THEMES 2010
This
month, focus on the debate "cultural attractiveness of territories"
with interviews of Richard Florida, Allen J. Scott and Alain Seban, but
also the 2010 novelties and the point of view of Christian Etienne,
chef in Avignon.
Every
week, article, studies, interviews tackle the themes of the Forum
d'Avignon 2010. Discover on the website the updated press review.
Ruhr 2010 - a new energy: culture
The
Ruhrgebiet (Ruhr region) aggregates several major industrial cities
gathering more than 5.7 million inhabitants (most populated region in
Germany and 6th one in Europe). The designation of Essen as the 2010
European capital of culture revitalized the region, notably through
cultural activities. Around three concepts "Myth, Metropolis and
Europe", the region renews itself for and through culture, as an
integral part of the Ruhr 2010 project.
"The economy of culture in Europe", European Commission (education and culture), 2009
This study highlights the contribution (direct and indirect) of the
cultural and creative sectors to the European Union economy. Among the
key figures of the study: - the sector contributed to 2.6% of EU GDP in
2003 - the overall growth of the sector's value added was 19.7% in
1999-2003 - in 2004, at least 5.8 million people worked in these
sectors (3.1% of the total European working population).
Second edition of the barometer on the cultural attractiveness of territories - Ineum consulting for the Forum d'Avignon
• Cultural attractiveness and economic performance : what jobs, what strategies for the development of territories?
The
world's cities get together at the 2010 edition of the Forum d'Avignon
for the second edition of the Barometer on the cultural attractiveness
of territories.
What is the role of culture as a determining factor of attractiveness
and performance within a context of international competition between
territories (soft power)? Is the competition between cultural centers
reciprocally advantageous or is it resulting in a shifting of the areas
of influence in an always more globalized economy (win-win game)? How
does globalization impact the cultural offer? What place does it leave
for local productions?
Is the cultural sector generating durable and sustainable activity and
employment? To what extent do creative jobs participate in the
development of other economic fields of activity? How could culture
become a determining factor in the localization of economic
activity? Is it then possible to sketch out the conditions for a
successful attraction strategy based on culture?
• Presentation of the study Ineum consulting
Established
on more than 11 indicators certified by international agencies, the
barometer will present the strategies of cultural attractiveness
of near to 50 territories. In 2009, strategies have been identified and
correlation has been observed: "cities tending towards a number of
cultural facilities greater than 8 for every 100 000 inhabitants, with
annual public funding of around 100 Euros per capita, and with a
student population exceeding 10% of the city's population, are more
likely to attract an annual number of tourists per capita which will be
greater than 5 and where unemployment will be less than 8%."
In 2010, the barometer will take into account more cities and
territories and the sudy will deal with the issues of cultural
employment.
Case studies on Avignon, Mumbai, Brussels, Casablanca, Florence, Los
Angeles, New orlean, the 'Grand Paris', and interviews of the
key-players of these different strategies will be presented.
The study will be available online on November 2010.
The interviews
The 2010 debate of the Forum d’Avignon on the cultural attractiveness
of territories will be the occasion of presenting the second edition of
the Barometer based on a statistic survey carried out by Ineum
Consulting. Is there a correlation between the economic performance and
the cultural and academic dynamism of a territory? Does culture
accelerate the economic development, under what conditions? Or is
culture simply resulting from economic prosperity? Shall the decision
makers bet on culture to attract the creative classes, as suggests
Richard Florida, leading territories to actively get into the knowledge
economy? Or, on the contrary, are economic performances at the origin
of the migration of qualified populations, able to develop culture
locally, as states Allen J. Scott? If standpoints can be confronted,
the examples of successful experiences confirm the possibilities of
fostering an original development, as shows the success of the Museum
Centre Pompidou in Metz, presented here by Alain Seban.
The interview of Richard Florida
Richard Florida is the author of 'The Great Reset' and Professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto
Under
what conditions could cultural attractiveness be a vector of
performance for a territory? What does the presence of artists and
creators bring to a territory?
Richard Florida :
Artists and creators help regions,
cities and regions create a sense of social inclusion and authenticity.
