accessible for social, cultural, education and civic purposes, for artists and creators to have voices and spaces online so that culture doesn't become ever more commodified, and for culture to have a central role in redefining our moral responsibilities in the online world. So that's a huge amount of ground that we've covered in the last few hours, and if I may I'd like to conclude with just a personal reflection which is more about the spirit of our discussion over the course of the whole of this summit. Listening to everyone here, I'm more struck than ever by the fact that culture is a human miracle, and the example that strikes me is that through ancient technologies from different civilisations, the alphabet, paper, printing, we are able to experience a shared humanity with people who lived millennia ago, with the playwright Terence, for example, from the 2nd century BC, who was of North African origin, who was born a slave and who lived to only 25 when he wrote, I am human and nothing human is alien to me. And surely we've seen in these last two days, those of us who are lucky to sit in this room, that it's our responsibility to try and create our own modern cultural miracle that spreads that opportunity to connect and to empathise as widely as possible across our communities, across our nations and across our world. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Julia. And I thank Catherine and Paul, too. Can I ask you not to go anywhere? We're now going to go into an open session, our only open session, I'm afraid, and it's only two briefs, only 30 minutes. I've had a number of representations, nine at least and possibly more who wish to get in, so we haven't got a lot of time. But there may be observations and there may be questions in which case if any of our rapporteurs or possibly our partners wish to respond and catch my eye, I'll take you in. So if we've got a limited amount of time, so if you want to make a point, catch my eye, make the point in brief if you can. Don't come down to the lectern. If you stand up where you are, we'll switch your microphone on and we'll make your presentation from the speech. And I'd like to start for me by calling the Argentinian Minister for Culture, Mr Americal Castilla. Mr Castilla. Thank you very much. I'm the Secretary for Heritage from the Ministry of Culture of Argentina. And as I took the taxi to go to the airport to come here, the taxi driver asked which company, and I said British Airways. So he said, are you going to England? I said no to Scotland. Silence. So I felt in need of saying, well, that's part of Britain that says I'm afraid that you're wrong. It's part of the United Kingdom. So I'm expecting lesson two as I go back. But that is to say that information is something which one can find in internet nowadays. And one of the words which was spoken here, which was learning links, I think is more important and is what culture provides. I think our cultural institutions have that property of putting people together in any circumstance from the public sector, from the private sector as individuals. And as I read the newspaper this morning and saw that visas for foreign students would be reduced, mostly coming from outside the European Union. It reminded me that I came here as a student and I did my postgraduate at the Slade School of Arts. And I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't have the knowledge I have if that would have been put into place. So I'm a physical case in favour of advocacy of going on in admitting foreign students in Great Britain or the United Kingdom. As a student, as an artist, as a founder of a small foundation and now in the public sector, I have taken risks. And I think that's the other word which has been heard these days which is very important. Of course, as an artist, it is the only way of doing work. In the private sector, in the TIPA foundation, we made last year one of the most significant gatherings of museum people called Reimagining the Museum, in which we had 700 attendees from 24 countries. And it was said that it was one of the most radical convenings ever on account of the social commitment that was from the people attending that conference, which we will do again in 2007 next year in Merlin, Colombia. And we want Latin America to be represented with these new ideas, which are reflecting the social ambience and the way culture has been redefined to be adapted to the social needs of the people more than this conversation between elites. And next November, we're preparing what we call Chaos at the Museum, infiltrating the urban fabric. And that we do together with Centros and Martins and two US universities, the one in California at Davis and the one in the Corcoran Design School from George Washington University. That is to say, the importance of alliances. I also heard today when it was said, when you have passion, when you have determination, you have good allies, you don't need necessarily money to start. And that I can prove. Once you have those conditions, you are playing the game. And then the money starts to flow. So that's important for small organizations. And now, from now that I'm in a place in government, I follow with the idea of taking risks because one understands where one comes from and who are the constituents of the matters that we take into our responsibility. So we have already made a new museum policy, radical changes to public museums, national museums, which we have 24, and with the collaboration from institutions from all over the world actually, in which we want to include the UK as a main partner. So thank you very much for inviting me. Thank you very much for inspiring ideas and permitting this dialogue with people like the ones I've met from China, for example, for the first time ever. And from other countries which I wouldn't have been allowed to participate where none I've been invited to share these days with you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Minister Castillo. Can I call Michelle Saizie from the European Youth Forum? Is Michelle here? Ah, Michelle. Now, you might have to borrow a microphone of one of your colleagues there if that's... Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. As you know, I am part of the youth delegation and I am from Manchester. I want to start by telling you just a small story. There was a girl, she moved from Africa to the UK, where you already know the language barriers. That's where it begins, when you move from one country to another. And it goes before when, I think it was Matthew's speech who said that you have to be a foreigner to be able to understand culture. And this girl had moved from this country and everything was new. But if it wasn't for the fact that she took up the arts to be able to understand the language, because my mum always told me, music has no language. This girl was me if you haven't figured it out. So of the puzzle. And basically, if it wasn't for the arts, for example, I was nine years old when I moved to the UK. And if it wasn't for the fact that I joined the music group, I was in the drama club, I was in the dance club, although I'm not a very good dancer. I was in there, and that's how I was able to make friends, because it was about the movement that told the story. And I think we are here because we agree that culture is important, otherwise we wouldn't be here. But one of the things that I wanted to find out, and for me was the elephant in the room, is that we all know that culture is important, but that's always one of the first things that gets cut in times of hardship, as well as the youth budget of course. And they're the first two that always tend to go. And because we know it's important, but it's always something that's, you know, you know, education is important, of course. Health is important, of course, but so is culture. And I was inspired by Professor Abdul Karim and his story about what it is that he does. And I think if that's not inspiration enough for all of us to remember how important culture is, I don't know what else will remind us what culture really is. And also, during the policy round table yesterday, I had a conversation about statistics, for example. And basically, as a politics student, I know we have to know statistics, and they're one of the things that really help us understand. But to me, politics only tell you what is going on. How about talking to someone who can tell you why something is the way it is? Why is it happening that way? Why is it even existing, for example? And Rupert Mayer went on to say, by asking someone's story, you can only refer to that person as one. But what's wrong with the one? That one can tell you more than 1,000 people on a piece of paper can. And I really believe that it's about trying to now engage with the communities, ask them what it is that makes them who we are. What is culture to other people? Because I know we know what it is because we're involved in that. But what about people in our communities? Do they know what culture is? Do they even know what it is that makes them who they are? So what's wrong with being one? Because maybe that's the step forward to finding a number two, three and four, and painting a whole bigger picture than what's on pieces of paper. Thank you very much for having us. Thank you very much, Michelle. Can I now call Mr Sifala Tarshuni from Tunisia, I believe. Tunisia is it yes? Thank you. Thank you, Chairman. My name is Birrel Aboudi, in fact I made confusion for the name. Sorry, my pronunciation. No problem. Thank you, Chairman. First of all, the delegation of Tunisia would like to thank the UK Government and the Government of Scotland, the Parliament of Scotland for enabling our participation to this summit. And especially with a special thanks to the British Council. Thank you. In fact, I was supposed to give some thanks piece, but I think I will go inside the subject of the summit itself. In fact, the participation of Tunisia comes along a theme that Tunisia is already needed in its current phase of building new Tunisia. We know what happened in Tunisia since 2011. We are now in a democratic transition phase. And all the population, all the people are inside the phase of change, of transformation, of reviewing some kind of frameworks. And culture, if you put it this way, in history, modern Tunisia was already built by culture at the beginning of independence. We bet on education and culture by the leader Habib Bolgibar, and at that moment with access to arts, access to education, we get our modern Tunisia. And hopefully we see it this way that culture will play especially arts heritage and also the culture and the nationhood, as I really like the term, will play a major role in getting Tunisia out of this changing phases and getting a new framework for democracy. So really our participation comes with this summit theme, which is building resilient communities. And this helps us with this participation to see new opportunities to explore, or if not exploring, because culture cannot be explored. It means to review our priorities in our cultural policies and connecting culture to really important things in our transformation phase. That is arts and development, heritage and development, democracy and culture and overall culture and change. So I would like to thank you for enabling us to participate in this culture summit. Thank you Edinburgh, thank you everyone who supported us and we are looking forward of course for future cooperation. Thank you. Thank you Mr Tachunee, sorry for the plantation. What I normally do in Parliament is give the speaker a head advanced notice, so I'll try and rather ambush you yet. So just to let Mr Mattsonoga do, I will call you in one second, but first I'm going to call Francesca Reid from the European Arts Forum. Francesca. Thank you. We are the shapers of culture, the workers for change and the dreamers of dreams. From what we've