Breda Footprints for the Future

Preface In September 2009, after a year of having a placement abroad, we came back to Breda to finish the last year of our study in International Leisure Management. As becoming specialists on Creative Industries we received a great challenge for our final project: conducting research on the international networks of Breda, as being city of visual art and part of BrabantStad which is a union of five cities being Eindhoven, Den Bosch, Helmond, Tilburg and Breda, in order to become the European Capital of Culture (ECOC) in 2018. Thus, a new team was born: Go!Fusion.

The Go!Fusion team exists out of five members, all students of NHTV – Academy for Leisure in international management creative industries: Anouk Gardien, Barbara Ruder, Meike Fehlinger, Philip Hemmerich, and Raoul Hoomans.

Two members, Barbara and Meike, have started their studies in international cultural management in Freiburg, while Anouk, Philip and Raoul have achieved their knowledge in undertaking research at NHTV since the beginning of their studies. Go!Fusion is an international team of three Germans, of which one grew up in Spain and one has lived in Finland for two years, and two Dutch students who were having their placements on Curacao and in Australia.

We would like to thank Geurt Grosfeld, the commissioner of this project. The team felt very enthusiastic about having the honor to conduct research in such a special and culturally interesting topic, and also having the opportunity to talk to stakeholders in the town, region, and abroad.

Tutoring, guidance and support was given by project supervisor Marco Bevolo. We would greatly like to thank them both for the excellent guidance, advice and collaboration.

With deep regret we saw one of the members forced to drop out of the project team just shortly before completion of this report. This however did not withhold the remaining four members to Go! on, and proceed according to plan. The team would like to thank Meike Fehlinger for her valuable work and passionate input, and wish her warmly all the best.

In the hope that the readers will enjoy reading this report, Anouk, Barbara, Philip and Raoul.

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Introduction

This chapter will provide the reader with an overview into the assignment. Also an understanding of the background to the research will be given, as well as how the research was conducted, the focus of the research and the structure of the research report.

The assignment given by the commissioner Geurt Grosfeld is, in short; to conduct research what the key visual art related networks in Breda with European reach are and to develop new strategies to enhance these.

The report is structured in six stages: In the ‘Context’ is described how the research is shaped: the definition of the assignment being given and how the team had been working on it in methodological terms. The section includes the theoretical framework showing the motivation for corresponding literature, qualitative interviews, cities that are being compared, bionics as a creative approach, and the new methodology of the Footprints with five dimensions as research process.

In ‘The Five Dimensions Of The Footprints” the methodology of this report is being described in detail. There are five sections that have been taken for measuring the performance of a city in terms of Visual Art, Cultural Heritage, Inter City Connectivity, Knowledge Economy and Intra City Connections.

In ‘Background’ the scope of the research is outlined with a closer look to the prestigious title European Capital of Culture, and the BrabantStad cities (Eindhoven, Den Bosch, Helmond, Tilburg and Breda). Also an elaborate description of Breda is included regarding its environmental assets, facilities of the city and qualities for what it is known.

In ‘Research’ the Footprints will be showed. These Footprints are graphic tools to display the performance of the cities Graz, 2

Freiburg and Breda. Depending on the performance the Footprints will be bigger or smaller.

In ‘Research to Strategy’ a closer look will be taken into the comparable cities and their programmes: how these programmes are successful, what investments are made and what it does for networks. After this, a closer look is being made into the networks of Breda. Criteria and planning for Visual Art networks are being elaborated. Moreover elements of attraction, weaknesses in strategy, and potential cities for establishing a Visual Art network are going to be investigated.

In ‘Strategy’ the team is going to conclude the previous findings and is going to propose four strategic recommendations: ‘The Center of Creativity’, ‘City Quality: alternative lifestyle’, ‘City Quality: Online and Communication’ and ‘Friendship City Programme’.

The results of this report are not only to be published on paper, but also going to be found online at www.bredafootprints.com.

Executive Summary The assignment mentioned in the introduction of this report can be divided into three topics: 1. Research 2. Research to strategy 3. Strategy 1. Research In the first chapter the main question is what the key Visual Art related networks with European reach are. In order to answer this question the core networks are evaluated on five levels namely: Visual art, cultural heritage, inter city connectivity, intra city connectivity and knowledge economy. In order to answer this question, first desk research was conducted. Secondly, field research was conducted which was mainly interviews with specialists in networks, cultural organisations in Breda, city functionaries and politicians from the municipality. From the topics above Footprints for Breda had been created.

Field research had also been undertaken to compare Breda with two other cities. These two cities, Freiburg in Germany and Graz in Austria, are being introduced generally, and, in addition, according to the five dimensions.

Now again the Footprints have been created according to the methodology. So differences and similarities are being visualized.

3. Stategy Thirdly, new strategies on how to improve the international networks of Breda had been made according to the findings.

In total there are four, and all of them are based and evaluated on the five levels mentioned above: »» Center of Creativity »» Reconverting part of the town – alternative lifestyle »» City Quality – online and offline »» Friendship City Programme In addition, the urban theory and bionics theory had been applied. The urban theory is mostly literature based on city networks, urban innovation and development and Visual Culture. The bionics theory is a creative approach to the topic; bionics is based on the idea that well working mechanisms from nature are taken as example for city networks.

2. Research to Strategy In the second topic, research to strategy, the main topic is the new international networks and how they should be developed to reinforce the basic strategy of the municipality of Breda in context of BrabantStad in order to become European Capital of Culture and why.

In order to answer this question different theories are being applied. First of all, desk research had been extended.

In addition field research had been conducted to deepen the knowledge.

First the two successfully connected cultural cities Graz and Freiburg are being looked at in-depth. What are they being successful in, what are their strategies, and what kind of investments are being done in Visual Arts.

After this, Breda again is being looked at in detail, investigating the findings of the comparable aspects and how strategies could be developed for the city.

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TOC 01 02 03 04

Preface Introduction Executive Summary Table of Content

2 The Five Dimensions of the Footprints

1 Context 06 06 06 06 06

SONAX Problem Analysis Research (30% of deliverable) Research to Strategy (30% of deliverable) Strategy (40% of deliverable)

06 06 06 07

Problem Definition Research Research to Strategy Strategic Recommendations

07 07 07 07

Research Questions Research Research to Strategy Strategy

08 Theoretical Framework and Methodology 08 Theory 09 Interviews 09 Graphic Tool: the Footprints 10 Comparable Cities

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12 12 12 13 14 15 17

Definition Parameters & Measurement Visual Art Cultural Heritage Inter City Connectivity Knowledge City Intra City Connections

3 Background 18 18 18 18

European Capital of Culture General Background Criteria for the Cities Effects

18 18 19 19 19

BrabantStad Cultural Characteristics of the B5 Economic Policy of the B5 Opportunities for B5 Policy and Opportunity Breda

19 19 20 21 21

Breda History Politics Economics Networks Concept of Expeditie Breda

6 Strategic Recommendations

4 Research

International Visual-Art Networks of Breda 24 24 25 26 26 27

Breda Visual Art Related ties in Breda Benefits from Art-related networks Plans and Strategies for Networks Breda and the Five Dimensions Network Web Footprints Breda

27 Comparable Cities 27 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany 27 Introduction: Graz and Visual Art Policies

5 Research to Strategy Successful Network Development

Networking Visual Art Internationally 44 Strategic Recommendations I: Developing into “Center of Creativity“ 48 Strategic Recommendation II: City Quality Repurposing a District to Enable Alternative Lifestyle 50 Strategic Recommendation III: City Branding Online & Communication 52 Strategic Recommendation IV: Friendship City Programme 54 Final Conclusion: “Breda Footprints for the Future”

56 57 58 60

Products Appendix Bibliography Imprint

32 Comparable Cities 32 Freiburg 35 Graz 39 40 40 40 41 42 43

Breda Criteria for Visual Art Networks Visual Art Networks in Planning Existing Networks Elements of Attraction to Focus on Network Strategy The Visual Art City 5

6

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Theoretical Framework and Methodology As research method to answer the three research questions qualitative interviews, the comparable cities and the Footprints that is showing the cities’ features graphically were being chosen.

