COMMUNICATION AND VISIBILITY ASSETS
The proposed socio-cultural marketing of the creative network will be linked closely with the areas of economy, industry, collectives, organized civil society, youth movements, and training of children in the area of social communication. The states of tourism, culture, and education in the city and between the governments of the countries belonging to the creative cities network will be stimulated by programs and exchanges of cultural innovation which will drive the creative economy of the south-east region of Mexico.
Programs will seek to encourage participation and exchange between civil society organizations, artists, artisans, scholars, government agencies, and entrepreneurs of member countries of the network as promoted in the "Annual meeting of research on social economic development through cultural assets” within the framework of the Congress of Creative Cities.[1] Furthermore, as endorsed in this publication, the city will publicize the rich craftsmanship of city neighborhoods and indigenous communities surrounding the city. This will, first of all, share the local experience in making handicrafts and, in time, share experiences of other member cities of the network.
The "International Exhibition of Indigenous Traditional Ball Games" and the culinary event, "Flavors of the Mayan Highlands of Chiapas in the World," which will include cultivation and food preparation workshops, tastings in museums, and guided tours, will both allow indigenous communities to interact with the tourism experience and allow economic flow between grassroots organizations of the city through interactive games and dinners styled on the pre-Columbian, Colonial, Baroque, and nineteenth century eras, taking place in historic buildings.
Another program to be promoted will be an international meeting to advocate children's rights to culture and dignity, which will be called “Mueve tu mundo” (Move Your World). It will include a degree program in interdisciplinary and intercultural development strategies in education through arts and crafts, and will be aimed at artisans, cooperatives, foundations, managers, academics, government officials, artists, promoters, and NGOs, among others.
The city will also seek to consolidate annually a week of community sociocultural intervention in the traditional neighborhoods of the city, including, in addition to their own neighborhood parties, craft markets, itinerant libraries, traveling museums, and workshops that promote crafts particular to the barrio. During the craft workshops, the general public can become "artisans for a day", and thus understand the processes of craftsmanship of each neighborhood.
There is proposed an “week of international music of the South," a festival of music and oral tradition around the themes of peace and cultural freedom. There will be a program of concerts in public spaces, buildings, and museums of the city, accompanied by meetings of oral tradition storytellers and dance evenings.
Another program will be to declare one month out of the year a celebration of creative cities, organizing a fair and awards ceremony to bestow the "jaguar de humo" (jaguar of smoke) to the agents of the best social practices through art and culture. These activities will include an international exposition of contemporary art and new designs in crafts and folk art from the countries of the network, to be sponsored by the International Committee of Tourism of Cultural Experiences 2015, San Cristóbal de Las Casas.
With an international scope, there will be the encouragement of participation in citizens' networks in those countries that promote access to cultural property with an inclusive and innovative focus. Taking, as the main protagonists, the people of the city itself (craftspeople, artists, managers, promoters, writers, architects, etc.), the creative sustainability of city management and economic and social development of the region will be promoted. This would include the facilitation of new models of local, transparent, and participatory governance. From grassroots development and local action expanding to global connections, the capabilities and skills of the people and changes in the community perception of epistemology of ways of living and being will result in an unlimited field of relationships and possibilities of building the social fabric.
Nationally, the participation of academic institutions to create a "Congress of Craft and Folk Art in Mexico" will be promoted, allowing craftsmen of the country to share their practices and experiences on topics of production, marketing, and creation of craft and folk art in different regions of the country. This will contribute to the promotion and enhancement of the various crafts of the country.
Relevant to socio cultural marketing, these proposals seek to modify not only the way we communicate about the creative processes in the city of San Cristobal de Las Casas and productivity, but to gradually transform the way all social actors are included within the same process.
The creation of sustainable and viable strategies which are able to generate material and immaterial cultural exchange with other cities that form part of the Network of Creative Cities is andoverarching goal. Generating this exchange will also promote an increase in the quality of life of people, mainly women, as children, youth, and adults. As well, this cultural exchange will strengthen social identities with its socio-cultural links. That is to say that it strengthens the union of diversity of ethnic or indigenous peoples, particularly in contact with other social groups, outwardly enhancing inclusion and the prospect of full citizenship within their cultures, regions, and nations.
Purpose
To position San Cristobal de Las Casas, as a creative city, as an engine for social and economic development through culture, particularly crafts and folk art, and to promote the city as participant and international leader in the actions and production networks of the south-southeast.