Economic prosperity relies on cultural, entrepreneurial, civic,
scientific, and artistic creativity. Creative workers with these
talents need communities, organizations, and peers that are open to new
ideas and different people. They also look to places that are
authentic and unique and the large presence of artists helps a
community create an identity that is distinctive. Places receptive to
new forms of culture, alternative lifestyles and identities and new
views on social status and power structures will benefit significantly
in the creative age.
Is there a threshold effect from which cultural attractiveness creates economic performance?
Richard Florida :
For
communities to be truly appealing to the Creative Class, they must
provide access to cultural amenities such as: performing arts,
galleries, theaters, parks, and restaurants. Recently, the Americans
for the Arts released a study detailing the economic impact of the
arts, which found that, nationwide, the arts had positively impacted
communities in the ballpark of $166 billion. In addition, the Pew
Research Center recently found that for every dollar government invests
in the arts there is a $5 multiplier effect.
It is not surprising that communities and public leaders are engaging
the arts as a revitalization mechanism. Philadelphia's center city is a
fabulous example of the impact of arts revitalization. As more
galleries and public spaces began to open, more residents returned
downtown for dinner and evenings out, resulting in a more vibrant and
safer center city. Investment into the arts provides public leaders
with a viable alternative to the large capital investments such as
stadiums, convention centers, etc. Leaders can invest cautiously in the
arts and help foster the organic development of a creative scene that
is unique to their community.
Should the effective reinforcement of the cultural attractiveness of a territory necessarily imply a strong symbolic project?
Richard Florida :
Absolutely.
Creative workers need and want to live in authentic and culturally
attractive communities. Arts and culture when intrinsically tied to a
community help to create a sense place that is unique and appealing to
creative workers. Arts and culture can also help highlight a
community's soul, history, and uniqueness. An authentic place offers us
characteristics to define ourselves and a physical and figurative space
in which to live. Art can help to place a connection between the
authentic identity around us and the place we live.
What are the future projects that could fit in such a cultural attractiveness dynamic?
Richard Florida :
I
am chairing the launch of the Philips Livable Cities Award. This
year-long program honors outside-of-the-box thinkers who have ideas
that demonstrate simple, practical solutions for improving the health
and well-being of the people living, working, and playing in their
city. I am joined by an international panel of experts who are helping
to develop the award criteria. The initiative was introduced to
highlight the complex challenges faced by the residents of today’s
cities and to encourage individuals, community groups, and businesses
to develop novel strategies and solutions that can help their
communities become more livable, sustainable, and prosperous, and can
be readily executed and replicated in communities worldwide.
How could the links between cultural attractiveness and employment be characterized?
Richard Florida :
More
than ever before, economic development is about talent attraction and
retention. In the global economy, regions must create a community that
is attractive for creative workers. The Creative Class seeks
communities which are open, diverse, and thick with amenities (a
vibrant arts scene, good restaurants, a safe community, etc).
Arts and
cultural organizations are critical assets to economic development;
they add value to the bottom line of any regional economy. Arts
organizations should be interacting with the local economic development
organization and public leaders to evaluate investments and the
"return" on them (i.e. increased community involvement, more arts
awareness, and fostering a niche talent).
The interview of Allen J. Scott
Allen
J. Scott is an American professor of the Department of Policy Studies
and Department of Geography of the University of California – Los
Angeles.
Under
what conditions could cultural attractiveness be a vector of
performance for a territory? What does the presence of artists and
creators bring to a territory?
Allen J. Scott :
In
recent years a number of urban scholars and policy-makers have asserted
that cultural attractiveness is a sine qua non for advanced economic
development to occur in a given region. This relationship is due, they
state, to the fact that workers endowed with high levels of human
capital will migrate preferentially to centers marked by generous
supplies of amenities. In my opinion these claims are exaggerated or
mistaken. Local economic development is a complex multidimensional
process rooted fundamentally in the logic of productive agglomeration
and the dynamics of increasing returns effects. Of course, as growth
occurs at any given place, it is commonly associated with significant
forms of cultural upgrading and investment in amenity values. These
phenomena may have marginally positive effects on further growth, but
they cannot be seen as having basic causal powers in regard to overall
economic development. Moreover, the weight of recent research appears
to favor the view that jobs invariably trump amenities in shaping the
destination choices of skilled migrants.