Visual Art 5

Cultural Heritage 5

Inter City Connectivity

3. Strategy Having elaborated the position of being networked in Breda, and having found new insights through looking at other cities, the main topic for the strategy is going to be find solutions on how to enhance Breda’s networking condition in the Visual Art and cultural sectors. In addition it is going to be elaborated on what reciprocity mechanisms could be working in this area. This is being looked in detail according to investments, potential give and take mechanisms, future development and the extent of the positive influence they could have.

As sub questions they had been formulated as the:

»» What investments are to be done that will contribute positively to the development of (creative) Visual Artrelated networks? »» What can Breda do for potential international networks and vice versa? »» How can new networks be developed in the future? »» To what extent can the new international networks have a positive influence on the image of Breda as being city of visual culture?

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5

Knowledge City 5

Intra City Connections 5

Theory As theoretical approach, the team has chosen a combination of two theories. The urban literature, and and a creative approach consisting of the use of bionics.

Urban theory had been used as the basis of the research. This mostly implies literature based on city networks, urban innovations and development, and Visual Culture. A combination of books, research reports and articles have been used to provide a substantial theoretical foundation which allowed the results of the field research to be evaluated better.

Through the research, former European Capitals of Culture and other creative cities have been investigated in order to find cultural initiatives that have proven to work or are innovative enough to be taken into consideration. In addition, it also helped to the selection process of the comparable cities to Breda, since it supplied quantitative data which was used to find the suitable cities for the comparison.

The bionics theory is the creative approach to the topic. Based on the idea of the biomimetic, adopting well working mechanisms from nature for technical innovation, the team had been looking for applying this approach regarding city networks.

Both literature and an in-depth interview were giving more insight and a new objective. It has helped to understand much better the actual nature of networks.

The most effective networks are the ones where the participants have well defined roles and everything is an integrated process. Thus, in order to achieve a good network in any sector, the stakeholders need to feel they belong to this network,

they need to have clear defined roles, they need a motivation to belong to the network, they need feedback from the network and they need to see results. The intelligence of a group can achieve much more than the single parts. This is a wide study field which includes social psychologists who use it for many purposes such as the study of self-governing communities as well as marketeers who use it for mass consumer predictions.

Interviews The qualitative interviews have been selected after the three issues the research is about to cover: Breda - therefore interviews with the municipality – the comparable cities, bionics.

Rationale for Selecting Interviewees After closely looking at the research questions and the objectives of this, Go!Fusion decided to have multiple in-depth interviews to get a better insight into the topic.

1. Networks Visual Art »» First of all, knowledge needed to be gained on the topic ‘networks’, since this was the first project for all the members concerning this. Therefore we spoke to Joanna van der Zanden from Platform 21 in Amsterdam, who has great experience in this subject matter and was able to give us more insight in how Visual Art networks work.

2. BrabantStad »» Secondly, a better understanding of BrabantStad wanting to become ECOC needed to be formulated.

Geert Lenders, the ‘Culture Maker’ for BrabantStad was interviewed to get a clearer picture of his perspective on the candidacy.

3. Municipality »» Thirdly it was important to get a better insight in the organisation and plans of the municipality. To take all the different levels into account, interviews have been held in different departments, for culture, cultural heritage, and planning. In addition the team spoke to the alderman and members of the city council: »» Several people are active in the municipality and working on projects on the cultural field. Since cultural heritage plays a big role in the city and in its role of becoming ECOC in 2018, Go!Fusion has spoken to Marleen Huijbregts and Mark Berends who are active on the heritage department of the NHTV. »» Furthermore, the team has talked to Veronique van Duuren who works at the cultural department of the municipality and especially on the plans of the city as being the city for Visual Art. »» In addition, a meeting with the alderman Willems was held to get insight in his perspective and plans. »» The city council is a big conglomerate of people active in diverse areas and with dissimilar perspectives.

In order to have an overall view of all of the parties

and its ideas Go!Fusion has spoken to Arend Hardoff (member of PVDA in the city council) and Selçuk Akinci (Member of Groenlinks in the city council).

4. Visual Art Scene »» For getting a deeper insight into the visual art scene of the city, and having a broad scope on different aspects the team talked to Maurice Spapens, an artist living in Breda, the chairman of ‘Vereniging Ateliers Kunstenaars’ (VAK) and a member of the city council in the political party SP. Furthermore, interviews were conducted with the creative directors of NoisiVision, Dennis Elbers who works at KOP Breda, the Graphic Design Festival and the centre for Visual Art. In addition, Wicher Meijer, chairman of the festival Breda Photo, was interviewed.

Interviews Comparable Cities Freiburg & Graz Comparable Cities to Breda have been chosen to look at the cultural networks and how they function in other places in Europe. A concise explanation for the methodology of looking at comparable cities, and a concise rationale for why choosing the cities Freiburg and Graz is going to be found in the next paragraph of this section.

The Freiburg and Graz interviewees had been chosen concerning the overall overview the interview partners would be able to give: »» Achim Könneke, as the director of the cities’ cultural office, has a broad overview of the whole Freiburg cultural scene. »» So is Magister Max Aufischer, leader of Cultural City Network Graz. »» To also take a young and cutting-edge festival into account, Bernhard Steirer, CEO of the Elevate Festival for electronic arts, which is starting to spread its connections towards the Eastern part of Europe, had been chosen.

Interviews Bionics The interviewee for the subject of Bionics had been chosen seeing that it could provide a deeper insight into the mentioned subject. »» Jeroen Coenders, structural designer at Arup and professor at the TU Delft, was chosen for the subject of looking into biological network approaches.

Graphic Tool: the Footprints Five dimensions have been chosen to describe the performance of the city visually. Their definition is provided extensively in the extra section “The Five Dimensions of the Footprints”.

The five fields are: »» Visual Art: showing the conditions and environment that provides a basis for creative people »» Cultural Heritage: giving insight into the architecture and monuments that shape the city’s image »» Inter City Connectivity: providing the ability of citizens and visitors to commute into and out of the city, 9

as well as accessibility and perception from the outside.

»» Knowledge City: giving the conditions for a widespread and diverse knowledge economy that is an essential for connectivity and creative industries. »» Intra City Connections: a condition that pictures the flexibility within the city, for its citizens and visitors to be able to move easily from one place to another.

According to these, parameters are going to measure Breda and the comparable cities. This measure is going to be made visible via the graphic tool of the Footprints. Each of the five dimensions has the shape of a human foot which depending on the performance of the city will be bigger or smaller.

Comparable Cities Before being able to answer the question, what the key visual art related networks in Breda with European reach are, one should not only investigate the city of Breda, but also look at other cities and how the networks are being perceived there.

After shortly looking at why to compare a city with another, the aspect of how to choose comparable cities is being described. Then, a short rationale for the choice of Freiburg and Graz is being given, followed by a short addendum why these and not other - more famous - former European Capitals of Culture were chosen.

When looking at a city and its arts and connectivity, facts and figures are not giving a complete picture of how well connections are being established. It needs to be studied and taken into relation to another city’s scope of dimensions of Visual Art and networks, before one can score its actual performance.

This is why two cities are going to be compared with Breda.

