Art In City Research Articles

Stockholm Literature … and Art

photo : routes north / www . routesnorth . com 96 WLT JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2017 As literary events go, Stockholm Literature is outstanding: a celebration of art and international writing held in Moderna Museet, the museum of modern art in a handsome city, autumnal sunshine glittering on its waterways. The program tempts with onstage conversations between two writers or between a writer and an artist. Some of the participants are already truly famous. This year, the guest list included, for instance, Don DeLillo, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, and Hélène Cixous. Yukiko Duke, the artistic director of Stockholm Literature, is clear about the “fame issue”’: “It is very much not the case that we only invite internationally known writers. We feel that one of our prime aims is to introduce the reading public to writers who are not yet known or even published in Sweden.” In 2016 these included Moses Kilolo (Kenya) representing Jalada Africa, a pan-African writers’ collective; Hiromi Itō (Japan, based in the US); Samanta Schweblin (Argentina), Saša Stanišić (Bosnia -Herzegovina, based in Germany); and Dorit Rabinyan (Iran and Israel). Apart from the onstage talks, about which more later, the program featured readings of works in translation, talks on and prizes for translation, roving poetry readings in the museum collections, and live performances. The art component is central. Duke emphasizes how much it matters: though “we don’t have any kind of quotas to meet—just try to match writers and artists who might have something to say to each other—we always ask someone from the fine arts, but otherwise it could be any kind of art form—a performance artist, maybe, or a composer.” The art museum setting is vital. This year, one of the poetry readings took place as part of viewing United Enemies, a thought-provoking collection of works by Thomas Schütte (Germany). Another example: Sjón (Iceland) and his translator John Swedenmark talked about Sjón’s novel, which is set in 1918, surrounded by art from that period. Stockholm’s cultural establishment is sophisticated, self-confident, and wealthy. Even so, this amazingly diverse, culturally rich book fest started off as a symptom of an insecure publishing industry: “difficult” books struggle, and translated works are all the more vulnerable. About a decade ago, two concerned people—one, a journalist and translator; the other, a producer and literary agent—came up with a festival concept that would focus on foreign literature , translation, and the arts. It took off with the right kind of backers: by 2013, the first program included Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria), Teju Cole (US), and Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus; Nobel Prize laureate in 2015). What were the highpoints in 2016? The opening ceremony, with readings by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Joanna Kincaid, and Hiromi Itō, all of whom also spoke about identity and language. A session in which Daniel Birnbaum, the director of Moderna Museet, interviewed an unusually animated Don DeLillo about his long-standing interest in contemporary art. But little else could touch the final event that was, for one thing, a demonstration that longevity can be a wonderful gift: a warm, witty conversation between the dramatist and feminist philosopher Hélène Cixous (seventy-nine) and the choreographer and director Mats Ek (seventy-one). They were introduced by actors performing an extract from Cixous’s 1976 play Portrait de Dora (based on one of Freud’s most famous cases) and a short film from 1991, made by Ek, in a mischievous and loving tribute to his mother, the choreographer Birgit Cullberg: Cullberg (eightythree ) danced with two young star dancers. Anna Paterson, an ex-neuroscientist, is now a writer and an award-winning translator from the Germanic languages into English. Her own writing has focused on the relationship between literature and politics. Her most recently published translations are The Chosen Ones, by Steve Sem-Sandberg, and two photo-biographies of the prime minister of Sweden, Olof Palme, and of the secretary general of the UN, Dag Hammarskjöld. Stockholm Literature . . . and Art by Anna Paterson Outpost Skeppsholmen Island in central Stockholm, home of Moderna Museet where the Stockholm Literature festival takes place. ...

