Art District Research Articles

Pictures on walls? Producing, pricing and collecting the street art screen print

When graffiti writing was transferred onto canvas for sale during the Manhattan art boom of the 1980s, it was widely felt to have ‘sold out’ to the exploitative interests of the art establishment and become a ‘post‐graffiti’ art movement. In contrast, recent British street art demonstrates the capacity to be both more critical and complicit in the influential spheres of art and commerce. Yet, despite growing recognition of these ‘new directions in graffiti art’, there remains little critical attention to how such post‐graffiti aesthetic practices are mobilized, not simply by the heroic tactics of the lone male street artist, but by a significant body of cultural intermediaries, institutions and firms. Established in 2002 by the notorious street artist, Banksy, and his agent, the photographer Steve Lazarides, Pictures on Walls Ltd (POW) was a company that in many ways stood at the cutting edge of these developments. As such, it serves as a rich case study of the ways street art can be understood as a sophisticated form of creative industry. Specifically, as a key way of buying into the street art scene, the limited edition POW screen print is used here to exemplify a cultural economy that is both rooted in the contemporary city, and poised at an intersection between the urban and the virtual. Following the printing, pricing and collecting of such products, this research traces street art from its production in the fashionable art district of Hoxton, east London, and into the everyday lives of a passionate group of Internet collectors and fans.

Olympic Beijing: Reflections on Urban Space and Global Connectivity

This essay examines the urban legacies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The impact of the Olympics is not only confined to media coverage and city branding effects, but can also be located in the intensified global connectivity reshaping urban spaces in Beijing. Focusing on art space, heritage space, and new state space (i.e. state-sponsored mega-projects), this article traces intertwining global and local connections forged in the arts, preservation and infrastructure development that have integrated Beijing closely into the global city network. Although these processes would have occurred without the games, the 2008 Olympics, as a socio-political ritual with important economic implications, has intensified the magnitude of global connectivity of Beijing. The spatial production of Olympic Beijing also reveals the conflicted urban legacies of the games, as seen in the commercialization of art districts, gentrification of historic neighbourhoods, and solidification of state power by use of new architectural monuments.

THE ART OF SCIENCE

THE NEW MUSEUM and conference center at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) in Philadelphia is not your typical science museum. Call it an art gallery for science. To emphasize the new museum’s gallery role, CHF scheduled the opening for First Friday—a monthly open house for galleries in Philadelphia’s Old City art district. Approximately 500 visitors attended the opening, according to Miriam Fisher Schaefer, CHF’s vice president for finance and administration. “The response from visitors was immensely satisfying,” she says. And people have continued to visit since the opening. “We have been pleasantly surprised by the number of visitors, all of whom have nothing but complimentary things to say,” she reports. The museum is part of a $20 million renovation of a Civil War-era bank building. Previous visitors who remember the rabbit warren of offices that the galleries have replaced will appreciate the floor-to-ceiling windows that bathe the room with natural light. The large open ...

Art and power in the new China: An exploration of Beijing's 798 district and its implications for contemporary urbanism

This article explores urban change in the Chinese context, specifically in terms of the creation of Beijing's Dashanzi Arts District, also known as 798. As the fusing of the cultural and economic now defines cities within the post-industrial economy, Beijing is recognising the symbolic importance of the arts within its financial system and urban image construction. The campaign for and establishment of the arts district demonstrates not only a political awareness of the economic power behind cultural districts, but also the increasing pluralisation of power within Chinese society. This paper will focus on how the 798 Arts District has been branded, first unofficially by its original artists to preserve the industrial area and then officially to promote Beijing as a global city. In relation to the cultural shift in Chinese urban policy and the global utilisation of arts districts in urban image construction, it will discuss how the area is both a result of and an influence on China's contemporary culture. It also explores the possible gentrification consequences of the area's establishment and places such a scenario within the increasingly global (yet still overwhelmingly Eurocentric) reach of gentrification research.

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES AND URBAN REVITALIZATION

Municipal governments around the globe increasingly turn to museums, performing arts centers, arts districts, and other cultural activities to promote and revitalize their cities. While a significant body of literature examines revitalization strategies that focus primarily around entertainment and commerce, the empirical body of research that specifically investigates the role of cultural strategies in urban redevelopment is still growing. This paper first discusses the development of municipal cultural strategies in the United States, and draws from the literature to outline the characteristics of three different models of such strategies. Second, the paper presents findings from a national survey distributed to municipal agencies involved in the promotion and development of cultural activities and facilities in large and medium‐sized US cities. The survey data indicate that although most agencies are guided by a varied set of goals, entrepreneurial objectives continue to guide the development and support of cultural activities in most cities.

Making Space for Art : the Culture Debate and the Studio Arts Movement in Hong-Kong

In Hong Kong, the recent emergence of studio arts districts is taking place in the context of public debate over state visions of cultural facilities and creative industries. While government invests in a planned culture district, artists struggle for working space in an environment of volatile rents. To contribute to a critical geography of art, this discussion engages the struggle to produce contemporary and alternative art in Hong Kong after 1997 at the theoretical intersection of the production of space, cultural political economy and the Deleuzian idea of art as sensation.

Creative Industries in Beijing: Initial Thoughts

This article reports on current developments within “creative industries” in Beijing. The article discusses Dashanzi Art District and the Created in China Industrial Alliance in relation to such issues as labor, intellectual-property regimes, real-estate speculation, high-tech development zones, promotional cultures and the global variability of neoliberal capitalism. The article maintains that creative industries, as realizations of a policy concept undergoing international dissemination, are most accurately understood as cultural practices in trans-local settings that overlap with larger national and geopolitical forces.

街づくり専門組織による地区の再活性化戦略と実践手法に関する研究 : 米国セントポール市ロウアータウン地区における「芸術地区」の形成過程を事例に(都市計画)

街づくり専門組織による地区の再活性化戦略と実践手法に関する研究 : 米国セントポール市ロウアータウン地区における「芸術地区」の形成過程を事例に(都市計画)

Renaissance City Singapore: a study of arts spaces

The study of ‘arts spaces’ has generally focused on physical spaces for the arts in the form of arts districts, cultural infrastructure and museum spaces. Apart from the provision of such physical spaces, we argue that the study of the arts should also focus on such aspects as the social environments and the creative spaces in which artists operate. Such a holistic approach not only facilitates an understanding of the myriad challenges artists face in society, but also opens greater research opportunities to geographers interested in the arts. Our case study of Singapore as a ‘Global City for the Arts’ provides insights into physical spaces of the arts as well as the social and creative environments in which the arts operate.

Table of Contents

AbstractIRS Issues Final Intermediate Sanctions RegulationsCharity Permitted to Administer PAC Payroll Deduction PlanCemetery Association Ruled Able to Utilize For‐Profit Subsidiary for Pet CemeteryArts District Ruled to Be Political Subdivision for Gift Deduction PurposesBBB Wise Giving Alliance Issues Draft Standards for AccountabilityOther Developments