Creative Urban Environments

Greater Manchester is an Original Modern city: a strong industrial heritage coincides with multiple future imaginaries around the promise of the ‘creative city’.

At grassroots level, cultural and creative responses typify many community responses to contemporary urban challenges - through events, forums, festivals, demonstrations, guerrilla activities etc. New alternatives are being articulated through thinking about sustainability as a socio-cultural transition and not a technical fix.

This pilot project addresses these issues through a series of case studies, interviews and encounters. It examines how different interests in the ‘creative city’ contribute to the development of a sustainable Greater Manchester and how creative and cultural means can be deployed to create more sustainable communities across Greater Manchester. The project is closely aligned with SURF's Arts and Humanities Research Council project on 'Cultural Intermediation in the Creative Economy.’

Blog post: Rethinking sustainable festivals

Manchester International Festival (MIF) is the world’s first festival of original, new work and special events and takes place biennially in Manchester, UK. The Festival launched in 2007 as an artist-led, commissioning festival presenting new works from across the spectrum of performing arts, visual arts and popular culture. In this article, drawing on interviews with different members of the MIF team, Beth Perry highlights their less well popularized but equally important role in contributing to Greater Manchester’s environmental sustainability.

Read the blog post by Beth Perry here.

News items

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Short facts

Project title: Creative Urban Environments

Partners: University of Salford Manchester, Manchester Arts and Sustainability Team, Julie’s Bicycle, local community arts and cultural organisations in Salford.

Funding: Mistra Urban Futures, the University of Salford Manchester and Arts and Humanities Research Council.

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