Arts and Culture

Cities around the world are building urban cultural life as a way to develop local economies and revitalize urban centers. But they have done less to recognize and systematically promote the cultural lives of urban neighborhoods and their residents. This brief examines four characteristics of city cultural policy that affect cultural development and cultural life in neighborhoods. The brief is informed by policy forums held by The Living Cultures Project in New Orleans in 2008-2009 to address key policy issues confronting neighborhood and cultural life.

New research on arts and culture points to a range of impacts in US communities. Arts and culture - including informal activities such as gatherings in parks and community centers where group traditions are maintained and/or invented, church-based artistic activity, and through the convergence of professional working artists in neighborhoods - shape communities in a variety of ways ranging from community health to community development and the creation of social capital. Planners and policymakers would do well to incorporate new research findings about arts and culture into their work on the design and revitalization of communities

There is a significant correlation between the amount of amateur, informal arts activity in neighborhoods and neighborhood stability and/or improvement. This correlation is evidence of magnetization - an increase in the desirability, commitment, social integration, and quality of life in a community area. Arts create shared experience, they encourage intergenerational activity and make public spaces enjoyable, among other effects. For those reasons, components of comprehensive community development should include space for amateur and semi-professional activity.

On September 17, 2008, Anne Kubisch of The Aspen Institute presented an interactive discussion entitled "Restoring Vibrant Communities." She presented lessons learned from comprehensive community change initiatives that can help inform rebuilding of neighborhoods in New Orleans.

The development of affordable spaces for artists to live and/or work is certainly an important matter for artists, but it can also be an important issue for people concerned with a range of social issues, including economic development, civic engagement, community collective action and community quality of life. This report considers how artist space developments have been positioned and the arguments made to garner support for them, the advocacy strategies used, and the impacts claimed or anticipated.

In 2003, an Urban Institute report concluded that lack of affordable space posed critical constraints in artists’ ability to pursue their work effectively. Scarcity of affordable space not only made it difficult for artists to work but also disrupted entire communities of artists who relied on each other for ideas and support. In response to this finding, this report looks at both a range of ways in which more affordable artist spaces can be created and the impact of artists’ spaces on neighborhoods and cities.

The Making Cities Stronger report, which is based on data from a national survey and case studies from nine sites across the country, provides new insights into the economic impact of public libraries in American cities. The report highlights ways in which library programming in the areas early literacy, employment services, and small business development, contribute to local economic development strategies. The study also identifies ways in which library construction is used to bolster place-based development in a wide variety of settings. Commissioned by the Urban Libraries Council, the study was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

A new volume of essays from the Urban Institute and a recent national policy roundtable in Washington zero in on recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast region and underscore lessons for rebuilding after future disasters.