This is being tackled by first looking at the figures in the five dimensions being described. secondly creating the Footprints out of the findings according to the five dimensions Visual Art,

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Cultural Heritage, Inter City Connectivity, Knowledge City, and Intra City Connections. Finally in-depth interviews are giving a deeper insight into the Visual Art network life of the two cities Why Comparable Cities When looking at a city and its arts and connectivity, facts and figures are not giving a complete picture of how well connections are being established. It needs to be studied and taken into relation to another city’s parameters, before one can score its actual performance.

Comparing different factors of qualities of one city with one other is going to give insight and aspects to assess this more deeply. Also, extra issues that otherwise might not have been taken into account are being made visible. Therefore, looking for factors that are similar and factors that differ will make it more visible under which circumstances, where, and how action can be taken. Different backgrounds shape history and the form of a city, give insight into the development, and also show aspects that can be adapted. To gain a solid insight on the comparable city it is not only to look two- but threedimensional into the topic. Therefore it needs minimum two cities to compare to the original.

How to Choose Comparable Cities What is it that makes a city comparable in terms of networking, especially in the context of Visual Art and European Capital of Culture? As mentioned earlier, it is not only the actual amount of cultural leisure activities being offered, but also the potential it holds. This is a factor hard to measure. For finding

the comparable city, the team first looked into the hard facts being important according to the definition of Visual Art, but also what actually shapes a creative city, and which measurable factors are enabling those. According to the five dimensions the following Visual Art indicators had 5 Creative Institutions been chosen: and Support Housing

Cultural Heritage Image & Cultural Heritage

For intra city connectivity transport inside the city is the main aspect: Does a pedestrian area exist, how many bus lines are there, and how many kilometres do they cover? Are there night-buses existing, and how many people are being transported?

Looking at all these factors made it possible to visualise how the compared cities are being similar, and what makes them different. The in-depth interviews later on gave an even broader image. Before looking at the choices for interviews at the end of this part of the research, the first view is taken on the choice of the actual comparable cities.

Tolerance

5

Inter City Connectivity 5

Geography Transport

Knowledge City 5 Demography Education

Intra City Connections 5

Geography Transport

Based on this, a table had been created, to show differences and similarities in each indicator.

In the sector of Visual Art, the creative institutions, plus how they are supported, is being measured by the number of museums, libraries, theatre, and the proportion of employment in culture and entertainment. In terms of housing the prices for real estate and rental are crucial, and tolerance can be measured by opening hours in nightlife, the existence of red light districts, and the tolerance of drugs.

Cultural Heritage can be compared by the city’s image and the presence of cultural heritage. The critical factors here are city branding, the age of the city, and its recognition by UNESCO for being world cultural heritage.

Geography is the major factor of influence when looking at the inter city connections. Where is the city situated geographically, which borders surround them, and which cities are nearby were the first important questions. The aspect of transport plays a crucial role when looking at inter city connections as well. The hard facts here are the existence of a railway station, a harbour, and the distance to the next airport.

When looking at the knowledge economy, demography, and education are being the factors to investigate. Demography measures the population by number, aging, immigrant, salary and employment rates. Education shows the number of Universities and students, especially under the aspect of internationality.

Rationale for Our Choice What is it that makes Freiburg in Germany, and Graz in Austria comparable cities to Breda? First of all, in terms of very obvious reasons like number of citizens, number of districts and the geographical position they are being very similar to Breda. In addition, Graz had been European Capital of Culture in 2003, and Freiburg is aiming to become cultural capital in 2020 for Germany. Both cities have a vibrant cultural life and are internationally connected.

In the research section of this report, the two cities are going to be introduced in detail and compared according to the five dimensions. Here a closer look is taken to provide a broader scope and insight.

In the research to strategy section the interviews with the cultural actors of the cities are going to be the basis for finding out its networking performance in the Visual Art sector.

For Breda it is going to be interesting how mechanisms work here and what the investments are. It is going to be found out if some ideas might be interesting to put into action in Breda and Brabant as well.

Addendum: Rationale for not Selecting Other Former European Capital of Culture Lille, Liverpool, Glasgow and Ruhr2010, are the comparable cities that come in someone’s mind in the first place, especially in the context for BrabantStad and Breda.

Lille is comparable in size and condition, before it became European Capital of Culture in 2004. Now it is a well known place for Visual Art and international connections. Liverpool and Glasgow are cities that made a 180° spin from being industrial dark places into being vivid cultural cities with international recognition. Ruhr 2010 is, like BrabantStad, an agglomeration of cities that had been candidating in cooperation.

Even though these cities are excellent examples and comparable cities for the role Breda is playing in the context of BrabantStad, the team had decided not to investigate here, because all of these city’s changes and impacts already have been studied to full extent in other studies. Thus, not choosing for these towns had been an active decision of not getting conclusions that already had been made before. Freiburg and Graz are cities that had not been looked at in detail within this context, and are very comparable as well. Studying these cities is going to give a more diverse understanding of the topic.

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The Five Dimensions of the Footprints

“

Spider webs are very interesting structures. If you would scale the material up to the size of the beams we use nowadays for buildings, they would be much stronger and at the same time elastic.

Jeroen Coenders

Definition

”

Five dimensions are being seen as describing supporting factors for networks in the Visual Art sector and as important to be looked at and compared within this research. Within the following paragraph the dimensions Visual Art, Cultural Heritage, Inter City Connectivity, Knowledge Economy and Intra City Connections are being defined. After this the parameters and measurements for the visual tool of the Footprints are being given.

Parameters & Measurement The method of matching and measuring the described definitions is going to be made with a tool usually used for quantitative research. The team has been adopting and modifying the system for the purpose of making the city’s performance visible. It is being seen as an effective, and clear way to show the cities output in the relevant sectors of this research: Each attribute, from Visual Art to Intra City Connections is being measured in terms of its performance, by a scale from one to five. Scoring these dimensions shows exactly where improvement could be done and how a city (Breda) is doing in comparison with another. It is being made visible with the Footprints, a graphical tool in the shape of human feet which will allow the understanding of the performance of Freiburg, Graz and Breda.

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Finally, the point system for the Footprints is concluding which parameters are used for the measurement, and how they are being scored.

1.Visual Art Definition “Visual Art” is being defined as a discipline “whose products are to be appreciated primarily or solely for their imaginative, aesthetic, or intellectual content: the convergence of popular culture and fine art”. (New Oxford, 2009) Thus Visual Art is normally defined as the convergence of visible art disciplines that are among others: theatre, photography, video and dance. Also it can be used as a synonym for Fine arts which covers: Architecture Photography

Fashion

Audiovisual Art Theatre

Graphic Design

Gaming

Painting Cultural Heritage

Sculpturing

To make a visual art sector flourish, a sustainable incubative has to offer the following conditions. The following factors have been both described in the Euricor report on knowledge economy and by the creative city experts, Richard Florida and Charles Landry. »» Tolerance »» Good infrastructure »» Sustainable artist network »» Affordable real estate »» Encouraging and facilitating policies from the local government In Breda, the Visual Art sector mainly consists of graphic design, new media, audiovisual art photography, and cultural heritage. Thus, the focus of our research will be mainly these five categories.

Measurement of the Visual Arts Dimension The Visual Arts scene of a city can be stimulated by the implementation of further institutions therefore increasing the offer available to the citizens and by giving more support to artists work-wise and housing-wise. Also, the tolerance and open mindset of the citizens and a dynamic and vivid environment increases the chances of creating a rich cultural scene, since artists feel comfortable and find more inspiration in these habitats.