heard from this summit, there is no denying that we all recognise how essential and valuable culture is for building a resilient society. So what I want to leave you with today is two tangible practical ways in which culture can not only be sustained but can thrive. The two A's, accessibility and affordability. From my experience working with young people from across the UK, it is clear that we need to make culture more accessible to them. We need to make it more accessible on two levels. The first level is practically. In a similar way that there is a postcode lottery with regard to mental health provision in the UK, the same can be said for culture and the arts. Young people who live in large urban areas such as London and Edinburgh are surrounded by cultural opportunities. Whilst this is a great thing, young people in rural isolated areas are often forgotten. So it is vital that we improve opportunities for young people in less populated areas. Again, this comes back to the idea that it is not all about numbers but about the depth of impact made on each person who benefits from a cultural experience. But there is also a second level to accessibility in terms of belief systems. We have a duty to inspire young people to believe that they can be involved. The opera is open to you whatever your background, that you are welcome in any museum and that cultural opportunities are for you. This comes down to education. It is absolutely vital that the arts and culture remain an integral part of the curriculum. Throughout my secondary school life I suffered from severe anxiety and music lessons from the performing arts were a release for me. Even when I felt like the smallest human being on the planet, when I went on stage I felt like I was someone and that someone wanted to listen. The second A, affordability. With cuts hitting every sector, particularly the culture sector, we need to create new ways of sustaining and enabling the culture sector to thrive. One way in which we can do this is through utilising what is already out there. From a young person's perspective, there are so many passions and new ideas coming through and young people are so eager to get their views heard and to make a change and to bring new ideas to culture. One thing that we really need to think about is how we can effectively use those passions in a creative way and economically. Rather than just creating new cultural activities and new cultural ideas, what we really need to do is think more about how we can utilise what is already out there and improve on that and build on that to make connections to build a stronger force to bring about better cultural opportunities. Finally, if there is something this summit has shown us as young people, is that in order for culture to thrive we must remove the barriers between young people and politicians and between young people and people who work in the arts. We as young people need to be at the forefront of cultural policy in our communities and in our countries. We need to be equal partners in policy roundtables because it is us who will be continuing to fly the culture flag in the future. Thank you. Thank you for Jessica. On that note, I believe that the youth forum is going to hold your final session at 4pm in committee room 1, and apparently everyone is welcome. That's right. Everybody is welcome. Committee room 1 at 4 o'clock. In a minute, I'll call Thomas McEchin, but first if I can call the consul general of Japan, Mr Tasuki Bantanaga. Thank you, Mr Chair. I'd like to express my heartfelt thanks to the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament, which made this wonderful exercise possible. If I summarise the past three days in one word, it is inspiring. Inspiring is the word. Particularly, I was fascinated by the section on culture and participation. The great lesson I learned is that art and culture are not only for the talented few, but for everyone, including those people who have physical and mental difficulties. I also learned we were born to enjoy art and culture, and in fact we were born to dance as well. I recall my high school days. I was generally considered to be a geek, sort of a studying-only type who read books all the time and having no fun. But when it turned out, everybody realised that I'm a good disco dancer as well, everyone was hilarious. The past three days also gave me and gave us an opportunity to make wonderful connections. Had it not been for this conference, I wouldn't have been able to meet so many such interesting people for which I am truly grateful to the Scottish Government and to the Scottish Parliament and to the presiding officer, who has handled the meeting very skillfully and often times with a touch of humour. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr Manzanaga. I think there was a warmth of recognition at the geek part rather than the dancing part from half the room, obviously. In a second, I will call the right honourable Matt Hancock, one of our sponsors, co-hosts. First, it's Thomas McEchen from the Scottish Youth Parliament. Thomas. Presiding Officer, delegates. I sit in this Parliament today as a testament to the deep and meaningful impact that culture can have on the lives of people all around the world. I am someone who has been profoundly moved and inspired by the work of our artistic contemporaries and the words sketches, paintings and music of our predecessors. I have directly benefited from the truth that they have captured because as a child I was bullied and harassed. The other peoples didn't approve of my sexuality or didn't quite understand what it meant to be gay. I felt ostracised and alone and I felt that there was nowhere I could go, no one I could look to, and nothing, absolutely nothing I could do. Of course, my school, my family and my friends did what they could to help them. They offered reassurance, education for the others to understand that I wasn't different and that I was just like