Stockholm Literature … and Art

photo : routes north / www . routesnorth . com 96 WLT JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2017 As literary events go, Stockholm Literature is outstanding: a celebration of art and international writing held in Moderna Museet, the museum of modern art in a handsome city, autumnal sunshine glittering on its waterways. The program tempts with onstage conversations between two writers or between a writer and an artist. Some of the participants are already truly famous. This year, the guest list included, for instance, Don DeLillo, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, and Hélène Cixous. Yukiko Duke, the artistic director of Stockholm Literature, is clear about the “fame issue”’: “It is very much not the case that we only invite internationally known writers. We feel that one of our prime aims is to introduce the reading public to writers who are not yet known or even published in Sweden.” In 2016 these included Moses Kilolo (Kenya) representing Jalada Africa, a pan-African writers’ collective; Hiromi Itō (Japan, based in the US); Samanta Schweblin (Argentina), Saša Stanišić (Bosnia -Herzegovina, based in Germany); and Dorit Rabinyan (Iran and Israel). Apart from the onstage talks, about which more later, the program featured readings of works in translation, talks on and prizes for translation, roving poetry readings in the museum collections, and live performances. The art component is central. Duke emphasizes how much it matters: though “we don’t have any kind of quotas to meet—just try to match writers and artists who might have something to say to each other—we always ask someone from the fine arts, but otherwise it could be any kind of art form—a performance artist, maybe, or a composer.” The art museum setting is vital. This year, one of the poetry readings took place as part of viewing United Enemies, a thought-provoking collection of works by Thomas Schütte (Germany). Another example: Sjón (Iceland) and his translator John Swedenmark talked about Sjón’s novel, which is set in 1918, surrounded by art from that period. Stockholm’s cultural establishment is sophisticated, self-confident, and wealthy. Even so, this amazingly diverse, culturally rich book fest started off as a symptom of an insecure publishing industry: “difficult” books struggle, and translated works are all the more vulnerable. About a decade ago, two concerned people—one, a journalist and translator; the other, a producer and literary agent—came up with a festival concept that would focus on foreign literature , translation, and the arts. It took off with the right kind of backers: by 2013, the first program included Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria), Teju Cole (US), and Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus; Nobel Prize laureate in 2015). What were the highpoints in 2016? The opening ceremony, with readings by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Joanna Kincaid, and Hiromi Itō, all of whom also spoke about identity and language. A session in which Daniel Birnbaum, the director of Moderna Museet, interviewed an unusually animated Don DeLillo about his long-standing interest in contemporary art. But little else could touch the final event that was, for one thing, a demonstration that longevity can be a wonderful gift: a warm, witty conversation between the dramatist and feminist philosopher Hélène Cixous (seventy-nine) and the choreographer and director Mats Ek (seventy-one). They were introduced by actors performing an extract from Cixous’s 1976 play Portrait de Dora (based on one of Freud’s most famous cases) and a short film from 1991, made by Ek, in a mischievous and loving tribute to his mother, the choreographer Birgit Cullberg: Cullberg (eightythree ) danced with two young star dancers. Anna Paterson, an ex-neuroscientist, is now a writer and an award-winning translator from the Germanic languages into English. Her own writing has focused on the relationship between literature and politics. Her most recently published translations are The Chosen Ones, by Steve Sem-Sandberg, and two photo-biographies of the prime minister of Sweden, Olof Palme, and of the secretary general of the UN, Dag Hammarskjöld. Stockholm Literature . . . and Art by Anna Paterson Outpost Skeppsholmen Island in central Stockholm, home of Moderna Museet where the Stockholm Literature festival takes place. ...

Medium-small sized art cities and culture-led development: Can we look ahead and not behind?

Medium-small sized art cities and culture-led development: Can we look ahead and not behind?

Inter-species encounters at the “Hexa-Hives”

The Hexa-Hives illustrate how an outdoor live installation (landscaped garden installation) can serve as incentive for inter-species encounters and at the same time challenge the paradigm of conventional beekeeping. The Hexa-Hive is an experimental hive, designed to both host honeybees and serve as outdoor furniture for humans. Since 2012, the Hexa-Hive has been a semi-permanent installation in Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden of Helsinki.A further development, the Hexa-Hive Village was first installed at the campus of Aalto University, in Otaniemi, Finland in 2013. Launched as artistic intervention, the Hexa-Hive village became a landscaped area hosting honeybees and inviting people to hang out.In 2014, a further development - the installation “Hexa-Hive Village with Airstrip for Bees” - was exhibited as part of the art exhibition “Semi-Wild Gardens” at Kouvola city art museum and in 2016, the installation was placed in Tarja Halonen Park, a public area in the centre of Helsinki.The article explores the effects of the installation assessed via a questionnaire. The findings include the emergence of a “garden quality” around the “Hexa-Hive”, the increase of local faunal and floral diversity and the notion of wilderness in the city. The concept of urban acupuncture and the mental and psychological value of public gardens for humans are described as features of the installation.The Hexa-Hive is part of Melliferopolis and was launched in Helsinki in 2012. The activities comprise exhibitions, workshops, installations and lectures.www.melliferopolis.net