1. Cultural Institutions The performance of a city in terms of Visual Arts can be measured by the number of institutions related to Visual Arts a city has. Breda for example has 13 museums, 10 public libraries and two theatre. For the measurement one point is given, when there are more than 10 museums and public libraries and more than 5 theatre.

2. Housing Housing is a very important factor when creating a good environment for artists, as the majority of them do not have a big buying power. The average price of real estate in Breda has been €255.004 in the first three months of 2009, thus being the third most expensive city of the Netherlands. However, the average rental price in Breda according to Direct Wonen, an agency that intermediates housing in 23 cities in the Netherlands, is €553 whilst the average of the Netherlands is €843 thus being much higher.

If the city is not appearing within the first 5 places of the rankings for high rental prices, one point is awarded.

3. Tolerance: Night Life, Red Light Business and Drugs As mentioned before, the tolerance is another aspect that has to be taken into account.

Breda has many bars and pubs. However, those places already close at 2 a.m. and only two clubs are open until 5 a.m., therefore not creating many possibilities for people who want to party on.

Red light business is tolerated in Breda as well as soft drugs but not the consumption of alcohol in the public. The city has many restaurants with a mixture of local and foreign cuisine yet there is no real ‘high class’ restaurant in Breda.

Cities get one point if they have more than five clubs opening until 5 a.m. or later.

The general tolerance of red light businesses is scored with one point.

Tolerance towards the consumption alcohol in public is being rated with one point.

Point System According to the measurements in the five different aspects chosen for Visual Art, the point system is going to be the following: 1. Cultural Institutions »» More than 10 museums and libraries and more than five theatre ➔ one point 2. Prices rental »» Not appearing in the Top 5 of most expensive places for rental ➔ one point 3. Tolerance »» Nightlife: more than five clubs open until 5 a.m. or later ➔ one point »» Red light business : if red light business is tolerated ➔ one point »» Alcohol in public spaces: if this is tolerated ➔ one point

2.Cultural Heritage Definition Article 1 of the UNESCO World Heritage Conventions defines Cultural Heritage as for including monuments, groups of buildings and sites. Each of these is being described in the following.

Monuments Monuments are architectural works, works of monumental sculpture and painting, elements or structures of an archaeological nature, inscriptions, cave dwellings and combinations of features, which are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science.

Groups of Buildings Groups of buildings are, more in detail, groups of separate or connected buildings which, because of their architecture, their homogeneity or their place in the landscape, are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science.

Sites Sites are works of man or the combined works of nature and man, and areas including archaeological sites which are of outstanding universal value from the historical, aesthetic, ethnological or anthropological point of view.

Cultural Heritage and Breda In addition cultural heritage nowadays “should be considered both in time and in space”(Jokilehto, 2008). In the meantime the value has changed from not only monuments, groups of buildings and sites. It had also been broaden to the “urban, technical, industrial heritage, industrial design and street furniture” (Jokilehto, 2008) For Breda cultural heritage comprises the following working fields: Archaeology

Public spaces Architecture

Culture history

Monuments Construction of the history

Measurement of Cultural Heritage Dimension 1. The Year of the Oldest Building in Town As mentioned above cultural heritage has been past on from culture to culture, from year to year. It is therefore important to know if buildings from the beginning of the cities’ history are still present. This is making the preservation of cultural heritage by the municipality visible. As the cities chosen were not, or only partly destroyed in the Second World War, it is

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possible to measure this aspect. The year of the city officially being one therefore had been chosen as measurement number.

If buildings from the early city years are still part of the city life, one point is given.

2. Awards Being awarded for outstanding performance in different disciplines is a simple and effective tool to measure how the city is doing in terms of image, heritage, and sustainability. Titles also are an indicator for national and international recognition and awareness, and so shows the external presence and the convenience to connect or remember a remarkable place.

Titles and prices in this area could for example be a special award for UNESCO World Cultural Heritage, any other national or international title for outstanding qualities of the city, but also special performance in ecological sustainability.

This is why the existence of special awards is taken as validation for cultural heritage. It is showing if the city is doing well with marketing their quality, and if it is existing in the mindset of citizens, visitors, and interested people as well.

For the existence of one award one point is given, if there are more: two.

3. Street Furniture combined with Sites Street furniture is practical elements of use in daily city life. It is for example benches, bus stops, garbage cans, street lights, or traffic signs. Usually older street furniture is being replaced by newer versions over the years. Still, old pieces are carrying a nostalgic part within. For the measurement this definition had been widened to not only furbishing, but also other functionary historical objects in city life that shape the perception of the town.

As mentioned earlier, sites and unique elements in the daily life of the citizen is forming their mindsets, and also has a good memory effect.

If at least one element of exceptional and unique street furniture is present in the city, one point is given.

4. Public Spaces As the inner city is the core of a town, it represents the centre of city life. If people are able to walk around freely, without having to care about traffic, the eyes are more open to the existing surroundings. A pedestrian area in the centre of the city represents a special opportunity of experiencing the cultural heritage present.

One point is therefore given to the existence of a pedestrian area.

2. Awards »» Minimum one award ➔ one point »» More than one award ➔ two points 3. Street Furniture »» Exceptional and unique street furniture ➔ one point 4. Public Spaces »» Existence of Pedestrian area ➔ one point

3.Inter City Connectivity Definition Connectivity (Merriam Webster, 2009) is usually the ability of a programme, device or system to connect with others. This dimension is adopting connectivity as an analogy to what happens among cities.

When defining a city as a system distributing, connecting and communicating are its major elements to create a network.

The bigger the system is, the bigger the network communication and therefore the inter-connection is. Connections between actors of the cities can happen in various ways: physically and virtually between people, in a business context, in travelling and visits.

These factors are all crucial to the feeling of having a vivid and lively environment where citizens are able to move and commute frequently. This felt distance is mainly determining the city life in terms of international networks. Distances can in this context feel much farther or closer depending on the actual possibility of how fast one is able to commute or drive by car.

In this context this dimension is going to focus on geographical parameters like the vicinity to other countries and bigger cities, on transport factors to actually see how well the physical connection and accessibility for people is, and on external communication of the city level, so for example the connection to other cities and the corresponding availability.

In conclusion, the key parameters for inter-city connectivity are going to be: »» Geographical factors: borders nearby, bigger cities nearby »» Transport: transport density, transport accessibility regionally, transport accessibility internationally »» External Communication factors: partner cities, projects in cooperation with other cities

Measurement of Inter City Connectivity Point System In conclusion and according to the measurements in the four different aspects chosen for Cultural Heritage, the point system is going to be the following: 1. The Year of the Oldest Building in Town »» Oldest building in town from the founding years ➔ one point

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1. Geographical Factors The simple physical distance of bigger cities and borders nearby are going to be one part of the measurement for inter city connectivity.

As a range, the accessibility to bigger central cities that are located within the reach of one hour is taken as parameter.

A large city usually is defined to have more than 100.000 inhabitants. To scale its influence in the surroundings for this parameter, at least one headquarter in the financial sector has

to be present. In addition the city in the vicinity has to be at least a provincial capital. If these three factors are fulfilled it is awarded one point for the Footprints.

The geographical distance to at least one other neighbour country is the second geographical measurement. If the city is located just next to a border, within a reach of 15 km, it is getting one point.

2. Transport Factors: Railway / Airport An important mean for the perceived distance and connectivity transport is playing the major role. There are two parameters to be evaluated in detail: the railway connection and the vicinity to an airport.

Railway For the validation of the railways it is not only the existence, but also the frequency and accessibility to each direction of the point of the compass, North, East, South, and West, for a city within 100km reach. The station should have trains departing at least twice an hour to each of the wind directions. Cities that are as the crow flies (hemelsbreed) maximum 100 Km away should be reached within 1,5 hours, this could include a change of track. The time of the day to measure is 8 o’clock in the morning on a weekday.

