City officials around the world are increasingly viewing culture as an important social and economic resource. In particular, many municipal leaders are buying into the idea that strategic investments into the arts and cultural sector may bolster quality of place, tourism, and the overall image of cities to investors and potential residents. While the cultural dimension of city planning is not new, the current “creative city” push behind the growing official appreciation for the arts is increasingly centered on integrating culture into this activity, whether it be in the form of add-on public artworks to new development projects, the strengthening of heritage conservation measures in official plans, or the embedding of artists within municipal departments to promote creative thinking and new ideas. This course will begin with an historical survey of the cultural dimension of city planning in western cities, from the urban aesthetics of Haussmann’s Paris to the rise of the heritage preservation movement a century later and subsequent developments in planning and urban design. We will then focus our attention on some of the more influential economic arguments that underlie current creative city strategies. Finally, we will address the potential and problems of cultural planning practice as well as related place marketing initiatives.
