BARCELONA, A CREATIVE CITY? A few ideas “Creative City Region” conference Dublin 18th October 2007

A. URBAN PROFILE OF BARCELONA History Geography Baseline situation

URBAN PROFILE OF BARCELONA (1) Policies are not formulated in vacuum  More than 2,000 years of history: founded by Romans, medieval “glory”, “modern age” decline, industrial and contemporary revival…  Geography  Municipality: compact; 100 sq km; 1.5 M  Metropolitan area; compact; 650 sq km; 3,2 M  Metropolitan region; polycentric and urban sprawl; 1650 sq km; 4,5 M  Absence of external migration ( )  Specificities of the “baseline” situation in  A metropolis without its own state  Capital of Catalan culture  All kind of deficits. No welfare state. Broad consensus.

URBAN PROFILE OF BARCELONA (2) Frozen energies burst, and are channelled  An ambitious long-term urban regeneration project is formulated. Strategic planning through public-private partnerships.  “Creative class” leadership avant la lettre  Industrial decline. Promotion of a city of “advanced” services. Culture is soon identified as a key resource.  The European integration (1986), bringing political stability.  Inner-city decentralisation. Power to neighbourhoods. Social cohesiveness and “sense of place”.  The Olympic project (1992): the catalyst.

B. CULTURE and REGENERATION Phase 1: Phase 2: Phase 3:

Phase 1: Culture is “obvious”  Local Government leads the process of urban regeneration  Olympic nomination (1986)  Urban planning is connected to cultural references. New public spaces. Contemporary creation and memories of the place.  Traditional festivities are re-discovered (la Mercè) or re- invented “to celebrate the joy of living together”.  Loss of creative capital: audiovisual  The bill of local cultural infrastructure: who pays?  Coherence between programmes aiming to improve external image and “citizenship” programmes

Phase 2: “We have to be ready”  Local Government leads the process of urban regeneration  Central government funding arrives  Olympic Games (1992)  World-class cultural infrastructure planned  Contemporary creation, central part of the brief  Solid public art programme  Civil society supports culture  Cultural management appears as a profession  Local media, the engine of the cultural system

Phase 3: The “model” is reproduced, but...  National investments are not attracted.  Local Government has difficulties to lead the project.  Universal Forum of Cultures (2004)  The infrastructure planned in previous period opens the doors. Cultural infrastructure becomes more visible than ever  Creation of the Institute for culture, 1996  First strategic plan on culture, 1999  Density of festivals  Cultural Thematic Years: Gaudi Year (2002), Book and Reading (2005), Science (2007)  Libraries Master Plan  digital district

C. LOOKING FOR A NEW PHASE Urban policies and cultural policies

Looking for a new phase: Challenges  Growing diversity and new citizenry: “productive diversity” or “isolation”  Public spaces, are we asking too much?  Commodification of culture  Governance: a new balance in delivering services: local, metropolitan, provincial, national, state  Governance: how “institutionalised” should urban policies be? What aliances and partnerships between civil society private actors and local governments?

Looking for a new phase: Towards a new cultural policy  Agenda 21 for culture ( appears as a reference document for urban cultural policies  Culture, the fourth pillar of sustainable development  The first cultural strategy, evaluated in Result: “the context has changed”  The second cultural strategy, 2006

Looking for a new phase: The second cultural strategy  Stakeholder and “social” participation: ownwership of the plan  One year of analysis, debates and open participation  Governance: Constitution of “Local Council for culture and the arts”  3 main axis -Proximity -Excellence -Connectedness  Adopted by Barcelona City Council, at a Plenary session on 22 December 2006

Looking for a new phase: Ten long-term programmes  BARCELONA LABORATORY  CULTURE, EDUCATION AND PROXIMITY  BARCELONA, READING CITY  PROGRAMME FOR INTERCULTURAL EXCHANGE  BARCELONA SCIENCE  QUALITY OF THE CULTURAL FACILITIES  KNOWLEDGE, MEMORY AND CITY  BARCELONA CULTURAL CAPITAL  CULTURAL CONNECTIVITY  BARCELONA COUNCIL OF CULTURE

BARCELONA, A CREATIVE CITY? A few ideas “Creative City Region” conference Dublin 18th October 2007