If both criteria are fulfilled for only one wind direction, 0,5 points are given, 1 point for two wind directions, 1.5 points for three, and 2 points for all four wind directions.

Airport In the Euricor (2004) report it is stated that ‘”airports are the connections to global economy”. Airports are the multiplication for destinations to be reached and therefore are an essential to be within reach of a city to be connected.

The airport has to be within an hour reach by car or train for the measurement. Half of a point is given for this. The second scale is the number of passengers to show the actual frequency of use. If it exceeds a million of passengers a year, another half point is given.

3. External Communication Exchange and communication on national and international level on as many layers as possible should be a factor to visualise with the graphic tool. It is not only partner city programmes, but also the exchange on informal levels giving this parameter a life. Quantitative research should be conducted and would be necessary to get a complete image on the performance in this area which was not possible given the available time frame. It is not possible to measure by the numbers being available.

Point System According to the measurements in the three different aspects chosen for Inter City Connectivity, the point system is going to be the following: 1. Geographical Factors »» Bigger cities nearby that hosts financial headquarters and minimum provincial government ➔ 1 point »» Border to a neighbour country in the vicinity of 15 km ➔ 1 point 2. Transport »» Railways: commuting frequency at 8 in the morning on a weekday, more often than twice an hour, within 100 km reach not longer than 1.5 hours. Each wind direction compass ➔ 0.5 points »» Airport: in the vicinity of 1 hour by car, density of over a million passengers a year ➔ 0.5 points 3. External Communication »» Not measurable without further quantitative research

4.Knowledge City Definition A knowledge city is a city where success is based on diversity, education, culture and technology. This economy based on creating, evaluating, and trading knowledge.

The major activities of the knowledge economy are: attracting and retaining knowledge workers, creating new knowledge, applying new knowledge and making new combinations, developing new growth clusters.

According to the Euricor report there are eight main characteristics of knowledge economy being: Diversity in Knowledge Different types of knowledge and information have to be accessible: codified knowledge like internet should be available, but also tacit, and rather limited knowledge in form of face to face contact.

Trade of In- and Outputs Inputs and outputs are knowledge information. Reich (1991) created a symbolic analysis after which people tend to be well educated, earn a high amount of money, and are having a high quality in their living environment.

Active Selection The ability of selecting and processing new information and knowledge and turning this into profitable activities has become crucial.

Responding Quickly It is a network economy of rapid developments where no single person or company can neither master all disciplines nor monitor the latest developments. It is about combining complementary knowledge in a flexible way in order to re15

spond quickly and rapidly to the changing market and technologies (Euricor. 2004).

Cultural Entrepreneurship Cultural entrepreneurs play a big role with finding niches and mobilising resources.

Faster Growth and Decline of Companies The life cycle of companies can happen very quickly in the knowledge economy, since technology markets are changing fast Smaller importance of old Distinctions In the knowledge economy, the old distinction between manufacturing and services are less important.

Unique Paths There is no clear path to choose for each city. The history, culture, traditions and background make that each city has to decide their own path to follow.

Conclusion In conclusion the foundation which the knowledge economy is based on is the following: The knowledge base where quantity and quality of universities determine starting points, an economical basis that is diverse, Quality of Life as for attracting knowledge workers by having a good environment and variety in cultural institutions, accessibility for a good network for global economy, urban diversity, urban scale and social equity in terms.

Measurement of Knowledge City As stated earlier the knowledge economy is becoming successful when there are facilities producing knowledge. Education, especially higher education is playing a major role here. In addition to this, talented people need to be based in the city: “Talented people are attracted by places where they can enjoy life” (Castells, 2000) In addition it needs a good urban diversity to promote creativity. An environment to easily plug into is supporting this idea (Florida, 2000). Big and beautiful is a major point of attraction for knowledge workers, as well as the informal exchange between people. Also the economical base is an enabling factor when being diverse. Most of innovative activity will be found in highly concentrated metropolitan and regional capital cities.

1. Size of the City As stated above, a knowledge economy entails ‘big is beautiful’. A well known fact is that there are many differences in cities. In order to compare the cities Breda, Freiburg and Graz together Go!Fusion decided to make the distinction on size looking at other cities reviewed in the Euricor report (2004).

The figures below are retrieved from Statline, the national database for statistics (2009). The surface of the city is taken without the surrounding suburbs. The size of the surface is land only, between brackets is the land together with all water surface.

16

The sizes of these cities are: »» Amsterdam = 166,29 km2 (219,44) »» Eindhoven = 88,84 km2 (87,70) »» Rotterdam = 319.35 km2 (205,90) According to these figures it was decided to give a point for size when the city is bigger than 100 km2.

Bigger than 100 square km: one point.

2. Immigrants As it is stated in the Euricor report, a knowledge city is a city with great diversity in inhabitants. The diversity is a parameter to measure if a city is open. In order to compare the different cities Go!Fusion decided to make two distinctions, and this based on the Dutch cities in the Euricor report (2004). »» Amsterdam = 51% (Statline, 2009) »» Eindhoven = 27.5% (Statline, 2009) »» Rotterdam = 46.2% (Kerncijfers, 2009) 20 % or more of the inhabitants has another nationality: one point 3. Average Monthly Income in Comparison to Country When the city has a lower net income than its country: zero points When the city has a higher net income than its country: one point.

4. Number of Museums In the knowledge economy it is mostly about exchanging knowledge, one way to do this is via museums. In addition, a knowledge economy has to have a good quality of life. One aspect of this is the cultural offer, this is also measured by the amount of museums.

This aspect had already been taken into account in the dimension Visual Art. This is why it is not extra measured again in this section.

5. Number of Universities on Three Different Levels The figures stated above are based on the amount of universities in the cities mentioned in the Euricor report namely Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Rotterdam. »» Amsterdam: 2 universities »» Eindhoven: 1 university »» Rotterdam: 1 university (Homepages Universities NL, 2009) If there is a university present in the city, one point is given.

For other higher educational offers, equivalent to HBO programmes, an extra point is also given.

Point System According to the measurements in the five different aspects chosen for Knowledge Economy , the point system is going to be the following: 1. Size of the city »» Bigger than 100 square kilometers ➔ 1 point

2. Immigrants »» 20% or more percent of inhabitants have an other nationality ➔ 1 point 3. Average Monthly Income in Comparison to Country »» Monthly income bigger than of its country ➔ 1 point 5. Number of Universities on Three Different Levels »» One or more universities ➔ 1 point »» Number of institutions for higher education: one or more colleges and similar ➔ 1 point

5.Intra City Connectivity Definition Within a city, the extent of being interconnected plays a significant role when speaking of networks.

Intra, also called internal, connections show the level of flexibility and freedom the city has to offer to its citizens and businesses within the city. This good infrastructure is essential for a city that strives to be well connected internationally.

It applies especially to the following sectors: »» public transport »» neighbourhoods »» existence and diversity of clusters for business Measurable elements for a well developed internal connections are to be found in the geographical and transport factors: »» Frequency of public transport at night »» Existence of Park&Ride possibilities »» Number and variety of business clusters & competitors »» Open communication, measured by: »» density of communication »» number and range of bars The supporting elements for well developed internal connections being used for the research were: »» Geographical factors Density of citizens and number of urban districts to make similarities visible »» Transport factors In public transport, the actual number of bus lines and also their frequency at night are relevant factors. Additionally, it is going to be looked at the road performance. The existence of Park&Ride possibilities is an easy measure that brings the urban intra flexibility in terms of transport straight to one point. It is an offer that invites citizens and visitors to commute internally.