Name of the Campaign
"Vive San Cristóbal, su cultura y su gente" (Long live San Cristóbal, its culture and people)
Positioning axes and international feedback.
· "International Meeting of research on social economic development through cultural property" within the framework of Creative Cities 2015
Congress SCLC.
· "International Exhibition of Traditional Indigenous Ball Games."
· "Congress of Craft and Folk Art in Mexico"
· “Flavors of Mayan Highlands of Chiapas in the world,” gastronomic exposition in historic architectural spaces.
· "International meeting to advocate children's right to culture, education, and dignity: Mueve tu mundo (Move your world)."
· An week of community sociocultural intervention in traditional neighborhoods, the barrios, with neighborhood parties, cultural markets, and
traveling libraries and museums.
· "The week of the international music of the South," a festival of music and oral tradition around the themes of peace and cultural freedom.
· Exposition of contemporary art and new designs in craft and popular culture of the countries of the network.
· International Congress of Cultural Experience Tourism 2015, San Cristóbal de Las Casas.
· "The month of creative cities," with an installation of a network pavilions representing each of the creative cities in the network; this will include
an exhibition of the entrepreneurs and the “smoke jaguar” award for the best social practices through arts and culture. This will foment an annual
cycle of innovations in the processes of cultural exchange and development.
It is worth emphasizing that the inclusion of San Cristobal de Las Casas in the creative network would initiate the creation of a new socio-cultural corridor of trade and international creative economy, promoting the international appreciation of culture as a development strategy.
Proposed elements of the social marketing campaign:
Actions:
a) Publicity. Programs will seek to position the intangible value of the culture of the highlands of Chiapas as an engine for social and economic development that will be advertised through "radio creativity" on local radio programs, generated by young entrepreneurs of communication, audiovisual media, web, social networks, and itinerant cinema screening and forums. The promotion of new technologies in non-formal modes and the incorporation of these social communities, in neighborhoods and regionally, will be utilized as a means for building an inclusive, participatory and well-organized social fabric.
b) Promotion. This will include the encouragement of educational institutions at all levels, mainly public, to organize campaigns of improvement, conservation, and community innovation in strategic public spaces of the city, neighborhoods, and districts, in concert with businesses and government agencies, to raise awareness of the diverse forms of creative networks as part of the social fabric; to include concerts, workshops, and guided tours by bike, on foot, and through the tour operators in the city.
These actions will seek to create mechanisms for communication and marketing, especially using Information Technology, which will generate information about the city and its arts and crafts activities. Each neighborhood will have an information profile that may be accessed using scannable QR codes by devices such as phones or tablets and which will provide more detailed information about each neighborhood and its artisan traditions to serve as virtual guides. Signage will be installed, including scannable codes, to provide appropriate spaces and routes in the city with interpretive information. The program will include the launching of a touristic web-based application (“app”) and website representing all aspects of the creative city with virtual mall links.
· Cultural experience tourism and contact in the city, towns, countryside, communities, and surrounding municipalities. Visitors will be able to experience, in close contact, the traditional indigenous life, inclusive of day-to-day activities, such as firewood collection, composting, and food preparation. They will also experience the practice of traditional craftwork, such as embroidery, loom weaving, sheep shearing, and wool yarn production and dying. Tours will be organized of the areas of the city and surrounding communities where the arts and crafts are produced. You will be able to visit the neighborhoods and trade schools in the city which produce the finest crafts and folk art, including music, textiles, wood carving, jewelry, stonework, ironwork, pottery, plaster, stucco, etc., testing the use of a tool and skills to produce the product. This “artisan for a day” program will seek to enrich the touristic experience by making it “hands on” and “side by side” with the master craftspeople in their homes and workshops. Also, at night, you will be able to see a creative diversity of cultural works and players, taking place in and giving life to the historical buildings of the city.
· Product of Crafts and Folk Art. The management proposal of the creative city and its models of economic and social development are embodied in the campaign slogan: "The best of San Cristobal de Las Casas and its people." Placed in the hands of all of the stakeholders in the city, the many facets of this program will seek to boost the socio-economic growth and creative innovation to be disseminated internationally. The latest technologies will come into play through the inclusion of web-based networks of cultural producers from all productive sectors of the city, including the services of hotels, restaurants, galleries, museums, national parks, touristic routes, and municipal services, as well as information about and points of contact with handicrafts and traditional art forms in order to bring capital investment from the international community to San Cristobal de Las Casas and its people.
