By World Cities Culture Forum.
Kagurazaka Street stage O-edo Tour
As the rapid development of cities places strain on affordability, many cultural spaces are threatened by displacement. How are global cities responding to artists and arts organisations on the brink? In a ground-breaking survey of responsive actions from cities across the globe to protect and develop, the World Cities Culture Forum presents Making Space for Culture, the latest handbook in the forum’s Policy and Practice Series. The resulting report is a collection of proposals, illustrating how cities can respond to the threat this issue poses to the cultural vitality and character of cities from San Francisco to Shenzhen (and including Tokyo). “Affordability will be a key challenge for world cities in the coming years,” says Paul Owens, director of the World Cities Culture Forum. “In Making Space for Culture, we’ve set out to identify clear opportunities for city and cultural leaders to collaborate and develop joint solutions that respond to this crisis.”
Cultural space inventory is shrinking, while property costs soar in cities worldwide. In San Francisco, average monthly rents have reached $2,824 USD. In Hong Kong, housing costs are more than 18 times the annual median income. In London alone, it is estimated that 35% of grassroots music venues have been lost over the past eight years and 30% of artist studios are likely to be lost to development over the next five years.
“As the global affordability crisis in cities continues to grow, creative communities face increased competition for the attention, resources and political will to address these issues,” says Tim Jones, CEO of Artscape. “Now is the time to scale up the response.”
• Kagurazaka, a Tokyo neighbourhood, was in danger of losing its unique status as a centre of Japanese traditional culture
• Tokyo Metropolitan Government funds a yearly festival designed to raise public engagement with the traditional arts and to revitalise the area
• In 2016, 38,000 people attended the two-day festival, which has raised awareness of the neighbourhood and increased local interest in the arts
Making Space for Culture features 12 in-depth case studies from World Cities Culture Forum member cities including San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Madrid, charting a variety of approaches to creating facilities, activating spaces, and raising awareness for cultural infrastructure. It covers a range of tactics from these global cities at the local level: from transforming an industrial heritage site to a street art centre in Seoul, to creating a rescue plan to save grassroots venues in London.
Recognising the need for good data that tracks artists and venues currently at risk, the World Cities Culture Forum continues to build a robust body of research dedicated to this issue, including the creation of metrics and benchmarking to measure scale and impact, and a toolkit to help cities and their collaborators to develop solutions in creating and maintaining cultural space, to protect and ensure a more vibrant and creative future.
Find out more at www.worlcitiescultureforum.com.
Contact: matthieu.prin@worldcitiescultureforum.com
The World Cities Culture Forum consists of 32 global cities, convened to share research and intelligence, and explore the vital role of culture in their future prosperity. Tokyo was a founding member of the forum at its inaugural summit during London 2012.
Photograph © Copyright World Cities Culture Forum 2017