Measurement of Intra City Connections 1. Urban Density One of the five points is given for the density and number of urban districts. In the UK Urban Task Force (1999) it is being described as the following: “research has shown that real land economy gains are being achieved from increasing densities... Higher densities allow a greater number of public amenities and transport facilities to be located within walking distance, thus reducing the need for the car, and contributing to urban sustainability”(Urban Task Force, 2009) The ranking of the largest cities in the world shows the density higher than 1.550 citizen per square kilometre for the first 125 ranks. Breaking this down shows the number after which a point for the Footprints is given or not. A density higher than 1.550 citizen per square kilometre.

2. Flexibility The direct transport factors that are going to be measured after their existence and performance: The presence of possibility to commute at night is scored with one point. If this is also possible on weekdays, the city is getting two points for the Footprints.

3. Public Transport As traffic on tracks is faster and easier understandable for citizens than using bus traffic, one point is being given for the existence of inner city transport via metro or tram.

A factor that encourages people to use the public transport is offering the possibility of Park&Ride services. If this is the case another point is awarded.

Point System According to the measurements in the four different aspects chosen for Inter City Connections, the point system is going to be the following:

1. Urban Density »» Density - higher than 1.550 citizens per square kilometre ➔ 1 point 2. Flexibility »» Possibility to commute at night ➔ 1 point »» Possibility to commute at night on week days ➔ 1 point 3. Public Transport »» Speed and simplicity: Public transport on tracks ➔ 1 point »» Encouragement to use public transport: Park & Ride possibility ➔ 1 point 17

Background

»» visualisation of culture in the cityscape »» improvement, and even transformation of the image Research that has been done by the European Commission had proven that the programme had a long lasting and sustainable impact on the culture of the cities that have been Capital of Culture in the past.

European Capital of Culture Every year two cities in Europe are chosen to be European Capital of Culture (ECOC). In the year 2018 these cities are going to be in Malta and the Netherlands. The city agglomeration BrabandStad is seeking for this title and competing against five other cities and regions in the Netherlands. Breda as a part of BrabantStad is competing for this title as well and positioned to be the city of visual culture. This chapter contains a general overview on the topic of the European Capital of Culture, the candidate BrabantStad and Breda’s role in the region in detail.

General background The organisation of the ECOC aims to highlight the richness and the diversity of European culture and the features they share. Due to that the European Commission stresses this title to be more than just a label, it is not only about the cultural heritage or being a pleasant tourist destination. The objective is much more about increasing and expanding the cultural activities and infrastructure in the long run. Hence, not all former ECOC were able to fulfil their planned goals.

The most significant objectives are the following: »» diversification of economy and revitalisation of the city as a whole »» stimulation of local cultural production »» improvement of city’s image »» tighten up relationships among the different regional bodies »» enlargement of cultural contacts within the European network Criteria for the Cities A city that is selected to become Capital of Culture should fulfil the criteria of creating synergies and promoting a greater mutual acquaintance between European citizens. This should both take place in creating a cultural programme proposed for the year in question, and increasing the participation of the citizens.

Effects Furthermore, it should have a long lasting, sustainable impact on the city’s cultural, economic and social development. As seen in a former study, engaged by the European Commission, the application as well as the nomination itself, serves as a catalyst for the cultural development and the transformation of cities. This development can be seen in the former Capitals of Culture between 1995 and 2004: »» stimulation of tourism »» enhancement of infrastructure »» improvement of the importance of culture 18

BrabantStad BrabantStad is a governmental urban network of Breda, Eindhoven, Helmond, s’Hertogenbosch and Tilburg located in the province of Noord-BraBrabant is strong bant, also known as the “B5-region”. in the chain apThey have been working together since proach. We should 2001 with the aim of securing a sushave all the eletainable future for the cities in particuments in a chain lar and for Noord-Brabant as a whole. and then identify The mission of BrabantStad is being an the strongest links. internationally strong, competitive Geert Lenders and sustainable growing urban network.

Cultural Characteristics of the B5 In the following is an overview of the Brabant 5 and their cultural characteristics. »» Helmond Helmond is generally considered as a niche-market regarding to graphic design and animation. The city is of great support to the large graphic market in Eindhoven and for this reason these two cities closely collaborate in this business. The government of Helmond aspires to become the food capital of the Netherlands. »» Tilburg Tilburg has been known for textile industry and will surely remain, although current trends show international networks in the music and audiovisual sector. »» Breda Breda has chosen the identity as city of Visual Arts and Design. Breda decided to extend and promote this aspect using various visual festivals.

The Graphic Design Museum is a pioneering venue in its branch being world wide the only museum of its kind. »» Den-Bosch the city of ’s-Hertogenbosch is, besides its historic heritage, best known for its ceramics and jewellery. »» Eindhoven Eindhoven is seen as the city of innovation and design in the Netherlands and regarded as a high tech hotspot in Europe. Mainly, this is due to the fact that the Design Academy, the Philips Design Centre and the Technical University of Eindhoven, which ranks among the best in the world, are situated here.

Economic Policy of the B5 To secure the dynamic for the future, the B5-partners want to invest in the development of youngsters, in knowledge centres and in BrabantStad as Capital of Culture in 2018.

Several resources are reserved to come to the nomination of Capital of Culture in 2018. In 2011 a ‘bid book’ has to be completed, in which BrabantStad partners present themselves together as candidate for Capital of Culture in 2018. In 2012 the nomination is officially applied for and the international jury will take a decision in 2014.

Opportunities for B5 The cities of BrabantStad intend to set up a number of events and festivals with (inter)national attractiveness. In 2011 BrabantStad will make the decision to submit itself as candidate for European Capital of Culture in 2018. With the selection as cultural capital in 2018, a powerful spin-off is expected with a great opportunity to get BrabantStad on the map. A stronger cultural profile and a broader cultural offer is also part of the plan. This will help to realise economical and cultural facilities in BrabantStad. It is expected that being ECOC will have a positive influence on the image of BrabantStad. Furthermore it can be estimated that the settlement of new businesses, the improvement of housing and cultural programming will increase within the years to come.

The new multiple year programme of BrabantStad has strict requirements as local government is gradually faced with more and more laws and regulations from the European Union. The cities are in need for more grip concerning Europe and its policies. This is why a unified mission had been produced: ‘BrabantStad, a strong internationally competitive and sustainable growing network.’ This can be seen by the delegations being sent to Brussels and the growing participation in European conferences and seminars. BrabantStad intends to enrol in cooperation alliances and therefore create important networks with regions in Europe similar to BrabantStad.

The opening of the Graphic Design Museum and festivals like Breda Jazz Festival, Carnival, Dance Tour Breda and Breda Barst have largely contributed to strengthen its role.

Within the next 10 years Breda wants to have an internationally known centre for Visual Arts, specialised on Graphic Design. (Nota, 2008) The AV-Cluster on the Triple O Campus connects the universities, the business field, art makers and the Graphic Design Museum. Breda’s intention is to bind functions. Therefore, it wants to merge the education of Avans and NHTV for Visual Art, to guarantee better cooperation and results.

Breda chose for a culture infrastructure with functions and organisations where the municipality is (partly) responsible.

Key words are flexibility, more room for unexpected chances, less rules and more attention for quality. The municipality challenges the makers of culture and art to be innovative, work with trends and experiment.

Breda Even though the scope mentioned before is important as background information, the focus of the project is going to be the city of Breda. As there are difGovernment and ferent aspects to bear in mind this city councils alsection is going to be structured ways have this after the following topics: History, idea they are bigPolitics, Cultural Politics, Cultural ger than they Aims Concerning the Candidacy actually are. and the Networks Concept of ExJoanna van peditie Breda. der Zanden

History Below one can read the milestones in the history of Breda, Go!Fusion decided to only state the important milestones.