Disclosure of the particular experiences of infants, adolescents, young people, and parents concerning the growth and improvement of their communities will be promoted through conferences and alternative media in communities in order to foster productive organization, via the recognition of their talents, identities, and creativity. Experiences of intercultural exchange will enrich the participants in mutual benefit.
The “plaza”, referring to the place where artistic, craft, and folk art products will be positioned, promoted, advertised, appreciated, and acquired, will include the contributions by organized groups of civil society, academics, researchers, craft and cultural cooperative groups, government agents, and citizens. The restoration of the plaza to these services will serve mainly to recover public and community spaces for cultural uses. Craftworks and exhibitions will manifestly occupy the aforementioned spaces through neighborhood, regional, national, and international trade fairs, trade exhibitions, symposiums, competitions, food fairs, and cultural corridors, among other events.
An ambition of these processes is the transformation of the current production and marketing networks that connect producers with consumers into novel forms that favor the holistic development of cultural identity and exercise.
There are already censuses compiled by local organizations and international agencies working in development processes in the city, which may be utilized in the development of directories that identify works, artisans, and iconic centers in the region. The promotion of the production of these directories will be included as contributions of reference materials to the creative network.
Each local, national or international body will function as a node that multiplies the effects of the network itself. The city will be inclusive in its management proposals, recognizing that all actors of society must be represented in the decision-making processes of the city.
In the creation of the calendar of activities and directory of producers, a great part of the work will come from the wealth of experience and cultural richness of the well-organized Centro de Textiles del Mundo Maya A.C. (Textile Center of the Maya World Civil Association) and their department of Communication-Development, which is responsible for maintaining the presence of a local media center. There will also be reliance on the support of Banamex, the Network of Museums of Chiapas, the Magical Towns Committee, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), and the State Government of Chiapas. The concerted participation and services of Mayan textiles collectives, thematic museums in the region, restaurants, hotels, etc. will also add to the collaborative process of achieving the proposed programs. Hence, it will be essential to have the support of international agencies and to form cooperating agreements between governments, as well as agreements with tour operators and civil society.
Of course, this is just the beginning. We are confident that this application will act as an example and replica engine for other cities in Mexico in the enhancement of artisanal and artistic practices. We seek to sow the seeds of transformation, securement, and conservation of the culture of our people.[2]
Programs will seek to encourage participation and exchange between civil society organizations, artists, artisans, scholars, government agencies, and entrepreneurs of member countries of the network as promoted in the "Annual meeting of research on social economic development through cultural assets” within the framework of the Congress of Creative Cities.[1] Furthermore, as endorsed in this publication, the city will publicize the rich craftsmanship of city neighborhoods and indigenous communities surrounding the city. This will, first of all, share the local experience in making handicrafts and, in time, share experiences of other member cities of the network.
The "International Exhibition of Indigenous Traditional Ball Games" and the culinary event, "Flavors of the Mayan Highlands of Chiapas in the World," which will include cultivation and food preparation workshops, tastings in museums, and guided tours, will both allow indigenous communities to interact with the tourism experience and allow economic flow between grassroots organizations of the city through interactive games and dinners styled on the pre-Columbian, Colonial, Baroque, and nineteenth century eras, taking place in historic buildings.
Another program to be promoted will be an international meeting to advocate children's rights to culture and dignity, which will be called “Mueve tu mundo” (Move Your World). It will include a degree program in interdisciplinary and intercultural development strategies in education through arts and crafts, and will be aimed at artisans, cooperatives, foundations, managers, academics, government officials, artists, promoters, and NGOs, among others.
The city will also seek to consolidate annually a week of community sociocultural intervention in the traditional neighborhoods of the city, including, in addition to their own neighborhood parties, craft markets, itinerant libraries, traveling museums, and workshops that promote crafts particular to the barrio. During the craft workshops, the general public can become "artisans for a day", and thus understand the processes of craftsmanship of each neighborhood.
There is proposed an “week of international music of the South," a festival of music and oral tradition around the themes of peace and cultural freedom. There will be a program of concerts in public spaces, buildings, and museums of the city, accompanied by meetings of oral tradition storytellers and dance evenings.