them. That worked for them, but the training and dialogue that was opened up never really helped me except myself. Deep inside, I was confused, angry, frustrated with myself for being born this way, and there was a point where I would look in the mirror and disgust, but there was hope for me yet. I found identity in the words of Philip Pullman, Shakespeare and J.K. Rowling, to name a few, who showed me a scared little boy that I should love myself and love others and do the best to make the world better. If it wasn't for their words, I'd be standing here today, and I certainly wouldn't be representing my local area of Glasgow Pollock in the Scottish Parliament. So what's the point in this story? It's quite simple really. Culture and whatever form it takes, whatever it is experienced, whatever the language of the creator it is, it changes lives. Culture changes lives. Whether it's the woman with Parkinson's who can move around because she can dance, or the girl who found comfort by accessing arts therapy to help her mental health, or the group of homeless people who performed on opera to a crowd of their peers. Culture changed my life and it can change so many more in the future. So delegates, as we leave this summit today, I want you to remember that, that I said that. I want you to remember my story and the stories of all the others. I want you to lock it up in your mind and bring it to the forefront of your memory because we can come back down in numbers, which we've all agreed are quite important, but I want you to remember the human element to all of this and be mindful of it when you make decisions. Do what you can, preserve what you can, build the infrastructure that you can and engage with those who are disengaged and feel left behind. Thank you for an amazing summit and thank you for listening. Thank you very much Thomas. In a minute I'll call Lauren Ross. First I'll call Mr Matt Hancock MP. I don't want Matt Hancock. Thank you very much Presiding Officer. From the UK Government's point of view, can I say to everybody here what a huge pleasure it has been to co-host this conference and what a success I think it's been. The slogan of the Edinburgh International Festival is Welcome World and we've certainly done that over the past few days. With delegations from 40 diverse countries, 23 ministers travelling internationally and I think we can all agree the very successful and inspiring contribution from the 40 youth contributors to whom we are all very grateful. As part and at the same time as the Edinburgh festivals which attract about 4 million visitors, I think this is a brilliant time of year to hold a conference like this. There have been some striking moments for us all. This morning Matt Peacock and David Laventel, Professor Abdul Karim, I think you reminded us what really matters in the area that we all work so hard at and it has redoubled my enthusiasm to ensure that we deliver on the cultural protection fund the UK Government is proposing and also that we ratify the Hague Convention having signed it. The UK Government, I can tell the summit, will ratify the Hague Convention over the next six months in the UK Parliament. So I think that we need to build on this strength for next time and by then no doubt the world will have changed. We hope for the better in many places, certainly for the more digital in almost all places and I think that's been a strong theme of the conference. But I hope that you've seen some of the best of Britain that we're open for business, open for investment, outward facing to the world and open for cultural exchanges that transcend all boundaries and as was said earlier connecting across communities and across our world in a way that culture only can. Thank you very much indeed Minister. Now in a second story I'll call Fiona Hyslop, I think I've got a final speaker in this section, but first Lauren Ross from Youth Arts Voice Scotland. Lauren. Hello. Thank you for allowing me to speak at this summit. I think I can speak for everyone in the Youth Forum to say that we've so much enjoyed listening to all the delegates here and we really value the opportunity to speak alongside you. I'm a member of Youth Arts Voice Scotland and that's one of the co-design projects led by Young Scott and I must say that through the two years that I've been involved it's been the best work experience that I could say that I could have ever have been given. My parents and my school have supported me through my life being interested in the arts and culture but the opportunities that I've gotten by being a representative of Youth Arts Voice Scotland has improved my confidence. I was always very shy. I would never have expected at the age of 20 to be speaking here today or throughout any of my life and so it's really supported me in my personal growth and I feel very proud to be a part of everyone here today, this great Youth Forum. I'm also a member of Heritage Blueprint which is another co-design project and we're a panel of young people that work with the National Trust for Scotland to engage more young people in heritage. We ourselves are very much interested in heritage but there's a large proportion of the young population of Scotland that we're looking at just now that aren't very engaged and so we've been trying to come up with some recommendations of how to do that but from my perspective heritage is simply a collection of stories whether that be national or international heritage and a good story is of everyone's interest it lies at the heart of the most successful films and books that everyone loves and it's a big foundation of all of our identities so if heritage is simply stories why are there so many young people or people in general that are disengaged if heritage is stories it means that the communication isn't effective it needs the support of good storytellers and who are the storytellers, the artists Arts and heritage are two spokes on the wheel of culture they share a