Strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of small and medium-sized cities for
local development were the topic of a workshop held in the margins of the
CreArt conference “New Ways to Manage and Finance Creative Spaces in
Europe” (Lecce, 21 November 2014).
In order to understand drivers, problems and obstacles for the design and
implementation of culture related projects at the local level, the discussion
between CreArt members was raised around three issues:
•
Strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of SMSC when fostering their
local development through arts investment.
•
Objectives/ priorities of and obstacles for cultural investment in SMSC
in relation to their local cultural, social and economic development.
•
Lessons learnt:
dos
and
don’ts
when investing in arts and culture with
local development objectives.
Addressing each aspect in rotating small groups, partners were invited to come
up with three proposals for each one of them.
Such workshop has proved to be a relevant peer learning tool allowing a
dynamic group interaction and sharing of views on culture-led development
policies between CreArt cities. From their individual experiences and policies
as well as through their involvement in the CreArt project, they agreed on
specific recommendations for visual arts to contribute in best manner way to
local cultural, social and economic development in SMSC
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.
2.5 Approaches to culture-led development in small
and medium-sized cities
While developing their own cultural strategies or initiatives, cities should take into
account a series of factors, related to the specificities of small and medium-sized
urban contexts. As in bigger cities, culture and creative industries in SMSC are levers
to market the city, to create jobs and submarkets. Because of their ability to be an
important location factor to attract companies and households, a vivid cultural sector
and creative industries can foster spillover effects on city development in low-density
areas (STADTart 2013).
A number of SMSC have implemented cultural policies in order either to foster
innovation (KEA 2012), maximise economic, social and/or democratic returns (Regional
cities East 2010) in their territories. Only a few studies have specifically focused on the
particularities of the culture-led approach in relation to the development of SMSC.
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The recommendations presented at the end of this study (see on page 40) are notably based on the
findings of the workshop.