Another program will be to declare one month out of the year a celebration of creative cities, organizing a fair and awards ceremony to bestow the "jaguar de humo" (jaguar of smoke) to the agents of the best social practices through art and culture. These activities will include an international exposition of contemporary art and new designs in crafts and folk art from the countries of the network, to be sponsored by the International Committee of Tourism of Cultural Experiences 2015, San Cristóbal de Las Casas.
With an international scope, there will be the encouragement of participation in citizens' networks in those countries that promote access to cultural property with an inclusive and innovative focus. Taking, as the main protagonists, the people of the city itself (craftspeople, artists, managers, promoters, writers, architects, etc.), the creative sustainability of city management and economic and social development of the region will be promoted. This would include the facilitation of new models of local, transparent, and participatory governance. From grassroots development and local action expanding to global connections, the capabilities and skills of the people and changes in the community perception of epistemology of ways of living and being will result in an unlimited field of relationships and possibilities of building the social fabric.
Nationally, the participation of academic institutions to create a "Congress of Craft and Folk Art in Mexico" will be promoted, allowing craftsmen of the country to share their practices and experiences on topics of production, marketing, and creation of craft and folk art in different regions of the country. This will contribute to the promotion and enhancement of the various crafts of the country.
Relevant to socio cultural marketing, these proposals seek to modify not only the way we communicate about the creative processes in the city of San Cristobal de Las Casas and productivity, but to gradually transform the way all social actors are included within the same process.
The creation of sustainable and viable strategies which are able to generate material and immaterial cultural exchange with other cities that form part of the Network of Creative Cities is andoverarching goal. Generating this exchange will also promote an increase in the quality of life of people, mainly women, as children, youth, and adults. As well, this cultural exchange will strengthen social identities with its socio-cultural links. That is to say that it strengthens the union of diversity of ethnic or indigenous peoples, particularly in contact with other social groups, outwardly enhancing inclusion and the prospect of full citizenship within their cultures, regions, and nations.
Purpose
To position San Cristobal de Las Casas, as a creative city, as an engine for social and economic development through culture, particularly crafts and folk art, and to promote the city as participant and international leader in the actions and production networks of the south-southeast.
Name of the Campaign
"Vive San Cristóbal, su cultura y su gente" (Long live San Cristóbal, its culture and people)
Positioning axes and international feedback.
· "International Meeting of research on social economic development through cultural property" within the framework of Creative Cities 2015
Congress SCLC.
· "International Exhibition of Traditional Indigenous Ball Games."
· "Congress of Craft and Folk Art in Mexico"
· “Flavors of Mayan Highlands of Chiapas in the world,” gastronomic exposition in historic architectural spaces.
· "International meeting to advocate children's right to culture, education, and dignity: Mueve tu mundo (Move your world)."
· An week of community sociocultural intervention in traditional neighborhoods, the barrios, with neighborhood parties, cultural markets, and
traveling libraries and museums.
· "The week of the international music of the South," a festival of music and oral tradition around the themes of peace and cultural freedom.
· Exposition of contemporary art and new designs in craft and popular culture of the countries of the network.
· International Congress of Cultural Experience Tourism 2015, San Cristóbal de Las Casas.
· "The month of creative cities," with an installation of a network pavilions representing each of the creative cities in the network; this will include
an exhibition of the entrepreneurs and the “smoke jaguar” award for the best social practices through arts and culture. This will foment an annual
cycle of innovations in the processes of cultural exchange and development.
It is worth emphasizing that the inclusion of San Cristobal de Las Casas in the creative network would initiate the creation of a new socio-cultural corridor of trade and international creative economy, promoting the international appreciation of culture as a development strategy.
Proposed elements of the social marketing campaign:
Actions:
a) Publicity. Programs will seek to position the intangible value of the culture of the highlands of Chiapas as an engine for social and economic development that will be advertised through "radio creativity" on local radio programs, generated by young entrepreneurs of communication, audiovisual media, web, social networks, and itinerant cinema screening and forums. The promotion of new technologies in non-formal modes and the incorporation of these social communities, in neighborhoods and regionally, will be utilized as a means for building an inclusive, participatory and well-organized social fabric.
b) Promotion. This will include the encouragement of educational institutions at all levels, mainly public, to organize campaigns of improvement, conservation, and community innovation in strategic public spaces of the city, neighborhoods, and districts, in concert with businesses and government agencies, to raise awareness of the diverse forms of creative networks as part of the social fabric; to include concerts, workshops, and guided tours by bike, on foot, and through the tour operators in the city.