Is there a threshold effect from which cultural attractiveness creates economic performance?
Allen J. Scott :
In
the light of my answer to the first question, my answer here is
emphatically “no.” By contrast, we might claim that a certain degree of
economic performance is usually necessary before a high level of
cultural attractiveness (art galleries, concert halls, museums, opera
houses, etc.) can be achieved. This level of performance coincides more
or less with the large dynamic metropolis of contemporary capitalism.
Should the effective reinforcement of the cultural attractiveness of a territory necessarily imply a strong symbolic project?
Allen J. Scott :
Many
cities all over the world today are engaged in efforts to achieve
global status by means of high-profile symbolic gestures. These
gestures proclaim the ambitions of these cities as centers of economic
growth and inward investment and as cultural flagships of the new
global order. When associated with genuinely dynamic economic
potentials, these gestures have a certain logic and meaning as branding
devices, as instruments of gentrification, and as socially-desirable
embellishments- cum- amenities. Otherwise they are apt to remain as not
much more than cathedrals in the desert.
What are the future projects that could fit in such a cultural attractiveness dynamic?
Allen J. Scott :
Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, and (possibly) Dubai, but not Bilbao.
How could the links between cultural attractiveness and employment be characterized?
Allen J. Scott :
Let
me sum up my comments by stating that local economic development and
employment growth can best be understood in terms of a many-faceted
structure of relationships involving (a) networks of specialized but
complementary producers, (b) a pool of appropriately socialized and
habituated labor, (c) an ongoing process of entrepreneurial and
innovative activity, and (d) an overarching system of institutional
arrangements whose objectives are to internalize externalities and to
guard against lock-in to low-level evolutionary outcomes. In
combination with one another, these different relationships provide the
foundation for a powerful dynamic of growth based on system-wide
increasing returns effects. It has recently become fashionable in
some quarters to believe that policy short-cuts to local prosperity can
be achieved by ignoring these basic issues and by simply focusing
strategic efforts on enhancing cultural attractiveness. If local
economic growth and development can be characterized in the manner that
I have suggested, then it follows that cultural upgrading is likely to
have little effect on employment, desirable as it may be in its own
right. To be sure, investments in cultural upgrading may sometimes have
secondary impacts on local economic growth by making a given place
marginally more attractive to highly-qualified migrants than another
(though as I have already pointed out, it is employment opportunities
above all that lure migrants). More generally, any claim to the effect
that such upgrading is a stimulus to economic growth must be seen as
having radically reversed the normal order of causality.
The interview of Alain Seban
A
graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique, the ENSAE, the Institut d’Etudes
Politiques de Paris and the ENA, Alain Seban currently is President of
the national Museum for Modern Art Georges Pompidou (France).
What does the presence of artists and creators bring to a territory?
Alain Seban :
Today,
for many artists, artistic creation involves production processes which
bring into play diverse players and lead to the stimulation of the
economic activity. Of course, around the artists and their works, is
the art market which represents a fundamental economic sector.
Even more important is the fact that artists bear new
perspectives on the world, new interrogations. They help each
invividual to question himself, to go forward and imagine new
solutions. Creation, in its plurality, is essential to our
contemporary societies as it is a ferment of deftness, mobility and
innovation. Besides, this is precisely according to the belief that
contemporary creation could foster France’s modernization that Georges
Pompidou created the centre that now carries his name.
Should the effective reinforcement of the cultural attractiveness of a territory necessarily imply a strong symbolic project?
Alain Seban :
It
is important to give ourselves the means to be visible from outside and
create an internal dynamic through an impulse as well as a
mobilization. Often, building on culture aims at revitalizing
economically depressed places – it is enough to mention the examples of
the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Centre Pompidou in Metz or the Louvre in
Lens to illustrate this point – and it is then important to give back
pride to the local populations. All these examples justify the
strategies that build the offer around major infrastructures and main
events.
If I consider the experience of the Museum Georges Pompidou in Metz,
local authorities invested around 70 million Euros and are still
providing 10 million Euros each year for the functioning. Yet, the
opening of this new museum already highly contributed to change the
image of Metz and of the Lorraine. The economic impact is clear: when
you attract 330 000 visitors in two months, the effects overtake the
cultural field and create a positive dynamic for the whole territory.
