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Abstract
The rhetoric of the cultural policy dimension of culture‐led regeneration makes a variety of assumptions concerned with the democratisation of culture and the empowerment of local communities. In this article, we ask whether there are alternative paradigms that might offer different connections to other drivers of regeneration in the social and economic fields. The article suggests that successful culture‐led regeneration is not about a trickle‐down effect at all, but rather represents a counter‐balance to broader processes of cultural globalisation. We chart the emergence of cultural policy in the North East of England paying particular attention to the impact of Year of the Visual Arts 1996 and to data emerging out of a 10‐year longitudinal research project on the Gateshead Quayside. It is suggested that only an in‐depth understanding of geographical and historical specificities will help us understand the way in which cultural regeneration potentially strengthens existing sources of identity rather than imposing new ones.