In the year 1252 Breda became a city. 600 years ago the first Nassau came to Breda, a Nassau is someone from the royal family.

Yet today Breda is a real Nassau city as well as a defence city.

The Nassau’s had an important influence on Breda’s image: From 1581 till 1590 the Spanish ruled over the city. For the Policy and Opportunity Breda next 34 years the citizens of Breda re-conquered their city. In As mentioned earlier, every city in BrabantStad has a different 1624 till 1625 Breda was in the hands of Spinola, a military theme, for Breda it is Visual Art and heritage. with a great reputation. In 1627 the city was re-conquered by History therefore has a big impact on the art of the city: there the republic under the lead of Frederik Hendrik. are different buildings in the city dating back from the Nassau The Second World War naturally also affected the city of centuries such as the church, ‘het Begijnhof’ and all the streets Breda. After the garrison of the Germans a lot of people livin the inner city. This makes the heritage an important issue in ing in Breda left the city, there was a threat that the city was the cultural policy. For Breda becoming a front line between the French and the Germans.

Archaeology cultural heritage comprises the On the 29th of October the city became free, because of the following working fields: Culture history invasion of the polish division.

In 1828 the ‘Koninklijke Militaire Academie’ (KMA) Public spaces settled, a military academy situated in Breda in the Architecture Monuments ‘Kasteel van Breda’ (the castle of Breda). Together with the KMA a lot of military families came to live in Breda. The Castle of Breda is a historical building and is Construction a big part of Breda’s history. Only in the 17th century, the of the history

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European association of historic towns and regions. Breda is member. But Breda hardly sees it.

Marleen Hijbregts & Marc Berends

forest where the Castle was situated became a park that had been renewed in 1995.

Breda is also known as ‘Bisdom Breda’(diocese Breda), a status with which the city attains a position in a worldwide network.

Politics The department of culture, traffic and environment develops and executes the cultural plans in the city of Breda. It is of interest for Go!Fusion to know who the decision makers are.

Therefore the question is to which political direction the major part of the city council follows: The political parties as stated on the website of the city council are as following in order of influence: PVDA (11 seats), CDA (8 seats), VVD (7 seats), SP (4 seats), Fractie Breda ’97 (3 seats), Groenlinks (3 seats), D66 (2 seats) and Leefbaar Breda (1 seat).

We have done some The Alderman of Culture, Traffic major steps towards and Environment is Sir W.J Wil- being more open and lems. His political party is Groen- culturally dynamic and links, which stands for future- diversified as a society oriented politics regarding social in Breda. We are now environmental issues. Groenlinks much more open-mindstrives for a liveable environment ed than we were 10 with the knowledge that the natu- years ago. ral resources are not endless (inter- Selcuk Akinci view 09-11-2009).

The faction PvdA has eleven representatives in the city council of Breda, with this number they are the biggest party. Followed by the faction CDA which is on national level the largest. New elections will take place in March 2010, but Synovate, an independent research institute, investigates the division of seats as if elections would have taken place. During the last week of November 2009 the institute published that PvdA would now drop to third place with other parties following close. CDA would still be the biggest faction.

In the following paragraph a look is given into the visions of the most influential parties of in city council of Breda and how these visions contribute to an economic climate that supports new networks.

In particular, the three largest parties (PvdA, CDA, VVD) and the party of the Alderman for Culture, Groenlinks, are going to be explained in the following chapters.

PvdA The PvdA is assumed as a social democratic party. According to their national website, the faction claims to have been an initiator of various resolutions which support creative entrepreneurs and artists financially.

The faction supports innovation and experiment within the art and cultural sector. They also seem in favor of new media forms and e-culture in which digitalising is an important topic. The party believes that national museums should be free 20

from admission.

Internationally they support the exchange of talent and with that also focus on top institutions. They are supportive to art production houses and exhibition spaces and acknowledge the steps needed towards a better connection between artistic education and an art profession.

On the local website an interesting notion that in which the PvdA claims to be initiator of a project which should make West-Brabant, Zeeland and Vlaanderen together form a Euroregion. The party considers this a clever step knowing that Brussels will support and focus more on strong regions from 2013 on. Within the discussion about this Euroregion the PvdA speaks about city triangle Rotterdam, Tilburg and Antwerp. In terms of networking this would be an important step towards more contacts and interaction and ultimately networks with Vlaanderen as well as Belgium.

CDA CDA is with eight seats the second largest faction. From the local faction website is understood that it wants to support amateur art and it wants to involve youngsters with art on an early age. They support the idea of attracting new events to the region but the initiators should have the responsibility of financing. Monuments and museums are an important topic for the party as well as historical architecture for which more publicity should be generated. The party acknowledges that Breda is close to becoming a traffic junction between Rotterdam and Antwerp.

Regarding the economical development and employment the CDA faction is in favor of promoting the city as a centre of the South-West region. The attraction of many international companies may need the settlement of a regional bureau specialised in international contacts.

The faction has ideas about the reconstruction and transformation of existing industrial areas as well as for the development of new areas. The faction sees it priority that the creative industry becomes an important part of the local economy however they seem to want to restrict the 24-hour economy.

Also perceived as important is the communication between the municipality and educational institutes as well as enough and qualitative housing for students.

VVD The third biggest party in the city council is the VVD. It is considered as a right wing party, they strive for a safe and honest society, in which everybody who works hard has the freedom to realize his or her ambitions.

The VVD believes that the meaning of culture can be best improved when there is no involvement content wise. They believe responsibility regarding the creation of opportunities for this lies at national politics. Education is an important focus which shows through how the faction tries to get youngsters more involved in culture and art through discussions in class.

When it comes to supporting art and artists in terms of money the VVD believes that less artists should receive more money, plus the VVD wants to create a closer connection between those that make art and those that enjoy it. Furthermore art and culture should contribute to a free, tolerant and dynamic

society.

The view of the VVD concerning Europe and the European Union is that the EU is important to the Netherlands, but not everything is clear in what it can or cannot judge about. The EU should not interfere in the health care and pension though the market for mail, telephone and aviation are matters of the European Union.

Groenlinks Despite the fact that Groenlinks is one of the smaller parties in the municipality of Breda one of their representative is the Alderman for Culture. Which is why Groenlink is expected to have a fair say in culture in Breda.

Groenlinks believes that in the Dutch society there is a strong need to have art. Groenlinks supports a stimulating policy for artists that focuses on education, facilities and good terms of employment. A flourishing climate of art and culture contributes to a creative economy and society.

In the past the government has decided to use the ‘kaasschaafmethode’. This means to save money in the cultural field by taking it away from everywhere. Groenlinks finds this incorrect as big and commercial organisations will last but small organization will no longer be able to support themselves. Groenlinks believes that more money should be spend on culture, at the moment it is 0,7% of the realm budget, they want this to be at least 1%.

To make the producers of art less dependent on the government investments should be made on culture entrepreneurs.

By giving more start grants, having economical zones free of rules and cultural breeding places as well as improvement and stimulation of the rules of employment.

On the topic interference of the European Union Groenlinks believes that the choices on the field of culture, health care, education, public transport and tourism should be made on a national level. It does however support the EU as being responsible to make decisions on environmental matters outside Europe as well as third world development.

Conclusion From the political proportions of the three biggest parties in Breda’s city council and the party of the Alderman for culture being described before, one can conclude that the political climate regarding the support of cultural institutions or artists has contrary positions and interests. PvdA and Groenlinks are very supportive, while CDA and VVD are more focussing on economical topics.