It is obvious that this later has to be able to take this chance and
provide the players engaged with the necessary equipments, as they did
in Bilbao.
What are your future projects that could fit in such a cultural attractiveness dynamic?
Alain Seban :
In
1974, Michel Guy said that the Centre Pompidou should be the
“powerhouse of devolution”. Yet, it would be irrational to cover the
territory of Centers Pompidou. The experience of Metz is and will
remain unique. On the other hand, we are preparing another ‘flagship
project’ for 2011: the moving Centre Pompidou, the first nomad museum
of the world. It is conceived to travel everywhere in France in order
to share the museum’s experience to publics who generally do not have
access to traditional cultural offers, opening them the possibility of
admiring masterpieces from our collection, the most beautiful and
important in the field of modern art in Europe. Nothing can replace the
contact with the original. The moving Centre Pompidou will thus bring
art to people to invite them to discover art. In partnership
with local governments and regional cultural key players, it will be
provided with the necessary skills to be managed locally: to do so, the
Centre Pompidou’s teams will train the staff, so that beyond the major
event constituted by each stop of the museum’s journey, a new
relationship between art and culture can be established.
THE ARTICLE
The students of the Avignon hotel school cooking with the chefs
The French 'master chef' Christian Etienne's restaurant, which has been
awarded one Michelin star, is located in a historical monument, former
home of the Papal Chamberlain, adjoining the Palais des Papes in
Avignon.
The Forum d'Avignon organizes every year a masterclass with chefs from
the Avignon region, the whole Europe and the students of the hotel
school of Avignon. Since 2008, many participated in this adventure with
the same commitment to working both internationally and locally around
a common project. Among the chefs: Andoni Luiz Aduriz (Spain),
Massimiliana Alajmo (Italy), Bruno d'Angelis (Avignon), Heston
Blumenthal (UK), Hélène Darroze (Paris), Christine Ferber (Alsace),
Dominique Frérad (Marseille), Jean-Christophe Guisset (Avignon), Pierre
Hermé (Paris), Frédéric Jouvaud (Carpentras), Michel Kayser (Nîmes),
Léa Linster (Luxembourg), Xavier Mathieu (Gordes), Jérôme Nutile
(Collias), Francis Robin (Salon de Provence), Reine Sammut (Lourmarin).
This meeting is an opportunity to share skills, life experience and
strengthen the students' desire to get involved in this wonderful
profession that is the 'cuisine'. Students are also confronted with
technologies and innovative ways of working, coming from elsewhere.
Each year, with 180 students from the hotel school of Avignon and
Pierre Hermé, who works with me on this exciting project, we create
dishes putting creativity forward. It is all about presenting an
original 'cuisine', sharing our passion with the attendees and passing
on our know-how to the students. Gastronomy is an art, of creation and
pleasure. For each edition of the Forum, a theme is chosen to imagine
the dishes. In 2009, we have chosen to work with basic products such as
the butternut pumpkin, the sardine or the pigeon. As Pierre Hermé says,
it is fundamental to 'innovate with basics'.
Christian Etienne
WHAT IS NEW IN 2010?
A new staging of the 'Salle du Conclave ' for interactive debates
This year, the speakers will be sitting at the center of the Salle du
conclave (Conclave room) of the Palais des Papes in Avignon, shifting
the core of the debates in order to facilitate the interventions. So
that the 2010 edition of the Forum d'Avignon can be an privileged place
for exchanges and in-depth reflections, your cooperation and
participation are essential. Ahead of the Forum, the newsletters and
the website constitute useful materials to actively
prepare the debates by providing points on the studies prepared by the
consulting firms partners of the Forum, interviews of key players,
internationals news...
For every study, a complete "webography" to explore the 2010 themes
The team and task forces of the Forum d'Avignon prepared an
international "webography" of the 2010 edition topics. Discover in a
few clicks information from the whole world, videos of the attendees,
photos and news of the fields of culture, economy and the media related
to the studies prepared upstream of the Forum. Further reading
THE FORUM D’AVIGNON ON THE INTERNET
WWW.FORUM-AVIGNON.ORG
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