02/02/2005

Smith highlights the value of creativity to business

Culture, Arts and Leisure Minister Angela Smith last night emphasised the importance of promoting connections between the arts and business sectors to help both prosper and thrive in the future.

The Minister was speaking at Hillsborough Castle, where she was hosting a dinner for those organisations and their sponsoring businesses whose partnerships were recognised in the annual Arts & Business Awards Ceremony held last month.

Congratulating all the winners, Ms Smith said: "The arts can nurture a wide range of skills such as creativity, imagination, flexibility, self-confidence and self-reliance. They help to build relationships, communication and individual self-esteem, all attributes which are increasingly important in today’s rapidly changing workplace.

"The ability to work in teams, to mix old and new ideas, to identify problems and think laterally to find new solutions is increasingly important in all walks of life.

"Therefore, the cultural and creative industries have a vital role to play in breeding this wider capacity for creativity, as such skills are invaluable to business to help them remain competitive and achieve their objectives."

The Minister assured her guests that her Department shared with Arts & Business a commitment to develop Northern Ireland’s cultural capital and to promote connections between the arts and business sectors.

Arts & Business is a national charity which aims to help build communities by developing creative partnerships between businesses and the arts. It is a membership organisation which operates across the UK through a network of 17 offices.

(MB/SP)

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