What is culture-led regeneration?

Beatriz Garcia

I am the director of the Impacts 08 research programme on the impacts of hosting the European Capital of Culture (ECOC) year in Liverpool in 2008. My work as a researcher and academic has focussed on the notion of culture-led regeneration. The term has now become common place, but it came into use around 20 – 25 years ago. It denotes the opportunities for the transformation and regeneration of places through cultural activity. It tends to be relevant for cities that have gone through big economic changes, places that may have lost their industrial base and have needed to reinvent themselves through cultural and art activity. The UK has a strong tradition of culture-led regeneration. In fact places like Glasgow in the 1980s and 1990s were at the forefront of the discussion. Glasgow hosted the European Capital of Culture title in 1990 and was the first city to make the case to the European Commission that this title could be utilised not only to celebrate cities that were already recognised as cultural centres but to help other cities develop their cultural scene in order to move forward. Glasgow did this very successfully and in fact Liverpool followed in Glasgow’s footsteps and used the discourse of culture-led regeneration as one of its core foundations.

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Beatriz Garcia

Beatriz Garcia

Director of Impacts 08 in Liverpool, United Kingdom

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