These actions will seek to create mechanisms for communication and marketing, especially using Information Technology, which will generate information about the city and its arts and crafts activities. Each neighborhood will have an information profile that may be accessed using scannable QR codes by devices such as phones or tablets and which will provide more detailed information about each neighborhood and its artisan traditions to serve as virtual guides. Signage will be installed, including scannable codes, to provide appropriate spaces and routes in the city with interpretive information. The program will include the launching of a touristic web-based application (“app”) and website representing all aspects of the creative city with virtual mall links.
· Cultural experience tourism and contact in the city, towns, countryside, communities, and surrounding municipalities. Visitors will be able to experience, in close contact, the traditional indigenous life, inclusive of day-to-day activities, such as firewood collection, composting, and food preparation. They will also experience the practice of traditional craftwork, such as embroidery, loom weaving, sheep shearing, and wool yarn production and dying. Tours will be organized of the areas of the city and surrounding communities where the arts and crafts are produced. You will be able to visit the neighborhoods and trade schools in the city which produce the finest crafts and folk art, including music, textiles, wood carving, jewelry, stonework, ironwork, pottery, plaster, stucco, etc., testing the use of a tool and skills to produce the product. This “artisan for a day” program will seek to enrich the touristic experience by making it “hands on” and “side by side” with the master craftspeople in their homes and workshops. Also, at night, you will be able to see a creative diversity of cultural works and players, taking place in and giving life to the historical buildings of the city.
· Product of Crafts and Folk Art. The management proposal of the creative city and its models of economic and social development are embodied in the campaign slogan: "The best of San Cristobal de Las Casas and its people." Placed in the hands of all of the stakeholders in the city, the many facets of this program will seek to boost the socio-economic growth and creative innovation to be disseminated internationally. The latest technologies will come into play through the inclusion of web-based networks of cultural producers from all productive sectors of the city, including the services of hotels, restaurants, galleries, museums, national parks, touristic routes, and municipal services, as well as information about and points of contact with handicrafts and traditional art forms in order to bring capital investment from the international community to San Cristobal de Las Casas and its people.
Disclosure of the particular experiences of infants, adolescents, young people, and parents concerning the growth and improvement of their communities will be promoted through conferences and alternative media in communities in order to foster productive organization, via the recognition of their talents, identities, and creativity. Experiences of intercultural exchange will enrich the participants in mutual benefit.
The “plaza”, referring to the place where artistic, craft, and folk art products will be positioned, promoted, advertised, appreciated, and acquired, will include the contributions by organized groups of civil society, academics, researchers, craft and cultural cooperative groups, government agents, and citizens. The restoration of the plaza to these services will serve mainly to recover public and community spaces for cultural uses. Craftworks and exhibitions will manifestly occupy the aforementioned spaces through neighborhood, regional, national, and international trade fairs, trade exhibitions, symposiums, competitions, food fairs, and cultural corridors, among other events.
An ambition of these processes is the transformation of the current production and marketing networks that connect producers with consumers into novel forms that favor the holistic development of cultural identity and exercise.
There are already censuses compiled by local organizations and international agencies working in development processes in the city, which may be utilized in the development of directories that identify works, artisans, and iconic centers in the region. The promotion of the production of these directories will be included as contributions of reference materials to the creative network.
Each local, national or international body will function as a node that multiplies the effects of the network itself. The city will be inclusive in its management proposals, recognizing that all actors of society must be represented in the decision-making processes of the city.
In the creation of the calendar of activities and directory of producers, a great part of the work will come from the wealth of experience and cultural richness of the well-organized Centro de Textiles del Mundo Maya A.C. (Textile Center of the Maya World Civil Association) and their department of Communication-Development, which is responsible for maintaining the presence of a local media center. There will also be reliance on the support of Banamex, the Network of Museums of Chiapas, the Magical Towns Committee, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), and the State Government of Chiapas. The concerted participation and services of Mayan textiles collectives, thematic museums in the region, restaurants, hotels, etc. will also add to the collaborative process of achieving the proposed programs. Hence, it will be essential to have the support of international agencies and to form cooperating agreements between governments, as well as agreements with tour operators and civil society.
Of course, this is just the beginning. We are confident that this application will act as an example and replica engine for other cities in Mexico in the enhancement of artisanal and artistic practices. We seek to sow the seeds of transformation, securement, and conservation of the culture of our people.[2]