OECD Observer

Culture and art can be such powerful drivers of local development, particularly in today’s digital world. Or as Giorgia Abeltino of Google Arts and Culture puts it in our video, digital can help the local to be global, and connect the global with the local.

Ms Abeltino was speaking at our first-ever OECD Conference on Culture and Local Development in Venice, Italy, when people from every continent gathered to explore the cutting-edge cultural policies that can lift local economies, create jobs, and promote well-being and social cohesion.

For their insights, watch our inspiring 5-minute OECD Video set in Venice, and nearby Marghera and Mestre.

And listen out for an uplifting orchestral finale, the Intermezzo of Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni, which gives resonance to OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría's closing note: "This is why [culture and art] are called public goods, because they satisfy a need, a craving, a legitimate desire for something beyond our trials and tribulations of everyday, our natural need for beauty. "

Culture for local development Culture and art can be powerful drivers of local development, particularly in today’s digital world. At this first ever OECD Conference on Culture and Local ...

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