A wonderful discussion about the role of the arts, particularly performing arts (such as music and theatre), in shaping our cities, and the role of our cities (particularly inner) in shaping our arts, will be taking place soon in Melbourne, and I hope many of you will get to it.
A few years ago, I worked with Dr Kate Shaw, one of the smartest and most well-spoken critics of both the existing arts policies, and the patterns of development in Australian cities, that this country has at hand, on a research project called ‘Planning the Creative City’. It was one of the most interesting periods of my life, and it opened up questions that I am, in Berlin as much as in Tokyo, Istanbul or Brisbane, still attempting to answer. We were looking at Melbourne’s self-branding as a ‘creative city’, at Richard Florida’s urbanist propaganda (in which the creative class meant growth and prosperity), at graffiti tourism and clusters of architectural bureaus and live music, the relationship between liquor licensing and the vibrancy of a music scene in a city, the relationship between housing prices and the arts, and cross-tabulating all of that with hard data. Some of it made it into newspaper and magazine articles even as the project was progressing, but, as with most research projects, there was a lot of data to crunch.
The project is now finally finished, and its findings are being presented next week on Thursday, 27th September 2012, at something called Yarra Living Arts Forum. I would love to tell you more about it, but from a quick google it doesn’t appear Yarra Council wants anyone to know about it, because there is no website, and no online announcement about this event – all the more reason to go, I would suggest.
The details are below, as is the summary of the event. I would love to be there, not just because I feel great love for this particular project, and because I think it’s hugely important for artists in Australia to understand both the social power they possess, and the structural forces that shape their lives – but also because Kate is a fantastic public speaker. You are most cordially invited to go.
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Yarra Talking Arts Forum
Planning the ‘creative city’ with Dr Kate Shaw
This forum will present findings from research into the idea of the ‘creative city’. Creative city strategies are often used as economic development strategies, with the intent of decreasing vacancy rates and increasing land values. The e ffect is to displace lower than best economic uses of land, including low and no-pro fit cultural activities. The contribution that alternative cultures make to established city cultures is well documented – the City of Amsterdam calls it ‘No Culture without Subculture’ – but few Australian governments accord creative subcultures a place in their planning policies.
The presentation uses time-series maps of inner Melbourne to show the location of independent cultural activities from 1991 to 2009. These are overlaid with maps that track shifts in demographics, land values and voting patterns. Small cultural producers are being pushed into tighter and tighter clusters, but rather than going to where the land values are lowest, some are concentrating in the CBD and parts of Collingwood and Fitzroy. The presentation discusses the particular conditions that support the clustering in these areas.
The forum will conclude with an analysis of ‘creative city’-inspired urban renewal strategies, and a discussion of possible local and state government policy initiatives to encourage creative subcultures. The audience is invited to participate in this discussion.