Arts in Cities - Cities in Arts

The presence of cities in art and the presence of art in cities are two fields which have often been studied separately, be it by different disciplines (history, geography, sociology, etc.) or by various approaches within a single discipline (cultural geography or urban geography for example). Nevertheless, the increasing visibility of culture in general, and art in particular (see Debroux’s paper in this issue), in cities since the end of the 20th century tends to challenge this strict separation. Indeed, art is more and more understood as an integral part of the urban fabric in a post-industrial era. Not only are the spaces and places of art in cities being redefined, but so are its functions and relations to the urban environment. Consequently, one can wonder to what extent art – in its various forms (sculptures, murals, performances, etc.) – is urbanized in that process and the degrees to which cities are subsequently aestheticized or “artialized” (Roger, 1997). This line of inquiry explains why art is becoming a subject as well as an object (Volvey, 2014) or even a method for geographers (Hawkins, 2011), and more specifically for urban geographers, urban planners and urbanists (Vivant, 2006; Gresillon, 2010; Molina, 2010; Boichot, 2012; Debroux, 2012; Zebracki, 2012; Guinard, 2014). But of course, the spatial and urban approach of art is not exempt from theoretical and methodological issues. How could urban geographers, urban planners or urbanists study not only art in cities but also cities in art? Are there specific tools they might use to do so? To what extent can a spatial and urban approach of art be distinguishable from the one offered by other research fields such as the sociology of art or art history? This thematic journal issue explores the potential theoretical and empirical inputs that a spatial and urban approach of art can bring to the understanding of both arts and cities. Previous researches have already explored a city or several cities in a transversal perspective and on the urban scale in order to analyze cultural and artistic urban politics and the role they play in urban development (Ducret 1994; Landry 1995, 2000; Allen 2000, 2005; Sibertin-Blanc 2008; Gresillon 2014). But the studies that explore the relations between arts and cities and the urban spaces at a finer scale are still fragmented, either according to geographical areas (primarily North America, Europe, East Asia, and secondarily Middle East, Africa, etc.) or artistic media (public art, visual art, music, dance, cinema, literature, etc.). By bringing together innovative and original researches that investigate different urban contexts – with different locations or sizes (Atlanta, Los Angeles, Lyon, Paris, Palestinian refugees’ camps, Rio de Janeiro, Toulouse) – and various forms of art (contemporary art, street art, cinema, music), this issue intends to overcome this fragmentation by building bridges between cities and arts. The importance of comparison in the papers (see for instance Guillard and Pleven’s one as well as Bouhaddou and Kullmann’s one in this issue) reflects this attempt to consider together various types of cities and arts in order to better understand their points of divergence and convergence. Exploring simultaneously “cities in arts” and “arts in the cities” involves analyzing the plurality and complexity of the links between cities, societies and arts. Thus, this issue combines an internal analysis of the artworks (to highlight the question of urban representation in arts) and an external analysis of artworks (to question the co-production of arts and cities and the reception of art works in an urban context). Comparative reading within and in-between the papers in this issue will outline common concerns related to the capacity of arts to participate, to transform, to contest or to reveal the way cities are produced, as well as the capacities of cities and urban places to participate in art making.

Topography and Frontier: Gibellina's City of Art

Topography and Frontier: Gibellina's City of Art

Aesthetics of bridging solutions of Santiago Calatrava

Bridges and viaducts are not only engineering solutions, ensuring the possibility to overcome obstacles and communication – they are also a spatial elements, visible in the city landscape. For centuries, it was attempted to give the bridges an interesting shape; they were sometimes specific gates to the cities, too – the example here can be the famous bridge in Avignon. Also today they are the expression of styles and trends in architecture, often designed by renowned artists. Additionally, bridges increasingly often become the spatial dominants, constructions clearly silhouetted against the greenery or urban tissue, the contemporary symbols of the cities. Santiago Calatrava, one of the leading Spanish architects and designer of, among others, the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, is the creator of not only enclosed structures. His works also include numerous bridges, viaducts and walkways, among others: “Puente De La Mujer” in Buenos Aires, the “Sundial” bridge in Redding and the “Katehaki Bridge” footbridge in Athens. He creates sculptural works in reinforced concrete, combining the sublime sense of aesthetics with sophisticated engineering. Light, openwork, white constructionsare both practical and extraordinarily appealing.

