Adrian Ellis has a good overview of the role of arts facilities in ”saving” cities. Chief among the challenges, he says, is the disconnect between iconic arts facility development and the arts organizations that surround them. Says he:
…the discussions about arts organizations and those about arts buildings are curiously and uncomfortably divorced. The role that buildings are seen to play is usually in the context of bravura high-profile physical redevelopment, while the role of arts organizations is more often discussed in the context of fine grained community-building and the knitting together of anomic and atomized populations through the generation of ”social capital.”
Proponents for the iconic cultural facilities, he suggests, are following a script that’s more appropriate to dense, urban areas than to midsize or small cities. As a result, they may well be overbuilding for the audience and infrastructure they have, while starving and stressing the resident arts organizations that actually provide the experiences.
Ellis suggests three key issues when considering cultural development to save or re-engage a city:
First, culture cannot revitalize downtown alone. Where cultural infrastructure plays a role it plays it alongside public and private investment in other civic amenities, transport systems and housing….It is depressing, however, how often significant investment in cultural buildings is made outside of an integrated urban renewal strategy. These cultural institutions then come to bear impossible expectations alone and without context.
Second, the cultural building boom has not been driven by ‘consumer demand’ in the sense of an increase in audiences. Global cities like London, New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo have a density of population in their immediate catchment and a sophisticated cultural tourist market that smaller cities cannot match, and yet many “supply driven” infrastructure projects do not take this into account….
Third, vibrant arts centers require thriving occupants, if culture’s role in revitalizing downtown through generating social capital is to be realized. In the Faustian pact between cultural organizations and urban planners, both parties have tended to gloss over the longer term financial impact of expansion on the resident organisations whilst playing up the economic impact on the community as a whole….
Sobering but useful thoughts for communities and civic leaders that long to build an icon. It recalls an earlier post on a satirical perspective on cultural facility development.
