Giving art & culture the place and space they deserves. That is what we stand for. Because we believe that a vibrant cultural scene contributes to lively neighbourhoods, to attractive cities and to the wellbeing of the people and communities. But in our fast-growing cities, the available space is increasingly under pressure and art & culture often come out on the losing end. ‘Meanwhile’ cultural initiatives are pushed out by commercial developments, cultural hubs lack sufficient funding or administrative support or cultural players are not seen as full partners in urban development. The fact is that what we are now losing in terms of culture and creativity for the city is probably lost for good. We therefore believe that we are in need of a new approach for creating thriving cultural and creative hubs and we like to call it ‘culture-led development’.
Our mission
Our mission is to help cultural organisations, creatives, policymakers, but also commercial real estate parties and financiers to realise vibrant cultural hubs, together, now and in the future. This requires new methods and models, because our current organisation, valuation and financing models no longer work. We need other, innovative strategies and models: culture-led development.
Our approach
And this is precisely where our expertise lies. This subject has had our attention for years, and through extensive research and experience, we are not only up to date with the latest developments, also with legislation and regulations. We can also present example cases from home and abroad to inspire people to choose a different approach. Moreover, we speak the different languages of cultural organisations, real estate parties, (private) investors and government. Whenever there is an ambition to create a cultural or creative hub, we bring the various parties to the table and help them find a common language and formulate a joint ambition. Bottom-up initiatives can be embraced by all stakeholders and top-down ambitions can be transformed into community-driven initiatives and successful partnerships. In this way, we organise a level playing field for all stakeholders and, at the same time, a solid basis at the very beginning of the development process. We already have a lot of knowledge in-house. Where necessary we bring in specialists, such as a financial expert, a lawyer, a delegated developer or a fundraiser.
For whom?
Whether you are a cultural organisation, developer, real estarte owner, investor or policy maker; we will gladly help you to realise your ambition.
Interested in our culture-led approach? Get in touch. We are looking forward to work with you.
Further reading
Want to learn more? Our article ‘How to Nurture Flourishing Cultural and Creative Hubs: Lessons from the Netherlands’ was also published by Project for Public Spaces.