Culture-led Urban Regeneration vs Heritage Degeneration



You may have noticed the opening of the Hepworth, Wakefield, last month...yet another Culture-led Urban regeneration project.  These projects seem to be consistently appearing lately....and whilst there is some debate about whether these projects do, in fact, regenerate an area in the ways that the planners and designers suggest (and hope) - in the sense that economic regeneration is not necessarily synchronic with social regeneration (at least not for 'everyone' I suppose...and that's the point!)...they do open up an evolving landscape of opportunities and possibilities. 
However, at the same time as these spectular events are happening in one part of Wakefield, the possible closure of the heritage/education museum at Clarke Hall remains a possibility....I wondered what you thought about this 'in with the new'......'out with the old' dynamic?...seems curious?

Clark Hall, Wakefield

Mark



Hepworth, Wakefield
photo copyright Chipperfield Architects



Heritage-led urban regeneration

Thanks Rebecca for the interesting post (below) on the proposals for the 'restoration' of the Kirkgate Cloth Hall and restoration and regeneration of the Kirkgate area in Leeds - I noticed that there have also been a few reports on the local TV news recently. 
The Kirkgate Character Area Management Plan is indeed a fascinating document (see Rebecca's link below), one that maps out the objectives of the proposals, although I agree with Rebecca that despite the detail in the plan, the purposes of the restorations etc are not actually that clear.  The project seems to be an attempt to restore/preserve some of the undoubtedly important historic fabric of Leeds, but there's an implicit notion that restoring the Cloth Hall and reinstating historic shop fronts in Kirkgate would be enough to breath life back to the area? 
    I was struck that in the plans there also did not seem to be any proposals for the role that good contemporary design plays in the regeneration plans - i.e. the role of the 'present' just as much as the role of the 'past' in regeneration.  The most successful regeneration projects seem to be able to balance these issues - in Bruges, for example, the historic fabric is obviously highly significant, and is privileged, but it is also clear that even with such a rich historical fabric the contemporary plays a significant complementary role, and there is no fear of the 'modern'.

Bruges

Bruges

Maybe within the the Kirkgate scheme there could also be a space for some challenging contemporary architecture too?...and maybe then the regeneration can, Janus-like, speak to those with interest in the past and the present?

Mark

Leeds 'Character Area' Kirkgate Regeneration

There have recently been some interesting developments towards the regeneration of an area of Leeds city centre. The Lower Kirkgate Townscape Heritage Initiative Scheme has defined a 'character area' that includes Kirkstall Market, the Corn Exchange, the First and Third White Cloth Halls, the Assembly Rooms and St Peter's Parish Church. Some preliminary work has already begun with the demolition of the later infill and west wing of the First White Cloth Hall [see below]. There seems to be a plan to reconstruct the building with some materials conserved from the damaged areas, although it remains unclear to what purpose.

The Kirkgate Character Area Management Plan is a particularly interesting read [it really is - to me at least!], as a document that necessarily has to negotiate historical research, the disparate interests of cultural and commercial stakeholders and the bureaucratic apparatus of local government. The online public consultation is open until 20 May.

Leeds Public Art Walk

I had the pleasure and privilege of leading one of the monthly art walks organised by Pavilion and Project Space Leeds last week, for which thanks must go to Gill for the invitation and rounding up such an impressive array of lovely people for me to talk at, to and with. For those of you who couldn't make it, I've archived the route we took and works we saw on map below. The loose theme of the walk was culture and urban regeneration, taking in the redevelopment of the Corn Exchange, Brewery Wharf and Holbeck Urban Village in relation to the ways in which public art has been deployed in each of these reconstructed, reconstituted areas of the city.

View Leeds Art Walk in a larger map

Art Exhibitions & Sociological Space

Hi All,

we were very lucky to have Dr Malgorzata Lisiewicz, from the Art History Department at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznan, over this week on an Erasmus Scholar exchange. Malgorzata gave a really fascinating talk on Wednesday on the role that the The Grosvenor Gallery played in evolving Class identities in London in the late 19th century...this was delivered as part of our 'Perspectives on the Art Market' series of lectures...keep an eye out...there's more to come....and she also gave a very thought-provoking seminar paper for the MAs on Thursday, outlining some of the work she had undertaken as a curator for contemporary art exhibitions, and the relationships between her 'academic, theoretical' work and her 'practice' as curator...although, as Malgorzata quite rightly suggested, this is never an 'either/or' dichotomy......
I thought that the seminar was absolutely riveting, as Malgorzata brilliantly highlighted how sociologically 'thick', (and how gendered) the actual viewing 'spaces' of the exhibitions were...this was an implicit 'visitor study' of the highest order....and what was nice, (and we didn't actually plan it, honest!), was that our earlier discussion, in the first part of the seminar (on Cultural Led Urban Regeneration), was also focused on how we can think about space 'sociologically'....so all in all a satisfying session?..........

...what did you think?

Mark

Pavilion..and Cultural Led Urban Regeneration

Hello,

me and the MAs all trundled, carefully, in the blizzard of snow yesterday (sorry...just picked the wrong day I suppose!) down the hill from Leeds Uni to Pavilion, the contemporay art space in 'Holbeck Urban Village' (now that's got to be an oxymoron?)....


We had a chat with Gill Howard (ex Leeds MA!) about the role that Pavilion plays as catalyst for 'emerging' artists...it was really interesting I thought, to hear about the relationships between Government (quango) funding (Arts Council primarily), and the 'idea' of Culture...and especially revealing, I thought, given the location of Pavilion in a space of urban regeneration...... Such projects have been driven, to a large extent, by 'expert' reports such as Lord Rogers' 'Towards an Urban Renaissance' in the late '90s....unfortunately, we ran out of time (and it was too cold and snowy) to take a walk around and see the extent to which society was being 'healed' through the organic development of past-and-present architectural form......but we're going to discuss these interesting urban spaces next week (hopefully).. Anyway, what we found interesting (maybe it was just me?) was how 'difficult' these spaces are to get to, but maybe that's because they have been partly 'forgotten' in the memory of the city?...it's strange that they seem to be part of the city, and yet not part of the city....ah...that brings us back to Heterotopias!
Mark