The features of content and playwriting art in Ho Chi Minh City’s contemporary play

Since the last decade of the twentieth century, Ho Chi Minh City has become one of the Vietnamese lively dramatic literature and theater centers. During the past twenty years, together with dramatic theater, Ho Chi Minh City’s dramatic literature has built up a professional playwriter force, providing audiences plays which reflect the conflicts between human’s life in the time of Vietnam’s reformation and integration. Besides, these plays have contributed experiences in acquiring and applying the world modern playwriting techniques to suit Vietnamese’s drama reception habits.
 This paper generally provides content feature (focus on conflicts) and playwriting art feature (focus on plots, characteristics, dialogue language construction and the acquirement of new art techniques in Ho Chi Minh City’s contemporary literary scripts), contributing to the evaluation and summary of Ho Chi Minh City’s dramatic literature during the past.

Sustainable Smart City: Masdar (UAE) (A City: Ecologically Balanced)

Background/Objectives: In future, billions of devices are going to connect to Future Internet (FI) to provide quality life to citizens. However energy sources for devices connection are limited. In this context, building Sustainable Smart Cities on natural energy resources is essential. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The data is collected from secondary sources i.e. online databases during the period of 2/12/2014-1/5/2015. Google search engine is used mainly for questing the articles. The data is in qualitative format including text, pictures, sound and videos. Since this article is based on exploratory study and case methodology, content analysis is done. Thematic coding is done grounded on the main keywords relating to smart cities dimensions. Findings: Main objectives of this research article are to see the sights of Smart Cities concepts. This article is also focusing on the state of art of Sustainable Masdar Smart City (UAE). As city’s name sounds “Masdar” which means “source” in Arabic, this city will be rich enough in renewable energy sources and sustainable buildings. The authors found that this Sustainable Smart City is completely energy efficient through solar. Furthermore, the authors discovered sustainable intelligent buildings of 1. IRENA’s Global Head Quarter. 2. Siemens Smart Building and 3. Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. City is designed completely based on ecofriendly of water, air and soil. Applications/Improvements: Sustainable Smart Cities are basically emphasize on optimum natural energy utilization in terms of solar, water, air and tidal. Soil and local materials are also place an important role in constitution of ecofriendly cities.

Flood risk assessment in art cities: the exemplary case of Florence (Italy)

AbstractFlood risk assessment is a crucial step for flood risk management purposes, thus answering the requirements of the European Flood Directive 60/2007/EC (European Commission). In this work, a census data scale, which has been considered as a good compromise between spatial resolution and availability of open socio‐economic data, is adopted for risk analysis. The damage categories included are structures, household contents and the most representative economic activities in the city of Florence (Italy). Moreover, since Florence is an important art city, a preliminary evaluation of risk to cultural heritage is carried out. Data from hydraulic simulations, historical reports of the devastating 1966 flood and the cultural heritage recognition sheets allow estimating and mapping the annual expected number of works of art lost in the absence of risk mitigation strategies.

Drama in Ho Chi Minh City literature and art life

In the history of Vietnamese drama, Saigon was one of the places absorbing Western drama from the early time. Although drama in Saigon-Ho Chi Minh City didn’t develop in a smooth and straight way, it was a continuous and unbroken process. This process brought in strong development of drama in Ho Chi Minh city in two decades of the late 20th century and the early 21st century. However, in recent years, drama in Ho Chi Minh City seems to proceed slowly, which reflects some irrational aspects from drama script, performance art to performance operation. Therefore, it’s high time to review the whole history of drama in Saigon-Ho Chi Minh City to collect experiences for the steady development of drama in this City in the future.

Economic Valuation of Cultural Goods (Case Study: Isfahan City of Arts)

In today’s world, no one can deny the expansion of economic influence in the various aspects of social life and economization of immaterial issues of social life is becoming more obvious every day. The valuation of cultural goods, as one of the most important economic aspects related to arts and culture, is chosen to be considered in this study. The necessity of considering the economic valuation of the arts and culture comes from the competition between different public and merit goods which seek government. Considering this, the present study is conducted in order to determine the economic value of “Isfahan City of Arts” as a cultural center which is planned to be built in Isfahan as the largest center of supplying, educating and presenting cultural and artistic events in the whole country. In order to make this happen, we need to know how people value different parts and activities of this complex. Regarding different strength and week points of various economic valuation techniques, the Choice Experiment method (CE), as one the most efficient methodologies in estimating different aspects of nonmarket goods, has been used in this study for measuring WTP estimates. The results indicate that among eleven activities (aspects) of the complex, all activities, except for galleries, had positive and significant effects on choosing designed scenarios, and among the listed activities, Concert Hall, Cineplex and Fashion Hall had, relatively, the highest willingness to payment.