lot in common but in working together they can support each other and with arts support of heritage I think more young people and people that aren't interested in heritage of any age would become more so with the help of art and I believe that with that stronger new fusion that would the interest of art the interest of heritage would improve I hear through the grapevine that I think France has started a new scheme to give young people free access into cultural institutions but as we've realised through our work money isn't everything I think it's going to definitely help more young people become engaged but it's driving that interest we have to drive forward the idea that heritage is something that everyone should be interested in because it's our story basically as John Berger, the famous essayist is a collection of essays on art that I read recently that he described the present as a past that we can influence and I think describing the past in that way would engage people in it because it's about, as we were discussing at the summit it's about everyday life it's about who we are it's not just castles it's not just hills it's not just that at all and I think it's not necessarily defining heritage or the arts or culture but just communicating the breadth that all of these topics have that is really something that we have to focus on especially to engage more young people thank you for listening thank you very much Lauren and now our closing speaker in this particular section our own culture minister here in Scotland Fiona Hyslop MSP thank you very much Presiding Officer for so ably chairing this cultural summit can we have more debates like this in the chamber every week please the theme for this summit is culture building resilient communities some of you will have been at the tattoo last night and you may have heard the tune Scotland the Brave that will give you one sense of a Scottish spirit but also I hope from the last three days the Scottish spirit of sharing of thinking of internationalism it's often said that culture tells truth to power but I think what we've heard over the last three days is that the importance should lie in culture and heritage giving power to the powerless or the powerless taking power for their truth to be told as we've heard their heritage is sold or stolen or destroyed and to have that capacity to renew and rebuild and along with our Argentinian colleague the word that I had written down was risk that I'd heard and one of the issues is where does power lie in a digital age or in the new age of where we are in curatorial terms and yes we want our ministers to be brave we want our curators to be brave so their decisions can help create conditions for success and I think over the last three days and I'd like to thank Jonathan Mills and the Summit Foundation particularly you've helped us become a resilient community of thinkers I hope and of actors and with the Youth Summit of which I am tremendously proud that we are a resilient community that will also be one for the future so let's say yes value our culture and be proud but if we're really going to help people in the world that are not in this chamber that do need our support and our inspiration we all have to be brave thank you very much cabinet secretary now can we move to our closing remarks I'm going to ask Sir Ciaran Devane to be in Sir Ciaran is the chief executive of the British Council for Summit Ciaran thank you very much and I shall attempt to be brief and succinct as well I think as the partners we're acutely conscious of the time that you as senior and important people from around our world have invested in this so the commitment I think on behalf of the partners is that we will do our best to make sure that the impact of this Summit continues and for me there are at least four levels to that impact and I think we've all given and heard examples of particular contributions which were incredibly inspiring over the last number of days I too would pick Abdul Karim out if you want to know what bravery is I think what professor Abdul Karim has done in Damascus and in Syria is tremendous and the second level of impact is really around some of the challenges that have been placed before us Francesco Bander talking about our ability our inability to articulate to the development community how culture is such an important part of development and I know I speak for some of our academic colleagues who are here with us as well that we will be taking that forward as a challenge to say how can we produce the evidence and link into not only the financial business cases for projects but the case for building that culture and social capital a third level of impact I believe we've had is in the bilateral relationships and conversations that have taken place in my own case it's the MOU with our friends from Nigeria and the honourable minister on that but I know there are many many others that have taken place and the final level of impact which again we've just alluded to over the last few minutes is one about our role as not only leaders of culture in our own nations but globally as well particularly in the world as the way it is in some parts at the moment and I'd like to remind us that of course the world has not always been peaceful and happy if you think back to 1940 which was the year we got our Royal Charter my UK colleagues are very tired of me talking about some of the founding principles of the British Council which were articulated in this document which is our very first annual report from 1940 and it talks about the annihilation of distance bringing civilisations into dispute it talks about neighbourliness having expanded over time from the person in the county next door being a foreigner to our neighbours being in the Americas and on the China seas and being able to sit down and write that in 1940 quite literally as the bombs were falling I thought was an act of cultural bravery and saying once we are through