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Leandro Valiati

A distinguished global leader in creative and cultural industries, academic research and evidence for policy. Currently based at The University of Manchester, shaping the next generation of policy and industry leaders in this critical sector.

Held academic appointments and led collaborative projects at prestigious institutions worldwide: UFRGS (Brazil), University of Valencia (Spain), Queen Mary University of London (UK), and Labex-ICCA at Université Sorbonne Paris Nord (France).

Recognised for Exceptional Talent and Global Leadership in Creative Industries by the British Academy. Currently serving in advisory and governance roles at the Policy and Evidence Centre for Creative Industries (AHRC/RSA/Newcastle University), British Academy, Global Council for Creative Economy (British Council), UNESCO as Expert for Reshaping Cultural Policies, and the College of Experts at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Author of "The Political Economy of the Creative and Cultural Industries" (Routledge, 2024), laying the foundations to rethink policy and academic approaches to multidimensional development based on CCIs in the 21st century.

Publications

The Political Economy of CCIs (forthcoming February/25)

Research Projects

Evaluations Arts-Based Participatory Research

Relative Values I

Funder: AHRC- UK. Relative Values set out to construct a new narrative about the socioeconomic impacts generated by cultural activities, through a co-creative research partnership with four arts organizations in Britain and Brazil. It represents the first steps towards building a system of multidimensional indicators that can calibrate, identify, record and disseminate elements derived from cultural practices that seek to make real and transformational change within the contexts where they work.

The focus of this pilot project has been to build indicators in collaboration with all of the arts organisations and to work with them to produce and analyse data that would quantify elements of their impact. The results that the indicators from the pilot provide are not definitive, and do not allow statistical inferences about the participants in the study: it is intended that the indicators created here will be consolidated through future iterations of the research methodology.

Beyond Exchange

Funder: AHRC UK. Beyond Exchange (Relative Values II) aimed to adapt the Relative Values methodologies so that they could be used at a micro-scale by artists and cultural producers working in fragile urban territories subject to multiple stress-factors (socio-economic exclusion, high levels of violence, etc) in Brazil.

In the project, we engaged 40 participants who produced coherent and comparable data about what their projects achieve, resulting in the application of over 1,000 quantitative questionnaires with residents from Rio de Janeiro’s most vulnerable and socially excluded communities. The research has produced unique evidence of engagement in arts practices by a population that is usually disregarded by any standard measurements of cultural engagement, enabling new data to inform evidence-based policy making.

Counting Culture

Funder: British Academy (Newton Funding). What do we need to know about how the creative economy can deliver equitable, just and sustainable development in Brazil and the UK? This literature review looks to understand developments in UK cultural policy between 1919 and 2020, and focuses on three questions: What defines the UK’s cultural policy model? How have policies been implemented and evolved over this period of time? Who enacts UK cultural policy?

Counting Culture (short report II)

Public Spending on Cultural Initiatives in Brazil and the UK. This bulletin analyses the policies of Arts Council England and the Brazilian Government and their investment in the creative sector between 2008 and 2019. Specifically, it asks: What is each country’s cultural policy? How does it operate? What reporting data is available? How are the resources allocated in different regions? The bulletin ends with a comparative analysis of the extent to which each country’s funding mechanism succeeds in delivering its policy aims and of the challenges ahead.

Counting Culture (short report III)

The response to the global COVID-19 pandemic – including stay-at-home orders and social distancing – wreaked havoc on the world economy. The creative and cultural sectors that rely on public attendance were particularly hard hit. This bulletin asks: How was the labour market in the cultural industries affected by COVID-19 in Brazil and the UK? What measures were taken by the respective governments to alleviate the impact of the pandemic on the creative and cultural sectors, and what are their main impacts so far?

Arts, Cities and Policy

Lead academic (Prof. Doris Sommer, Harvard). The Certificate bridges the needs of public policy and civil society with the creative energy of the arts. Together, we develop social capital and sustain growth in politics, economics, and culture. Economists and policymakers seldom factor arts and humanities into their recommendations and decisions. This forfeits significant resources for development. Art is an alternative to addiction, illiteracy, and boredom. And thinking about artistic choices develops the 21st Century skills that serve science as well as civics: Creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication sustain both technological innovation and democracy.

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Media

AFAC - Beirute 2019

Conferences & Public Lectures

Tashkent (UZ), World Forum of Creative Industries, 2024
Almaty (KAZ), Creative Almaty, Global Creative Economy Council, 2024
Cambridge (USA), Harvard Rockefeller Centre for Latin America, 2024
Austin (USA), South by Southwest Festival, 2024, the UK House
Austin (USA), South by Southwest Festival, 2024, Sao Paulo House
Cairo (Egypt), International Council of Creative Industries Forum, British Council, 2023.
San Antonio (USA), Certificate Cities Programme, 2023
Istanbul (Turkey). Global Creative Industries Forum, British Council, 2022.
Pretoria (South Africa). South African Cultural Observatory (SACO) 4th International Conference Creative Economy Reset: Structuring the Creative and Cultural Industries for a Sustainable and Inclusive Future. Invited Main Speaker. 2022.
Rome (Italy). G20 Culture Webinar on Building capacity through training and education “Human Capital - The Driver of Culture-led Regeneration”, 2021.
Paris (France), Cultural Policy, what’s new?, MSH Nord, 2020.
Beirut (Lebanon), Cultural Entities Operating in Crisis Contexts, Antwark, 2020.

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Email

leandro.valiati@gmail.com

Socials

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