{"id":932,"date":"2013-07-01T12:13:20","date_gmt":"2013-07-01T19:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=932"},"modified":"2013-07-01T12:13:20","modified_gmt":"2013-07-01T19:13:20","slug":"do-cultural-districts-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/07\/do-cultural-districts-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Do cultural districts matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"walkable?\"<\/a>At the Art Newspaper<\/em>, Adrian Ellis<\/a> claims that they do:<\/p>\n

Few cities command the accolade \u201cgreat\u201d or even \u201cliveable\u201d without a significant cultural presence. Today, whether the question is \u201cWhere is the best place to bring up your family?\u201d, \u201cWhere do knowledge workers congregate?\u201d or \u201cWhat attracts inward investment?\u201d, \u201cCities with a rich cultural life\u201d is the most common answer, alongside those with good public education, low crime rates and decent transport. (They are usually the same places.)<\/p>\n

In this context \u201cculture\u201d usually means museums and galleries, theatres and concert halls and the things that animate those buildings\u2014exhibitions, festivals and performances. Liveable cities also have compelling public spaces (agorae) and architecture that draws people to them. They encourage visitors and residents, young and old, to intermingle in ways that destratify, desegregate and generally democratise.<\/p>\n

Successful cultural districts are therefore powerful policy tools. For planners they can help build community and social capital; for sociologists they keep at bay the forces of anomie; for economists, they incubate and inculcate creativity, and draw those fickle high-net-worth tourists; and for the politicians and the semioticians alike, they signify and calibrate complex aspirations and identities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t dispute the importance of cultural amenities in making a city livable. The arts scene in my town of Bloomington, Indiana is certainly a major factor in making this a good place to live and raise a family.<\/p>\n

But why cultural districts<\/em>? Why is it important for cultural amenities to be clustered<\/em>?<\/p>\n

It certainly is the policy trend. Americans for the Arts<\/a> tell us:<\/p>\n

A cultural district or arts and entertainment district is a well-recognized, labeled, mixed-use area of a city in which a high concentration of cultural facilities serves as the anchor of attraction and robust economic activity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And states that have adopted the policy of designating “official” cultural districts have tended to use almost identical (i.e. borrowed) language: see Indiana<\/a>, Kentucky<\/a>, and Massachusetts<\/a>, for example.<\/p>\n

But while I see the importance of local cultural support, and even state-level recognition of cities and towns that are noteworthy for their cultural offerings, it is less clear that districts are a good thing. Ellis writes:<\/p>\n

The small-scale, flexible, experimental and funky need a place alongside the flagships of the cultural canon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why? What is the gain from having a funky gallery district alongside the opera house?<\/p>\n

I don’t completely discount cultural districts, especially if they have developed over time such that various arts organizations are indeed clustered in a particular neighborhood. But I am less in favor of policies that actively encourage clustering rather than dispersion. A city with clustered arts organizations could well turn out to be one where the elite, living with easy access to the district, attend arts events and galleries and the residents of other neighborhoods have nothing close by, and do not feel particularly as if the cultural district is a place they are welcome. The “walkability” proclaimed for cultural districts is often meaningless, with galleries and restaurants closed by the time a live performance has released its audience.<\/p>\n

The local arts scene matters for quality of life, absolutely. But dispersion of cultural assets is not such a bad thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the Art Newspaper, Adrian Ellis claims that they do: Few cities command the accolade \u201cgreat\u201d or even \u201cliveable\u201d without a significant cultural presence. Today, whether the question is \u201cWhere is the best place to bring up your family?\u201d, \u201cWhere do knowledge workers congregate?\u201d or \u201cWhat attracts inward investment?\u201d, \u201cCities with a rich cultural life\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-932","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-issues","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-f2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1483,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/08\/how-should-we-rank-the-culturalcreative-scenes-of-cities\/","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":0},"title":"How should we rank the cultural\/creative scenes of cities?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"August 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I came across a ranking of the 'top 20 US cities for culture', from the real estate blog propertyshark.com (no, not one I usually follow, h\/t Ted Gioia). The internet loves to produce listicles, and diminishing returns have long set in when it comes to ranking cities. But this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"so many creatives!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/NYC-street.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/NYC-street.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/NYC-street.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/NYC-street.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2223,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2017\/07\/the-problem-with-ranking-cities-cultural-vibrancy\/","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":1},"title":"The problem with ranking cities’ cultural vibrancy","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"July 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Two recent publications derive indices to rank different cities according to their cultural vibrancy - from the National Center for Arts Research in the United States, and the European Commission for European cities. They have the same fundamental problem. In each report, a selection of data series applying to cities'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"not this again","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/whirlwind-computer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2356,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2018\/08\/back-to-school-a-cultural-planning-syllabus\/","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":2},"title":"Back to school – a cultural planning syllabus","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"August 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"So after a stretch in university administration, I am back full-time in the classroom this fall. 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My friend James Doeser, who is very smart about these things, has a short post \u201cThe crisis of cultural policy in the 21st century\u201d that is well worth your time (update: here is James's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-1.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1156,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/03\/gays-the-creative-class-and-the-ecological-fallacy\/","url_meta":{"origin":932,"position":4},"title":"Gays, the ‘Creative Class’, and the Ecological Fallacy","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Gay men tend to live in expensive cities with nice amenities, both cultural and climactic. 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