In order to enrich the population’s cultural life and broaden its cultural horizons, the Cultural Affairs Bureau organized the “Lectures by Masters of Culture” programme. This year’s “Lecture by Masters of Culture” was held on Sunday, 30 October at 3pm, at the Macao Science Centre Convention Hall. Hosted by the British keynote speaker Charles Landry, an international authority on the use of imagination and creativity in urban change, known as the “innovator of the creative city concept”, the lecture was entitled “Macao: A Culture of Ambition and Creativity as Catalysts for a Sustainable City”. A large number of people attended in the lecture.
The Acting President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Chan Peng Fai, referred that the lecture not only helped the public understand the concept of “creative city”, but also called people’s attention about the cultural development of Macao. He pointed out that the “MSAR Five-Year Development Plan” has been announced and that the Cultural Affairs Bureau has been making a steady progress in following its guiding vision. Some of its clearly defined goals include the establishment of a new image of a “Cultural Macao” and the strengthening of the city’s competitiveness. Mr. Landry offered us, through his concept of “creativity”, an important source of inspiration.
Charles Landry is an international authority in the use of imagination and creativity in urban change. In the late 1980s, he renewed the concept of “creative city”, focusing on how cities can create conditions for people and organizations to think, plan and act with imagination in solving of problems and in the development of opportunities. The notion, which became a global movement, changed the way cities think about their capabilities and resources. Charles Landry has worked and given talks in over sixty countries and helped change the way to assess and harness the possibilities of reinventing cities. His “Creative City Index” is a powerful tool to measure the creative eco-system of places. His works such as The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators and The Digitized City have met great public demand.
In this lecture, Charles Landry shared successful cases of famous cultural cities across the world, and proved in the lecture that ambition and creativity are the keys to establish a creative city, in addition to cultural events, imagination and creativity that he advocates for urban change. Charles Landry opened new perspectives for all those interested in the establishment of a creative, energetic and liveable city.
The Cultural Affairs Bureau launched the “Lectures by Masters of Culture” in 2013, inviting world famous scholars, artists and individuals from cultural circles to come to Macao and, through the exchange of experiences and the sharing of knowledge, stimulate thoughts with an international outlook, and deepen Macao’s culture, thereby creatively and vigorously contributing for Macao’s cultural development.