The Idea of Bildung in the Current Educational Discourse: A Response to Irene Heidt

Author(s): Hu, Adelheid | Abstract: It is surprising that there is a young academic in 2015 working intensively on the German philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835) and his concept of Bildung. In times where – as the author states herself – educational systems globally tend to follow neoliberal principles and where the visibility, commodification, and instrumentalization of knowledge produce a “culture of performativity” (Masschelein a Simons, 2006, p. 19) within a so-called knowledge society, Humboldt’s ideas about Bildung seem very far away from the current mainstream thinking and policy making. But maybe it is just because of this current dominance of neoliberalism in education that it is worth remembering a philosopher and linguist who developed a neo-humanistic concept of Bildung which emphasizes a process of holistic growth, self-realization of the individual as an entirety, freedom, and self-understanding as well as a sense of social responsibility, and which puts the development of the individual’s unique potential and self at the center of educational processes. In her paper the author not only analyses Humboldt’s philosophical concept of Bildung itself but traces the process of its institutionalization in which Humboldt himself, having become a Secretary of Education under Frederick III, was actively involved. Heidt analyses how the concept of Bildung lost the impetus of freedom and autonomous agency and became an instrument for selection and an agent for social and cultural reproduction, discipline, and control. Today’s concept of Bildung is very much – according to Heidt – influenced by neoliberal thinking and so much altered as to become hardly recognizable. For Heidt, Bildung – similar to Humboldt’s concept but at the same time radically transformed – can only be found outside of educational institutions, e.g., in social networks or street art in cosmopolitan big cities. Bildung, according to the author’s main hypothesis, paradoxically no longer takes place in globally stratified educational institutions, but in a kind of alternative counter world and very much through the medium of language.

A trial business evaluation of city art festival in Aizu area, Fukushima prefecture

A trial business evaluation of city art festival in Aizu area, Fukushima prefecture

For necessity or pleasure? Towards a politics of artists’ mobilities

Abstract There is a great deal of literature on east–west European migration that argues that push factors for moving West are discrepancies in economic situation and living standards. The British press similarly says that there is ‘a new wave of labour migration’ of those ‘seeking out better wages’. However, what is not asked is whether there are any other kinds of movement from Eastern Europe. This article will, instead, look at Eastern European migration through the lens of artists. However, artists are not normal migrators as they take part in a perpetual movement across Europe. Their particular type of short-term, multi-directional movement can be better described as mobility. In order to demonstrate this, I explore the mobility patterns of artists from the Baltic cities of Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius, where cross-border movement out of these emerging art cities is vital for survival and for getting onto the global art market. While these artists might be seen as an elite mobile class who can move at ease, I will dispel this myth by charting the underlying politics of their mobilities.

Urban Development and Cultural Policy “White Elephants”: Barcelona and Valencia

The importance of culture in defining new models of local development has been increasingly emphasized. However, less attention has been paid to the influence of local development models on local cultural policy. This article will focus on analysing two cities that have used culture as a central element in their economic and urban development. In both cases, they have followed different strategies but the two have finally finished generating two “white elephants”: the Universal Forum of Cultures in the case of Barcelona and the City of Arts and Sciences in the case of Valencia. From a comparison of the two cases, the paper analyses the causes of this urban phenomenon, which combines cultural legitimation, wasteful investments, financial and social unsustainability and, last but not least, corruption. These four characteristics of cultural white elephants express the depletion of a neoliberal city model based on real estate speculation and tourism, which de facto relegates culture – in spite of discourses about social cohesion and sustainability – as an instrument of urban branding and elite socio-economic domination.

