Metropolitics

Sheffield Music Factory: The Legacy of Red Tape Studios

Sam Holden — 2025-01-07T12:00:24Z

Opening in 1986, in defiance of government cuts, Red Tape Studios was the first municipal recording studio in the UK. Sam Holden demonstrates how the studio brought together the city council, third sector, and community in a time of ideological individualism, drawing lessons for the renewed, contemporary interest of municipal socialism in the UK.
Opening in 1986, Red Tape Studios was the first municipal recording studio in the UK (Wichelow 2023). Named in a council paper as the Sheffield

- Essays / music, arts, arts district, arts-centered development, municipal socialism, deindustrialization, Sheffield, England, United Kingdom

Shanghai's West Bund Cultural Corridor Exemplifies the Opportunities and Risks of State-Driven Cultural Development

Siqi Tu — 2018-05-08T05:00:00Z

The West Bund Cultural Corridor in Shanghai is the latest entrant in a global competition to attract investment by combining cultural institutions with real-estate megaprojects. But arrangements between the corridor's private art museums and institutions of the local and national state remain ambiguous, raising questions about economic elitism and artistic freedom.
China's contemporary art scene is on the rise, as is the number of private museums in China, most notably in Shanghai. The Long

- From the Field / culture, urban development, China, development, neoliberalism, arts, global cities, Shanghai, cultural district, arts district, arts-centered development, cultural corridor

Arts Districts Without Artists

Meghan Ashlin Rich — 2015-03-23T05:55:00Z

Numerous studies have examined gentrification's harmful effects for low-income residents, but few examine the consequences for its “pioneers,” the artists who jump-start the process. Focusing on a Baltimore neighborhood turned “Arts & Entertainment District,” sociologist Meghan Ashlin Rich shows what happens when artists' work intertwines with the city's agenda for revitalization.
A “naturally occurring” Arts & Entertainment District is born in Baltimore
Baltimore's Station North

- From the Field / gentrification, culture, United States, Baltimore, culture-based economy, artist, arts, Arts & Entertainment District, cultural district, arts district, arts-centered development