this what we need to do is promote the interchange of knowledge of ideas and discoveries to create a basis of what they described as friendly knowledge and understanding between peoples because if we want to make that world a better place, a more prosperous place and a safer place I think as the cultural community what we can do in terms of cultural relations cultural diplomacy the exchange of ideas is incredibly valuable for the world that we are living in today so a few thank yous if I may first of all to our partners to Fiona Hyslop as the Cabinet Secretary for Culture who has been tremendously supportive Matt Hancock from the UK Government and his peers and colleagues who have also been very supportive the Edinburgh Festival Fergus Sir Jonathan Mills of course without whom we wouldn't be here at all but I also hope that we've demonstrated that the City of Edinburgh Scotland, the United Kingdom it also is intent on being this outward looking international globally engaged community community community community community community community community globally engaged community so I hope that you have had a fabulous time that we promise to write up the findings, we promise to make sure that we drive this impact forward and continue these conversations but the very last thank you is to each and every one of you for every word that has been said every idea that has been shared and if I can wish you safe travels home and I look forward to working with you all in the future to the Parliament itself who provided these amazing amazing facilities thank you I'd like to ask Fergus Lyonhan to step up to continue the vote of thanks Fergus is the director of the Edinburgh Festival and immediately take that point between 2014 to popular and critical acclaim thank you very much excellencies, ladies and gentlemen on behalf of Joanna Baker and I and all of our sister festivals I want to thank you for your contribution to the summit and for your participation in our 2016 festival season as Matt Hancock just said we launched our season this year with the expression welcome world blazened across many of the city's major buildings these bright yellow banners served to make up for some of the lack of sunshine throughout the month but I think more pertently a sort of a slogan for the distillation of what we're trying to achieve here in August and indeed what has been achieved here over the past few days what seems particularly appropriate about this summit is that it takes place in the midst of so much artistic expression and I think that has given us a connection with those whose work is enlivening and enriching our communities and has given the whole discussion around cultural policy a really practical edge I come here before you today as a curator and a producer and a cultural entrepreneur and throughout this city this month there are men and women of extraordinary drive and energy they've committed time, energy creativity and money and have stepped into what is the most competitive cultural environment in the world because they passionately believe that they have something to say that the world needs to hear and that the cultural managers are in my experience some of the most hardworking business people I've ever encountered they take extraordinary risks and overcome extraordinary adversity I think it's very fitting that the work of the partners is supported by the summit foundation which is a group of leading business people entrepreneurs and companies led as Cairn said by Sir Angus Crossard because indeed the mind and the spirit of the entrepreneur and the spirit of the artist have much in common so as we move toward the closing of the summit I would like to thank and pay tribute to the dancers, the actors the musicians, the visual artists the writers, the choreographers and designers we remain first and foremost at your service so thank you so much when this festival finishes on Monday we start the next festival the following day there have been extraordinary conversations there are three very practical things I'm going to take away which will affect my work on Tuesday morning things to do with leadership to do with evaluation and data and to do with risk I think what is very clear at the moment is that there are extraordinary opportunities but there is extraordinary complexity and can I just congratulate Jonathan on the edition of the youth forum because I think it's brought home certainly to me a level of complexity that these people are going to have in terms of their future is far more dense than that which I have encountered and there is an enormous responsibility on us in terms of mentoring and the development of future leadership and I think that has really come home to me throughout this summit and it's something I think that we will need to work on very very carefully particularly with regard to our view to the year of young people in Scotland in 2018 so there are great opportunities that we need to start thinking about and working in that regard the second is to do with data and evaluation and certainly the comments of Professor Mike Power and the questions of how we measure and how we quantify success the recent studies in relation to the impact of Edinburgh's festivals were very valuable but in a two fold sense they were very valuable because they illustrated the particular benefits that accrue to Scotland and the UK but also because it was the same measures that we had done five years earlier which meant that it was more than just simply a case of advocating it was actually a measure of where we're going and where we're succeeding and where we have worked to do and it did occur to me that all of us need to work together on shared methodologies and data collection so that we can not only advocate but also begin to measure the changes that are undoubtedly happening in our cultural geographies of the third again Mike Power was talking about risk and talking about it in a very open way and mentioned