Cultural development

Culture has been described as the sum total of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features characterizing a given society or social group. Cultural development is thus both a means to, and an end of, general development. Action to promote cultural development comprises:< - Encouragement of artistic creation. Creativity is linked to each particular civilization and is, of all human activities, the one that best assembles, sums up and expresses a civilization.

- Education of the professional artist in order that he may be capable of responding to human needs in a rapidly-changing society and that he is at the same time in touch with the many and ever-evolving art forms.

- Control of the cultural environment. If culture is to help improve the quality of life, cultural problems must be taken into account in urban planning, which should not be based exclusively on economic considerations. Man is obliged either to manage his spatial environment or endure it as a form of alienation.

- Dissemination of cultural products by a wide variety of recording and distribution media. The accelerated development of new techniques, as well as their increasing variety, radically transforms access to culture and its products. Preservation of the cultural heritage of mankind including historic monuments, sites, art objects and other forms of cultural property. Each individual should thus have the opportunity to develop his personality through direct participation in the creation of human values, and thus to control his own situation, whether locally or internationally.