Find below highlights from our 10 year anniversary symposium, launching Impacts 08 ~ 18 | #Impacts18, the major research programme I have directed since 2006 on the impacts and long term legacy of hosting a European Capital of Culture. The Symposium opened a global conversation about the value of being a ‘‘#cityofculture’ after 30 years of…
I have just published this academic paper within the Urban Studies Journal. You can access it here Abstract This paper looks into the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) programme as a leading example of culture-led regeneration intervention aimed at renewing or diversifying the economic base and positioning of host cities. One of the key claims…
I have interrogated cities and event-led cultural policy-making since 1999. I started by revisiting the cultural legacy of the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games to inform my work on the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festivals. This was followed by research on the legacy of Glasgow 1990 as European Capital of Culture; the experience of Cultureshock – cultural programme for…
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…
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…
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.…
Reason, M. and Garcia, B. ‘Approaches to the Newspaper Archive: Content Analysis and Press Coverage of Glasgow’s Year of Culture’, in: Media, Culture and Society (2007) Glasgow’s year as European City of Culture in 1990 is perceived as an event marking a renaissance in perceptions of the city. This paper examines how the contemporary press…
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…
Citation: Garcia, B. ‘De-constructing the City of Culture: The long term cultural legacies of Glasgow 1990’, in: Urban Studies (2005: vol 42, n5/6) (pp. 1-28) This paper evaluates the success of the European Union City/Capital of Culture programme as a model for culture-led regeneration through assessing the long-term cultural impacts of Glasgow’s experience in 1990.…
Published in: International Journal for Cultural Policy (vol 10, n 1) (pp. 103-118) The potential of arts activity as a tool for urban regeneration has been widely discussed since the early 1980s. In parallel, notions of cultural/urban tourism and arts/city marketing have gained great popularity among marketers, city planners and cultural policy-makers alike. Major events…
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…