I was a plenary speaker at a major European Commission conference in Brussels, celebrating 25 years of the European Capital of Culture programme. You will find some material from the conference on here. The second day of the conference saw some great discussions emerging from the morning panel on legacy and impact of European Capitals…
Lessons and legacies from researching Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture The five year Impacts 08 research programme I have directed since 2006 culminated with a major international conference in Liverpool on the 12th March 2010. This conference officially launched the final report on the impacts of Liverpool hosting the European Capital of Culture title in…
Presentation to the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad / Creative Programmers meeting in Liverpool, 19th November 2008 Summary: By 2012, cultural programming at the Olympics will be in its 100th year. Programming has evolved from medal-awarding Olympic Arts Competitions into Olympic Arts Exhibitions and since 1988 (in the lead to the Barcelona 1992 Games), four year…
Perspectives from a policy analyst / researcher 2007, March 7 In January 2007, I was invited by the artists think tank MidWest to contribute to a series of discussions on the role of artists in policy-making under the common title ‘Know Your Place’. My involvement started with a conversation with a group of artists from…
Garcia, B. (2007) ‘Symbolic maps of the city: Visualising conflicting narratives to capture the meaning(s) of place’ in: Mapping the City Seminar, Impacts 08, CAVA, City in Film and Institute for Popular Music, Liverpool (7 Nov) In the context of culture-led regeneration initiatives, the representation of a city becomes a strongly contested issue. Local…
Garcia, B. (2007) ‘The creative legacy of the Olympic Games. The symbolic dimension of the Games as a basis for cultural sustainability ‘, in: Cultural and Creative Impact of the 2012 Games, Creative Clusters, Session hosted by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, London (9 Nov 2007) [presentation] The modern Olympic Games were founded…
Garcia, B. ‘City of style… and substance. Tracing the legacy of 1990 on Glasgow’s creative communities’, presented at: Creative Clusters Conference (Belfast, October 23-26, 2005) [powerpoint slides] Glasgow’s reign as 1990 European City of Culture is regarded as a successful example of culture-led regeneration. Claims of success focus on Glasgow’s ability to use a cultural…
Garcia, B. “Exchanging culture for style… Glasgow’s image transformation from ‘City of Culture’ into ‘Scotland with Style’ (1983-2004)”, presented at: Festivals and Events: Beyond Economic Impacts, Leisure Studies Association Annual Conference, Napier University (Edinburgh, July 6-8, 2005) [powerpoint slides] This paper explores discussions around city marketing and event branding strategies as catalysts in the…
Paper presented in: 3rd International Conference on Cultural Policy Research, HEC Montreal (25-28 August, 2004) [powerpoint slides] 1990 – and Bilbao – opening of the Guggenheim Museum in 1997. Despite the generalised use of cultural initiatives as catalysts for urban regeneration, it is not frequent to find parallel developments in city-specific cultural policies. This has…
Garcia, B. (2004) “Communicating Diversity through Major Events. The case of Cultureshock, North West Cultural Programme of the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games“, presented in: Dialeg sobre Comunicacio i Diversitat Cultural, Universal Forum of Cultures, Barcelona 2004 (24-27 May 2004) [powerpoint slides] Major events can act as powerful catalysts to embrace and communicate cultural diversity. This…
Garcia, B. (2004) “Second to what? Glasgow’s Cultural Role in Scotland, the UK and beyond” presented in: Second Cities Symposium, Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies, University of Glasgow (Glasgow, 30 April – 1 May, 2004) [powerpoint slides] Traditionally known as the ‘Second City of the British Empire’, Glasgow’s history as a world leading industrial…