Midtjylland

Number of support organisations in the region: 8
Global creativity index – GCI, country level: 0.878 (2015)
Regional Entrepreneurship Development Index – REDI: 58.2 (2017)

There are several initiatives to increase the growth in CCI throughout the region, especially around the Aarhus area. In 2018, the mapping of the Creative and Cultural Industries in Region Midt was part of political initiatives to understand the potential and growth barriers for creative businesses in Central Denmark. For example, Filmby Aarhus, a local hub for creative and cultural businesses, has been active in promoting the film industry. The hub’s strategy to 2020 called The Big Picture, centres around facilitating the meeting between digital creative content and traditional sectors who can benefit from using digital content, and it describes how businesses and education within the digital visual sector play an active role in community development in Denmark today.

In Region Midt, there are ca. 5.670 creative businesses. These enterprises make up 12 % of all business within the region, and 14 % of the region’s export shares.  The key regional CCI sub-sectors in Region Midt are Architecture, Design, Digital Visual Industries, Performing Arts and Cultural Heritage. Businesses from the digital visual industry are known for being especially smart at creating empathy and interaction with the help of audio-visual narratives – and it is precisely these skills that are the decisive components in three current trends in the community economy. In recent years, Region Midt has increased its focus on developing CCI and related business initiatives. Cross-cultural partnerships such as Kulturby 2017 (Culture City) has proven to be an important driver for CCI development in the region. Kulturby 2017 was a collective project between Aarhus and 18 other municipalities in the Central Denmark Region, when Aarhus was selected European Capital of Culture in 2017. The project funded cultural and creative initiatives across the region with a 159,1 million Euro increase in turnover for the private sector resulting in ca. 2000 new full-time employments. Such cross-cultural partnerships have proven to be vital for the further business development of the CCI in the region.

The CCI sector’s main international links are shown in Table 1. The regional CCI participates in collaborations with public cultural heritage institutions such as ARoS (Aarhus Art Museum), MOMU (Moesgaard Museum of Ethnography), libraries and more. Regional CCI also participate in several international fairs, creating business links across the BSR region. These include:

Apart from Filmby Aarhus, in the Region Midt there are 5 more “hubs” and 2 large CCI companies.

The Danish Arts Foundation offers more than 60 different funding programs, they fund the production and promotion of both visual arts, film, literature, music, performing arts, architecture, crafts and design – and all that transcends the borders of these art forms. Danish design and architecture is world renowned, and in recent years the Danish fashion & clothing sector has seen significantly increasing revenue and internationalization. Danish films and TV programmes have won numerous international awards, which has helped attract tourists and talent to the country as well as strengthening Denmark's international brand as a creative nation. Internationally, the creative industries have seen strong growth in the past decade, reflecting factors such as new information and communication technologies.

The establishment and development of CCI in Region Midt can be summed up in four main tendencies, which both represent possibilities as well as challenges for further growth:

1. CCI in Region Midt and in Denmark in general, has been dependent on a strong political engagement to secure and support cultural production, especially through public service broadcasting and proactive cultural policy. This continues to influence the political focus and support for CCI in Denmark. It is evident, that public funding and policy remains crucial to the development of private CCI and promoting cultural work and products.
2. An enhanced political focus is detected on supporting the DVI sub-sectors. Other sub-sectors such as Performing Arts (Theatres, Dance and Music) and Cultural Heritage (Museums and libraries) are mainly publicly funded institutions, whereas DVI is mainly driven by private entrepreneurship, and proves to be a high-potential economic growth area for cross-sectoral collaboration as well. Also, the export potential of DVI products have proven to be a political and industrial focus.
3. Cross-sectoral and cross-cultural partnerships have proven to be vital for the further business development of the CCI in the region. Projects such as Kulturby 2017 and business initiatives such as Filmby Aarhus drive the incubator environments in many sub-sectors. Local business clusters have proven to increase the awareness and business development potential in many regional municipalities.
4. Copenhagen is still the main hub and main work environment for CCI industries in Denmark. The imbalance between regional CCI and Copenhagen in terms of influence and decision-making is a main issue. Thus, the network for CCI related work and employment has yet to prove its full potential due to a smaller work force and un-developed working culture in various sub-sectors. Regional CCI needs to maintain a sustainable production volume to retain talent and businesses, and to define its own unique profile so that regional CCI becomes the first port of call for international collaborations.

1. _{Kulturministeriet (2012): Danske museer i tal.}
2. _{Kulturministeriet (2015): Folkebiblioteker i tal.}
3. _{Meyer; Andersen (2017): Analyse af de kreative erhverv. https://www.danskerhverv.dk/siteassets/mediafolder/downloads/analysenotater-2017/analysenotat---analyse-af-de-kreative-erhverv-september-2017}
4. _{Producentforeningen (2018): Danske Indholdsproducenter i tal: https://pro-f.dk/sites/pro-f.dk/files/side/Danske%20Indholdsproducenter%20i%20tal%202018_0.pdf}
5. _{Regeringen (2013): Danmark I Arbejde. Vækstplan for kreative erhverv.}
6. _{Vision Denmark (n.e): Strategi for Danmarks digitale visuelle industry. Fra en verden I tekst til en verden i billeder}
7. _{Vækstteam for kreative erhverv til Regeringen (2018): Danmark: Et international førende vækstmiljø for kreative erhverv}
8. _{Filmby Aarhus (2016): The Big Picture. Fra filmby I Aarhus til samfundsudvikling I Danmark https://issuu.com/filmbyaarhus/docs/thebigpicture}
9. _{Filmby Aarhus (2018): Film skal ses I virkeligheden. En håndbog om filmturisme https://dagsorden-og-referater.brk.dk/Sites/Politiske_Internet/Internet/2018/InfRef7926-bilag/Bilag1826416.PDF}
10. _{First Motion (2012): Value Chains and Business Models in the Audiovisual Sector in the North and Central Denmark Regions.}
11. _{More Creative (2018): Omfanget og betydningen af den kreative økonomi I Region Midtjylland og Danmark. Seismonaut}
12. _{https://businessaarhus.dk/om-aarhus/styrkepositioner-i-aarhus/kreative-erhverv/}
13. _{Aarhus2017 (2017): Welcome Future. Short-term impact of European Capital of Culture Aarhus 2017:}
14. _{http://www.aarhus2017.dk/media/12979/welcome_future_eng_online.pdf}