Presentation at AIMAC 2015 (Aix-en-Provence & Marseille) My paper abstract, below: Ever since the widespread acceptance that the arts can have economic value, artistic interventions have been commonly interrogated through an economic and, often, purely instrumental lens. Economic or – at most – socioeconomic effect narratives and associated methodologies to capture such effects have…
The Royal Society of Arts has invited me to speak at their 2015 Engage Series: RSA Connect: Hull, 14 July 2015 This event aims to explore alternative approaches to regeneration through people, culture and enterprise. I will be a facilitator, together with Lia Ghilardi, and will share examples of how we can harness the power of the…
I have been invited by the University of Chicago’s Cultural Policy Center to join an international research gathering at the university’s Paris campus. The event is a select convening of about 25 researchers, practitioners and policymakers around the theme of urban cultural placemaking. It has been organised as part of the Center’s efforts to develop a more international and…
I am in Helsinki presenting the paper ‘The cultural value of event-led city regeneration. What makes a European Capital of Culture sustainable’ . My presentation is part of the international symposium Culture(s) in Sustainable Futures: Theories, Policies, Practices, organised by the University of Jyväskylä as part of a COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) research programme. Find my…
I have contributed to the ‘Llibre Blanc de la Cultura a Terrassa’ (White Book on Culture in Terrassa), published by the local authority (Ajuntament de Terrassa) in March 2015. My paper focuses on a discussion about what makes a ‘capital of culture’ and, more broadly, the range of ways in which cities can express and…
On the 14 & 15 May I am contributing to “The Global City: Past and Present“, as part of an AHRC international research network that interrogates the city and its varied international projections & representations from a historical as well as contemporary perspective. I will present a paper focused on the varied cultural representations of…
Urban Myths? Transforming narratives of place via the media representation of one-off international cultural events Paper presented at: Mediated City – Los Angeles Hosting a major one-off cultural event has become a key aspiration of cities attempting to renew or change their local economic base and position themselves as world, international or national cultural centres.…
From the 1st to the 3rd September I contributed to the second ‘Future of Places’ global conference, hosted in Buenos Aires by the Ax:On Johnson Foundation with support from UN-Habitat. The focus of the conference was debating the role of the streets as public spaces and drivers of urban prosperity. I presented a paper titled: Media Event…
Exploring the contribution of World Heritage Site (WHS) status to a city’s future development In 2012, the Institute of Cultural Capital embarked on a year-long assessment of Liverpool’s status as a World Heritage Site. This work emerged in the context of the threat and eventual decision by UNESCO to place the Liverpool WHS on the ‘List of World…
Find here access to a completely re-designed version of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad Evaluation Summary, including a more accessible and visually attractive overview of key statistics and related qualitative findings. You can also download a PDF version here. Check the Full Report and related Appendices in the dedicated London 2012 Cultural Olympiad Evaluation Project…
I have finally had the chance to tidy up the links to a series of films produced under the series ‘Culturefighters’ by Kosice 2013 European Capital of Culture with support from the British Council. The films were produced back in 2011 and cover a range of topics in the format of ‘mini-masterclasses’ around the notion…
In November 2011, the major stakeholders in the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival commissioned Beatriz Garcia at the Institute of Cultural Capital (ICC) to produce an assessment of the multiple impacts of hosting the Cultural Olympiad. The final report has been published in April 2013. Download the ExecutiveSummary or the Full Report. The ICC…
Published in September 2012, issue 257 (http://artsprofessional.co.uk/Magazine/view.cfm?id=6460&issue=257) Full article below A cultural blueprint Beatriz Garcia reflects on the Cultural Olympiad and the learning that can be passed on to Games hosts of the future. The London 2012 Games mark precisely 100 years since the first official commitment to presenting cultural and artistic activity…
2011, Jan 28-29, Birkbeck University, London Conference: LEARNING FROM BARCELONA: ART, REAL ESTATE AND THE PRE-OLYMPIC CITY This two-day workshop brought together for the first time academics, social activists and artists from Barcelona and London to discuss, through position papers and the showing of participants’ artistic and cultural production, how the Olympic Games in each…
Paper presented to the International Olympic Committee in my role as member of the IOC Postgraduate Grant Selection Committee Abstract This paper offers a reflection on the ongoing plans around London 2012 to build a community of citizen journalists who will create media content in the lead up to and around Games time. It focuses…
Claudio Bocci, Director of Institutional Relations at Federculture and Ravello LAB committee member, has built on the evidence provided by Impacts 08 on Liverpool 2008 and the Cities and Culture project on Glasgow 1990 to advance discussion about a potential City of Culture initiative in Italy. Find his paper in Italian (with English version at…
In 2009 I attracted funding from the European Commission to establish an international network of researchers and programmers working on the European Capital of Culture initiative. The group focused on finding a common and replicable framework for programme assessment and delivery. This collaboration led to a series of workshops, managed by Liverpool via the Impacts 08…
Originally published by the Centre for Olympic Studies, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, within their Beijing Olympic Games Series [link] Full text below The gigantism of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games was mirrored in the ambition of its cultural programme, though the nuance of its delivery is a more intricate story, where its vast investment into…
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…
Full reference: Garcia, B. (2008) ‘One Hundred Years of Cultural Programming within the Olympic Games (1912-2012): Origins, evolution and projections‘ in: International Journal of Cultural Policy, (vol 14, n 4) (pp 361-376) The Olympic Games is recognized worldwide as the largest sports mega-event – certainly the event attracting the largest amount of media coverage globally. As well…