The Museum of Black Civilisations , which opened in December , aims to reshape the understanding of African history as well as contemporary art from Africa and the diaspora.
Its artists-in-residence programme has hosted the likes of artist Tomma Abts and designer Grace Wales Bonner. More than 8 million people live in this chaotic city of concrete and neon that is rife with political tension. Through rap, graffiti, contemporary art and photography, Thai creatives are increasingly fighting back against censorship.
A new generation of artists and curators are gathering the courage to speak out in new and subversive ways, and have found their voice by creating an anti-dictatorship arts movement. The first Bangkok Art Biennale took place in , as did Ghost , a performance and video festival created by Thai artist Korakrit Arunanondchai. Politically-charged works by street artists like such as Alexface have received international acclaim Credit: Alamy.
If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. The Collection. The Collection Contemporary art. The five most creative cities in the world? Share using Email. By Libby Banks 16th July It also outlines the implications of creative city and creative class theory for understanding inequality and class divides and their implications for cities and urban and regional development.
Keywords: creative industries , creative class creativity , human capital , innovation , cities , technology , talent , and tolerance. Access to the complete content on Oxford Handbooks Online requires a subscription or purchase.
Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter without a subscription. Please subscribe or login to access full text content. If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code. For questions on access or troubleshooting, please check our FAQs , and if you can''t find the answer there, please contact us.
All Rights Reserved. As a result an arts led regeneration initiative actually supports the construction industry rather than people and cultural activity.
It can take years to build an opera house, or refurbish a theatre, during which time no cultural benefit is being derived by the local community.
There may be inadequate resources to fund a full programme work as resources are eaten up by maintenance and running costs.
It is partly because of the identified weakness in current practice, that increasing attention has been given to cultural activity, rather than flagship buildings. In particular, smaller cities, towns and neighbourhoods have sought for solutions, which are appropriate to their needs and budgets. The answer has in many cases been to support cultural activity and participatory programmes with objectives, which are more social than economic. Compared to high-profile capital projects, community-based and participatory cultural activity is seen to have several key strengths:.
Cultural activity is relatively cheap and very cost-effective. It can be developed quickly in response to local needs and ideas. It is flexible and can change as required.
It offers a potentially high return for very low risk. It can have an impact out of all proportion to its cost. This has far-reaching implications for policy makers. It demands greater emphasis and investment on arts and cultural initiatives that give people the chance to participate actively. Regeneration is as individual as the places in which it happens. It means very different things in each place and city, and it is not surprising that it should be triggered or supported by an equally wide range of cultural catalysts.
The most obvious catalyst for regeneration - though not always the most successful - is an arts building. Building projects are often initiated by local authorities or by development agencies. They are expensive, flagship projects, which often provoke local and national controversy. At their best, they become hugely popular visitor attractions, which have a symbolic and economic impact on the surrounding area.
But, partly because such large-scale projects are intended to serve regional or national populations, they may produce mixed feelings among local people. They can absorb scarce resources from other proposals and their running costs can restrict future funds for cultural activities.
In particular, the contrast between the favoured area, and those beyond its boundaries can seem very sharp, and may contribute to resentment and cynicism. Building projects initiated by community groups may be less dramatic, but can have as much impact as the flagships of the state. Groups of artists joining forces to operate from a redundant building, can trigger the regeneration of an area through their occupation and the services they support.
From small beginnings, a whole area can develop an atmosphere attractive to small traders and new businesses in search of cheap, lively accommodation. Although local authorities cannot make this happen, they can create a planning regime, which will encourage such renewal. The danger is that, as the district is renewed, so rents and prices rise, and the artists on whom its success was based are forced out.
Cultural events can sometimes remind local people, council and developers of the potential of rundown, inner-fringe districts. Possible futures are explored by an event, which becomes the catalyst for regeneration. The use of planning regulations to direct activities within a city is not new. Older industrial areas, for example, may have zoning policies that favour large-scale industrial development and are seen as unsuitable for housing. A change in use codes, e. Local authorities familiar with using planning regulations in some contexts have not always appreciated their value in triggering cultural developments.
There are other invisible regenerators that cost nothing but imply a change in attitudes and a proactive approach to managing the culture of a city. Thus changing licensing hours and bye-laws at festival periods allows an authority to test their effect. Where this is beneficial, such changes often become permanent and help change the perception of an area. Regeneration depends on people, and their self-confidence. Time and again, arts projects have shown how the acquisition of confidence through participation in the arts can transform individual and communities.
The confidence acquired through participating in arts initiatives can have other spin-offs such as enabling people to feel strong enough to get jobs in areas not related to the arts. Mechanisms and schemes, drawn from abroad or developed locally, can play a part in urban regeneration. This can improve the quality of the fabric and raise expectations of local standards, but it is disappointing that the scheme has rarely been used to support activity, despite the public relations potential.
The critical role of individuals in regeneration has already been mentioned. Their vision, tenacity, even obsession is always a factor. When the arts act as a regenerator there is always a project champion, though this is true of most successful regeneration projects.
Arts projects often rely less on strategy than on intuition, but this approach is rare in mainstream development, where the focus is on more immediate returns on investment. Eccentricity reflects the willingness of individuals to depart from conventional problem solving.
The Creative City Index takes into account several key factors for each city: location, geographic conditions, size, employment, activity in certain industrial sectors, level of culture development, tourist attractions, etc. Then, internal and external evaluation is carried out with application of quantitative and qualitative methods.
Concurrently, individual and group surveys are conducted among city dwellers, and then researchers evaluate in percentage terms how their city copes with each of the key areas.
0コメント