Urban Implications of Cultural Policy Networks: The Case of the Mount Vernon Cultural District in Baltimore

Abstract

Introduction: cultural policies and urban revitalization In the last two decades greater attention has been given to the role of cultural heritage and the arts in revitalizing and regenerating central and peripheral areas of contemporary cities. Since the industrial decline started to appear in the 1980s, many North American cities have designed and implemented urban renewal policies with explicit orientation toward cultural and entertainment, aimed at regenerating cities with regards to physical, functional, and immaterial aspects (Harvey, 1989). Urban politics scholars critically explained these processes simply as driven by progrowth coalitions backed by entrepreneurial politicians and accommodating cultural institutions (Judd, 1988; Logan and Molotch, 1987). From different disciplinary points of view, several scientific journals have recently published special issues on this topic with renewed enthusiasm and more articulated urban questions. We can mention, for example, Urban Studies (Miles and Paddison, 2005), Local Economy (Wilks-Heeg and North, 2004), and the International Journal of Cultural Policy (Gibson and Stevenson, 2004). Taking into account the general background and changes of the global economy (eg the growing role of services and immaterial production, knowledge-based economy) and of Western society (eg more time for leisure, increasing expenditure for culture and entertainment, open and cosmopolitan society), this literature forecast an urban renaissance fostered by the economic and social externalities granted by the localization, production, and consumption of artistic and, more generally, cultural and creative activities (

Academic Entrepreneurship in the Creative Arts

“…The AHRC is by far the single most important source of funds for engagement, but the second most important source (at the time of surveying) was the Regional Development Agency (RDA). This finding also ties in with previous research which has highlighted the importance of local and regional policy initiatives in promoting academic entrepreneurship (Jayne, 2005;Ponzini, 2009). Given that the RDAs have at the time of writing been disbanded (to be replaced in some areas by local, self-constituted Local Enterprise Partnerships), the future of at least some of these activities is likely to be in doubt.…”

The process of privatisation of cultural heritage and the arts in Italy: analysis and perspectives

“…The participation of private actors in the considered evidence regarding the second and the third profiles induced recurrent interventions with respect to cultural assets and their urban contexts. This happened mainly because the private actors involved were directly interested in fostering urban regeneration and revitalisation and in capturing the added value derived from the projects in terms of real estate appreciation (Bianchini and Parkinson 1993, Clementi 2005, Legnér and Ponzini 2009, Ponzini 2009). The cases discussed above show the relationship between the International Journal of Heritage Studies 517 creation of mixed public-private entities and projects displaying opportunities for urban regeneration.…”

A Conceptual Regulatory Framework for the Design and Evaluation of Complex, Participative Cultural Planning Strategies

“…In the case of the creative class approach, these have been made explicit and discussed at length: the gentrification of ‘culturally hip’ areas and expulsion of the urban poor from the city, the instrumentalization of cultural and creative activity and the undermining of its authenticity, the marginalization of large parts of the local community from the developmental game and so on (Montgomery, ; Nathan, ; Peck, ; Markusen, ; Wilson and Keil, ; Atkinson and Easthope, ). Rather than easing the social contradictions and the economic dualisms that are typical of the urban context, such a mono‐directional regulatory approach based on a very idiosyncratic notion of culture and creativity may even exacerbate them and put under pressure local creative communities that are unwilling to twist their social and cultural discourse to fit into an external script that is quite insensitive to the local context but highly functional to specific local organized interests (Ponzini, ; Whyte, ). A useful illustration of this effect may be found in Baltimore's policy failure in applying the Florida approach to a city affected by severe, preexisting forms of social and economic distress (Ponzini and Rossi, ).…”