Topic for Discussion: Tourism in Creative Cities: Expanding Access to Urban Arts Scenes

My fellowship will run February - April and will greatly benefit from the JNBC community and my peers making comments and suggestions.

Please post comments! (well, edit the page to get them into the various areas of questions)

TO MY PEERS OUTSIDE OF THE JNBC COMMUNITY - this page is password protected. So feel free to email comments directly to me and I'll add them in accordingly, with or without your contacts as you wish.

Email me at – margiebutler@mac.com Are you interested in attending a roundtable discussion in early April after I do my visits to other cities? If yes, please email me.

Tourism in Creative Cities: Expanding Access to Urban Arts Scenes

Is it possible for the underlying “organic” layer of city arts and culture to become more seamlessly connected to tourism audiences and the general public? Stemming from my involvement in New Bedford’s cultural urban revitalization and my personal interest in exploring creative cities, this is my central question will frame my Spring 2008 fellowship here at JNBC. At a time when many cities are looking to establish a sense of place and economic activity via the creative sector, there is widespread acknowledgement that the urban fabric of smaller arts venues, individual artists, informal events and creative neighborhoods is valued, downright cool and in need of greater support. Yet it appears that this fragile and fascinating cultural layer, the layer that in my view provides the foundation for a city’s much sought after “creative economy” movement, still goes unseen or under experienced by the vast majority of tourists and general public audiences. Is this gap one that can be bridged? …that should be bridged? If so, what would it look like to present cultural tourism in this space and could it boost the sustainability of these core urban cultural scenes? Many questions and little time. It is all interconnected.

In speaking about the “organic” layer of arts, I mean to refer to everything just under the scale of a city’s major museums, galleries, and performing arts venues which regularly make it on a visitors “to do” list. Bringing my focus to the public’s interaction, or lack there of, with this organic layer of culture causes me to point out the possible reluctance that may exist on either side (either the core arts community wishing to remain outside the mainstream or the general public not finding these less formal cultural experiences of interest). This may be true in part. However, with growing entrepreneurism in the arts and the general public’s burgeoning interest in creativity, I do not believe this is the only context at work. I imagine that this divide is at times simply a function of tourism and the organic arts scene happening in vastly different channels and spaces.

More than a question of marketing, furthering access to this organic layer of cultural tourism contains the challenge of identifying and articulating the common ground (interests, topics, motivations) between outside tourism audiences and the inside local arts community and then establishing new frameworks (events, tours, forums, venues, communications) where connections can be formed. Today there exist what I would term connector type events such as open studios weekends, gallery nights and public art based events. There are also unique efforts including Philadelphia’s arts-based initiative that invites audiences to experience the city’s scene akin to how insiders know it. As I trawl these examples I will seek to understand which cultural dynamics are best elevated and celebrated to develop the urban cultural experience into a far more open and sustainable landscape.

What initiatives exist today which successfully narrow the gap between the outside public and the inside cultural scene of a creative city? (Please suggest and elaborate on locations, names and places I need to explore.)

Philadelphia U Wish U Nu Phili like a local

Portland, ME

Torpedo Factory, Arlington, VA

COOL, Cultural Organization of Lowell , MA

2nd Thursday AHA! Nights, New Bedford, MA

???

What analogues can provide new ways to think about my topic? i.e., if ecotourism is about having tourists participate in the stewardship of the environment – what would the cultural tourism analogue be? (Museum members at the Mystic Seaport are invited annually for a “pilot’s day” to help clean and paint various exhibits. What could art lovers be invited to do?

The 17th century concept of the salon is having a resurgence. How can such forums for exchanging views and mingling amongst cultural topics be extended to broader audiences?

NEW QUESTIONS - SUGGEST TOPICS, MAKE NEW POINTS, etc.

AHA! (art,history,architecture) Project, New Bedford MA Program Director 2003-07

FirstWorksProv festival marketing and PR Fall 2007

MFA (painting) Art Institute Boston June 2006

Prior career in brand strategy & audience research sterling brands 1991-2002