Creative Cities: A 10-Year Research Agenda

ABSTRACT:

Over the past decade, under the rubric of creative placemaking, policymakers, planners and practitioners have turned to arts and culture to enliven city life and stimulate urban economies. Good multidisciplinary research has kept pace, but challenges remain. What are the missions of urban arts and culture? How can offerings and engagement become more equitable and diverse? In fashioning good policy and making funding and planning decisions, what do city leaders and advocates need to know about the location preferences of artists, arts organizations and arts participants? I review what we know and don’t know to date on these questions, and close with reflections on the potential of arts and cultural research to link to broader urban theories, capitalize on interdisciplinary research and mixed methods, and integrate international research and experience in the field.

Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minneapolis, Minnesota Art Opening.

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Ann Markusen

Ann Markusen is the director of the Humphrey Institute’s Project on Regional and Industrial Economics at the University of Minnesota. Currently, her research focuses on occupational approaches to regional development, and on artists, arts organizations, cultural industries, and cultural activity as regional economic and quality-of-life stimulants. Markusen has been an economic policy fellow with the Brookings Institution and a research economist with the office of the Michigan Speaker of the House. She was a Fulbright Lecturer in regional development economics in Brazil and has written on European, Korean, and Japanese regional economies as well as on North American cities and regions.