View on World Summit on Arts and Culture

Arts Management Network, 18 July 2006, United Kingdom

The third World Summit on Arts and Culture, co-organised by the Arts Council England and IFACCA, took place in Newcastle upon Tyne, a city which truly reflects the regeneration theme of the event “Transforming places, transforming lives”. More than 500 cultural leaders and policy makers from over 82 countries gathered to discuss, debate and network at the Sage Gateshead, now a key venue, conference centre and local icon. The centre is situated right next to the Gateshead Millennium Bridge and the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art - a former flour mill, now home to exhibitions by both local and international artists. The Millennium Bridge and the BALTIC opened in 2002. Plenty of new examples of successful regeneration projects have enhanced the region, attractive, not only to the local population but also offers visitors an alternative to the lively clubbing scene Newcastle is so well known for. On Friday, there were 13 different tours on regeneration in practice in the area to choose from. In general participants seemed very pleased with the programme and professional organisation of the conference. The event would possibly have been even more successful, if there had been more participation by government officials. A conference like this one would be the right occasion for them to see that culture has to be a priority. Albie Sachs, freedom fighter and member of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, gave a fascinating speech on how the arts and culture should be represented in a constitutional building, being a place of ideas and inspiration, emerging out of the reality of a country – you can take a virtual tour through the unique court building or its art collection. American visual artist and art community leader Rick Lowe’s presentation made it clear that any regeneration initiative or project has to take place close to the local community, and its local culture and respond to its immediate needs while involving every layer in a multi-layered society. Lowe led a public art programme called Project Row Houses, changing one of Houston’s poorest neighbourhoods into a vibrant and creative arts community. Jude Kelly, Chair of the Arts, Culture and Education Committee at London 2012 Olympics and Craig Hassall, manager of the Arts Festival at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, spoke about the role of culture in the context of the Olympic movement and the challenges of developing an adequate cultural programme for such a major international event. According to Hassall, sport and culture should not be seen as two separate fields but strategic planning is needed for them to be successful together. One of the Informal Networks on Friday included a presentation on “Arts and Health” by Mike White, Director of Projects at Durham University, which ended in a lively discussion. White stressed that although the term regeneration is mainly used for infrastructure, it also includes the society itself, whereas health is unfortunately still seen as something that happens at hospitals and in traditional health care settings. There is much debate on how the arts can influence our health and well-being - the importance of arts in this context is still not being recognised by governments. The influence is hard to prove, there are too many variables involved. White made several suggestions on what should be done to ensure a successful relationship of arts and health in the future: The cultural dimension in well-being has to be recognised, links between culture and health should be developed, successful cultural and health initiatives identified, effective evaluation systems developed, and engagement with national and international networks is necessary. One of the workshops available on the closing day was “Culture in Crowded Cities” with presentations by Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, Director of Arts & Cultural Projects NLI Research Institute, Tokyo on regeneration projects in Yokohama and by Howard Chan, the Community Museum Project, Hong Kong. The number of crowded cities is increasing but they also have to accommodate an ever-increasing number of people. Where are the places for culture and people and where do artists go when there is no more space? Using any tiny space in the streets, even if only a temporarily available entrance, shop front or one-dimensional shops in Hong Kong shows how inventive people have to be in a crowded place. Similar to the idea put into reality in Houston by Rick Lowe, one of the initiatives in Japanese cities is to clean up bad areas and replace them with culture and art activities. Howard Chan presented the Street Museum Project and other initiatives, which are examples for successful regeneration initiatives in Hong Kong. Chan pointed out that unfortunately regeneration in Hong Kong is mostly different to other places which were described during the conference, meaning the complete redevelopment of streets and areas, destroying the original atmosphere, history and familiarity of the local population to the area. The Street Museum Project, however, recognises the importance of the immediate environment and encourages the creativity and debate of ordinary people instead of predetermining it, transforming the street they share and live in into a museum. Chan calls this kind of project “Social Curating”. In his closing speech Risto Ruohonen, Chair of IFACCA pointed out that the aim of the event was not to encourage international co-operation but for the participants to take home fresh ideas, impressions and exchange information on successful regeneration initiatives to be applied in their own country.The location of the 4th World Summit on Arts and Culture will take place in 2009, will be announced during the next six months. This content came from the Monthly Newsletter of the Arts Management Network. To see the entire newsletter, CLICK HERE Related Links: www.artsummit.orgwww.ifacca.orgwww.thesagegateshead.orgwww.galinsky.com/buildings/gatesheadbridge/www.balticmill.com/ www.constitutionalcourt.org.za/site/takeatour/courtbuilding.htmwww.constitutionalcourt.org.za/site/takeatour/artcollection.htmwww.projectrowhouses.org/www.london2012.comwww.hkcmp.org/cmp/ www.nli-research.co.jp/eng/index-e.html

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