OECD Culture and Local Development.pdf - PACA

4. THE CULTURAL FABRIC OF CITIES
• Stimulating an entrepreneurial approach to the arts and culture. In the digital
age, conventional public interventions are losing much of their appeal and
their ability to exert leadership, and new processes are now empowering
stakeholders and creators 109 . Culture is the basis of the new economy, and is
giving rise to many creative activities that produce high value-added. The city
becomes creative by using culture as one of its possible levers. We may
introduce here the “bohemian” model, as reflected in the neighbourhoods of
Montmartre, Montparnasse, or SoHo, but giving it today at business-oriented
side.
• Finding new uses for deteriorated or derelict sites.
• Fostering cultural democracy and cultural diversity. This is the urban doctrine
developed by Bianchini, where culture becomes a political rather than an
economic instrument (Bianchini and Parkinson, 1993). With it, new channels and
new means of expression can be created that will allow traditionally marginalised
or even excluded groups or communities to express themselves and enrich public
spaces.
Examples of cultural quarters
Take the museum district of Rotterdam: following the Baltimore model, the city
set out in the late 1980s to renovate an area with museums and to transform the urban
landscape, giving it a new image and a new potential to attract cultural consumers
(Moomas, 2004). There is a museum of fine arts, a museum of contemporary art, the
renovated nature museum, an architecture institute, and an art exhibition space (the
Kunsthal). This district is linked to the western part of the city, where tourists tend
to congregate, by a cultural boulevard lined with art galleries and cafes. Success has
not been complete: some of the galleries have left the quarter, and the prevalence
of “hard investment” at the expense of “soft investment” is often a complaint.
Amsterdam’s Westertgasfabriek, northwest of the city, is a district that was formerly
devoted to coal processing and gas production. Environmental conditions were
dreadful: the soil was polluted and physical spaces were deteriorating. During the
1990s this area was redeveloped to house cultural activities. Renovation was initially
limited, but the project was turned over to a private developer.
The Cultural Industries Quarter of Sheffield was created at private initiative more
than 20 years ago, with the founding of the Yorkshire Art Space Society 110 . It has tried
to take advantage of the existence of many abandoned industrial sites to provide proper
accommodation for artists. The municipal council quickly saw an interest for the city
in having a creative community at its heart, in place of the long-gone traditional
industries. Today, the quarter hums with the activity of nearly 3000 people and 300
CULTURE AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT - ISBN 92-64-00990-6 - © OECD 2005 139