Towards Understanding Employability Using Images: An Exploratory Study

This paper examines employability in the context of conceptual and political issues surrounding it. Drawing on self determination theory (SDT), we conceptualize that self and understanding of what the self intrinsically values may have a significant impact on securing employment and sustaining it. This can be best captured through both linguistic forms of self expression like words and languages as well as non linguistic forms like images. Both narratives and images transcend the constraints imposed by discursive practices in alien languages (English, other Indian Languages). However, images and descriptions of self-images give more information teleologically. Since the idea of possibility is inherent in the concept of “employ-ability” images and projection of possible selves is immediate through images. While research has looked at possible selves in the lives of youth, they have not done using images as a tool. In this exploratory study, four colleges were purposively chosen and depending on the feasibility, students selected themselves. To arrest the triggering of stereotypes, the workshop mode was used and the students were given sufficient time to work through a simple task. One hundred forty-three students studying in 2nd and 3rd year of city arts and science colleges were given the task to identify 3 pictures/images that best represent their self. For cross-validation, they were also asked to write a few lines to explain why/in what personal manner, the image represents the word. The words that emerged from the students as descriptions of the images represented the core values of the student/s. The images and the explanations were content analyzed. The themes that emerge are described. The effect of gender is not controlled as this is an exploratory study. We feel that the effect of culture are accentuated in this study and therefore need not be controlled. Although a cross cultural comparison was not done, it certainly could be taken as further area of research. The paper describes the themes and proposes that certain themes may be useful in understanding employability. The limitation of the study and the implications are discussed.

MEMPERKUAT CITRA PARIWISATA BUDAYA: DENPASAR SEBAGAI NOMINASI JARINGAN KOTA KREATIF UNESCO

UNESCO has long been known as one of the elements that support cultural heritage conservation. In 2004, UNESCO began to build and trigger the birth of a new creativity by developing concept of creative city network which is divided into several themes, such as design, music, literature, film, media art, gastronomy, crafts and folk art. In line with the concept of tourism and creative economy that is actively promoted by Indonesian Ministry of Tourism, several cities in Indonesia have been trying to join the network, one of them is Denpasar. With all the cultural potencies owned, in 2014 Denpasar governments proposed to join UNESCO creative city network as a ‘Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art’, where it can provide an opportunity for artist and crafters of Denpasar to introduce and interact with other creative city, notably in terms on how to develop local culture in globalization. This study contributes on evaluating strengths, weakness, challenges and opportunities as well as discovering efforts which should be obtained by Denpasar based on the criteria and characteristics served as a guide to join UNESCO creative cities network.

Santiago Calatrava and the ‘Power of Faith’: Global Imaginaries in Valencia

AbstractThe focus of this article is on the importance of collective imaginaries for urban policy mobility, and on the agents and modes of power through which imaginaries are translated, mobilized and become materialized in specific places. Through the case study of the monumental complex of the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, designed by Valencian global architect Santiago Calatrava, I discuss Calatrava's mobilization of ideas of modernity, tradition, democratization and self‐esteem already present in the collective imaginary of the people and the politicians of post‐Franco's Spain to promote his global architecture. In this process, I argue, global imaginaries were translated into local imaginaries and vice versa as they became embodied in persons and objects, represented in this case by Calatrava's figure as a local/global architect and by the architecture of the City of Arts and Sciences. Particularly, I analyse Calatrava's use of the power of seduction, persuasion and coercion to mobilize such imaginaries in order to build his ubiquitous signature architecture in Valencia.

Innovations and innovators in a resilient city: The case of chemical innovations after the 1966 flood in Florence

Over the last decade, the debate on local systems and innovation has been enriched thanks to the ecological approach, as well as to the application of the concept of resilience. Resilience is not only the capacity to absorb shock while maintaining function, but also the capacities for renewal, reorganisation and development. This “adaptive capacity” may be considered in creative approaches as a “creative capacity”, able to generate ideas and innovations after a shock in a creative milieu, such as a creative city.This paper aims to contribute to the still under-researched debate on resilience and innovation, integrating the resilience approach within the creative one, as well as developing the still-neglected idea of a creative and resilient city. We focus on the city of Florence and on the innovations in conservation sciences developed after the 1966 flood.Combining these perspectives, we consider the city of art a creative and resilient system, not only to absorb shocks, but also to transform and renew itself through a “creative adaptive capacity”, where cultural and art heritage may both be sources of innovation and of resilience.We investigate lateral and transversal innovations developed from cross-fertilisation processes in the scientific and humanistic knowledge embedded in the territory. In particular, we focus on the innovations in the chemistry in conservation sciences of cultural heritage developed by a scientific network rooted in Florence. The flood was the starting point of the rise of a new innovative trajectory, forming a new scientific niche in modern conservation sciences.