the discomfort sometimes that we have talking about the nature of risk so I just thought I'd tell you a quick story about the origins of this festival which you may not have heard because it almost didn't happen despite the commitment of the British Council and the City of Edinburgh Council our City of Edinburgh Council yet that the funding for the festival was not fully in place in the run up to it and that was until the Earl of Rosebury who lives outside of Edinburgh and many house stepped forward and an extraordinary stroke of luck his horse won the derby and he donated the winnings to the festival so to make something like this happen certainly involved the commitment of local government, of national government of the community here but it also required our horse to come home so but of course the real reason for the longevity of this festival and as we head toward our 70th anniversary next year when we hope we'll see you all really strikes to the heart of what the last few days have been about in 1949 the Scottish Nobel Laureate Sir John Boyd or proposed that our festival be considered for the Nobel Prize and in his citation he wrote the following which certainly still feels as relevant today as it did then he wrote, ought that we can do together men and women from all parts of the world ought that we can do to assist them in finding a common interest and mutual understanding in the revelation of music and art of the great masters ought that we can do to establish an incorruptible love of truth to create a lofty spirit of freedom and to blend a moral and intellectual guiding force in the future of the world ought that we can do in this respect will meet the greatest need of mankind and will meet the greatest gift upon a wavering civilisation thank you very much thank you very much Fergus now we began the day with some dance and we're going to move to a conclusion with some music I'm delighted to have the opportunity to introduce to you a fantastic act the Cape Town Ensemble there were winners of the 2013 international opera awards chorus of the year they have gone from the townships of Johannesburg to the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle and over the last two years the chorus of song in the Netherlands Bordeaux, Perth, Munich and Barcelona and they have a programme this year of over 100 performances in Cape Town, France, Germany, Italy the UK and Argentina so please welcome the Cape Town Ensemble what a fantastic note to end on I noticed the delegates are joining in there by the way there's two spaces in the choir available I believe now can I ask to conclude our summit Sir Jonathan Mills, the programme director to come up and to address us all Sir Jonathan, thank you very much ladies and gentlemen I'm kind of overwhelmed by what I've heard I'm enriched by what you've shared I'm inspired by the journeys you've made there are some practical things for us to do to capture some of the energy some of the opportunities some of the challenges that we have all articulated we will be in touch we will write up the findings we will bring you into a kind of communion if you like of conversations not as a memento of what we've done but as an opportunity to continue the discussions that we've had here and put many of them into practice you come as I said in my opening remarks to a place that prides itself on its practicality prides itself on its empirical traditions of observation over hunch and I think that one of the challenges that we all have is to take all of the intuitions that we know to be so true about our world and to translate those into actions of real change I look forward to your company in 2018 thank you for coming to the third Edinburgh International Culture Summit thank you also to the British Council to the Edinburgh International Festival and to indeed the festival for providing such a wonderful closing note you can of course hear the chorus you just heard in a production of Cosi Fan Tute I wouldn't be the festival director past if I hadn't promoted that and it's on tomorrow afternoon there are still tickets to be bought of course I want to thank the Scottish Government and Minister Hyslop who has been our minister for the duration of these summits so it's great that you have been a very important contribution to this I want to thank the United Kingdom Government to both Andrew Dunlop and Matt Hancock for their support the British Council is an extraordinary resource for this country but it's actually a resource for many of your countries as well and I'm delighted that we have been able to make much more of that extraordinary resource that is the British Council they keep British enterprises honest about the reality of the world and they open the world up to Britain as well so to Ciaran Devane to Rod Pride and their teams all over the world quite literally thank you a heartfelt thanks for the incredible support and connections you've made on behalf of this summit and finally to thank those who put it together there's an incredibly talented team both here at the Parliament Roy Devon and a team in the Parliament Ewan Mackenzie and a team at the Scottish Government Ben Spencer and Lisa Barrett and the team at the Edinburgh International Culture Summit Foundation all contributing hugely to the success of this summit a few family secrets to be shared with us afterwards as you would expect but I hope that you have enjoyed their care and consideration while you've been in Edinburgh and of course that's the case because for nearly 70 years this is a city that has learnt an enormous amount about opening its mind and heart to the world and I hope that that's what you take away with you the generosity of spirit that is the particular particular legacy of this festival and this place over nearly 70 years thank you for coming to be with us I hope that you will come back Thank you Jonathan, enjoy the rest of Edinburgh I wish you all a safe journey home and I'll close this summit