On Saturday, 1 April the City of Amsterdam will receive a unique present. (Let’s assume it’s not a joke.) The Amsterdam Creativity Exchange (ACX) has decided to give the Dutch capital ‘an Alderman for Creativity’. The ACX was established last year and acts as a platform where policy makers, creative enterprises and artists can meet. The ACX feels that Amsterdam is ready for active policy to make the city grow as a creative city. With the new local council just installed the ACX argues that now is the appropriate moment to install a new Alderman who will concentrate on creativity in the city.

The ACX will not, however, present the Alderman in the flesh. He will just exist on paper, as a plan of action that emphasises eight themes: ‘creative breeding ground’, ‘awareness’, ‘cross-linkages’, ‘learning’, ‘diversity’, ‘financing’, ‘international co-operation’ and ‘magnification of success’.

Creative breeding ground is about the preconditions for creative industries to grow. Awareness is about understanding the chances that creative industries offer. Cross-linkages refer to all kinds of unparalleled relations between disciplines, sectors and sub cultures. Learning is the name chosen for the necessity to solve all kinds of multi-disciplinary problems. Diversity and tolerance have been directly taken from Richard Florida’s ideas about the creative society. Financing and international co-operation do not need any further explanation. Finally, magnification of success refers to the necessity to make the world familiar with Amsterdam’s successes.