Concerning the EU the VVD is having the opinion that some topics and issues should not be addressed by it, but the country itself. Groenlinks is going even further that culture, health care, educational, transport and tourism matters should be taken care of by the country itself.

Economics The following passage is based on the nota ‘Factor C’ and gives a brief summary of its main points. In the nota, the plans of Breda’s municipality concerning culture are stated, which can be found summarized in the following:

The municipality itself has a facilitating and stimulating role.

This is expressed by the subsidies given to the cultural sector.

For example, the municipality facilitates the production side of culture (artists). However, the culture producers have to decide themselves how they allocate the money.

In the “Structuurvisie 2020” (Structure vision 2020) the ambitions of Breda are stated.

The general goals Breda wants to meet in the short term as well as on the long run, are mentioned below: »» a complete city »» an appealing city where it is pleasant to be for 185.000 citizens, companies and visitors. »» a city that contributes to the social economical development of Breda in an international perspective Education and ‘culture makers’ are an important part of a cultural city. Breda wants to bond the creative talent (professional and amateur) to the city. This could be achieved by offering more rooms and spaces for artists to practice their art. In addition, the municipality offers rooms where the artists can publish Breda could be an their art. Cooperation and new ideas attractive city for who can be developed. This way the city companies is expected to be more energetic and want to set-up an office for the Bendynamic.

Breda wants to support and develop elux area. Some have cultural entrepreneurship on all lev- companies els. For instance by improving their already established skills of marketing, finance, building themselves in Breda and like it here. networks and so on.

Thus the cultural budget for the Selcuk Akinci main structure, middle structure, projects, festivals etc. is going to be the following for 2010: €11.4 million are going for the support of the VAK, Lokaal 01, KOP, IDFX, Electrion, fund production, fund presentation, Carnival, Podium Bloos, Culture in the neighborhood, Chassé, Mezz, Breda Barst etc. Additionally there is another €12 million directly from the government for the library that has multiple locations, Breda’s Museum and other.

Networks Concept of Expeditie Breda The following chapter is an outline of ‘Expeditie Breda’ (Expedition Breda) in which is described where Breda stands in terms of international networks. The programme ‘Expeditie Breda’ has a focus on getting more inhabitants, companies and visitors to Breda. Internationalising is connected to the ambitions and growth of Breda. Breda has good factors for this; the geographical location, connections and accessibility, history, hospitality, the education and a vision on the world outside of Brabant.

Image of the City Remarkable for Breda is that it is not seen as an international city. This contributes to the thought that the internationalisation of the city is more a mean than a goal. Being an in21

ternational city is considered very important by the business world, as it is believed that being an international city will attract younger inhabitants (students), The city is already so visitors/ tourists and businesses. much more connected It is thought that the offer of events internationally than should be bigger and for more tar10-15 years ago. The city get groups. Breda is considered a is in that development ‘caring city’ where in-depth conright now. Breda seems versations are held, a city where to get the attention as there is social cohesion, social they are just at the right peace and no outstanding crimispot (railway/roads), nice nality. environment, green, forBreda as an entrepreneurial city is est, historical city centre. not a quality which many people Good higher education, see. However, the fact that Breda international students. has a lot of international businessArend Hardoff es is seen as proof of an attractive climate that is good for establishing more businesses.

Breda being an accessible city is a plus as well as a point of improvement. The good geographical situation of the city is absolutely a great asset. The same is for the improved highway A16 and the HSL-network (train). Accessibility within the city is considered a point of improvement. This is a point of focus in the plan ‘Bereikbaarheidsvisie Spoorzone´ (Via Breda, 2007).

Hospitality According to the ‘Expeditie Breda’ report, family values are an important component of the sociological profile of the city. In spite of its history of fortification and its military character, Breda is generally perceived by foreign residents as hospitable. Particular points of strength in the context of hospitable reception of foreigners are: 1. high proficiency in English and other languages by inhabitants 2. stable international presence of both foreign students and expatriates 3. steady flow of incoming business travelers 4. renewed city centre, voted as best venue in a comparison test across the country (2009) From informal conversations conducted with (randomly sampled) foreign students and other foreigners, the positive perception of Breda as ‘hospitable city’ was confirmed by the project team at side track research level within project activities.

Combining the Best of Two Worlds Existing Networks »» The warmth and security of a relatively small city and Breda already has a great number of international networks. the comfort of a big, modern city that connects to a There are the ‘Oranjesteden’ the ‘Jumelages’ and more recent, European network. also the relations in the frame of ‘Interreg Subsidies’ and the »» Compact inner-city with wide range of fainternational cooperation between the HSL-cities. Also, in the cilities and a surrounding which is rural relation to the urban agglomeration Many structures can be related Lille (north of France), investments and green. »» History and a historical realisation/tradition to networks, if you cut through are made. and modern architecture. Presence of classic an elbow you would also see many connections and differ- Connections aspects and attention to innovation. »» Great international business life and a great ent materials as well as different Breda has good connections to Rotforces that flow through the el- terdam, Antwerp and other cities in creative sector. bow in order to make it all work. the ‘Randstad’ and Belgium. Also »» A massive city with a personal touch.

Jeroen Coenders the connection to the HSL network and the highways give Breda a good 22

European position. The international business life therefore chooses for Breda and strengthen the international character of the city. Physically Breda is an international meeting point.

International Cooperation HSL line regions; Kent, Nord-pas de Calais, Antwerp en Eastern Belgium. The English city of Ashford, in addition to the Belgian cities of Gent and Mechelen, will be examined in further detail especially looking at the tourism aspect since it is one of the most significant aspects of a city in terms of economy.

Together with cities in Europe (HST-line regions) is being looked at how complementary cultural offer can be offered to a bigger, international audience.

Logistics In April 2009 the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs announced Breda, to be the location for the Institute of Logistics in the Netherlands. Herewith the city of Breda builds an emerging logistic focal point, beating Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The Dutch government invested â‚Ź67 million in this institute. It will be responsible for researching innovative logistics solutions as support to the ambition of making the Netherlands market leader in managing transport flows by the year 2020.

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Research

International Visual-Art Networks of Breda

“

Breda Photo together with the international film festival and international graphic design festival built the roots for Breda´s Beeldcultuur.

Wicher Meijer

”

The first part of the research is going to concentrate on Breda and its Visual Art related networks, and is going to give an introduction into the comparable cities. The three cities are then going to be shortly analysed by the five dimensions, and an own network Footprints is going to be generated at the end of each section.

Breda The following chapter is going to investigate the topics of the Visual Art related networks, benefits and plans and strategies of the municipality in further detail, and according to findings in desk and field research. It is giving additional information on the municipality to the background already given in the introduction, and states the opinions of the interview partners from the municipality and Visual Art Scene.

1. Visual Art-related Ties in Breda Results from Desk Research According to the document ‘Expeditie Breda’ from the municipality Breda already has a great number of international networks. There are the ‘Oranjesteden’ the ‘Jumelages’ and more recent also the relations in the frame of ‘Interreg Subsidies’ and the international cooperation between the HSLcities. Also in the relation to the urban agglomeration Lille (Northern France), investments are being made.

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Connections Breda has good connections to Rotterdam, Antwerp and other cities in the Randstad and Belgium. Also the connection to the HSL network and the highways give Breda a good European position. The international businesses are therefore choosing Breda, and so are strengthening the international character of the city. Physically Breda is an international meeting point.

International Cooperation As mentioned before, there are cooperation with the HSL line regions. Furthermore Breda has connections to Kent, Nord-pas de Calais, Antwerp and Eastern Belgium.

The HSL line regions and cities are trying to look at how complementary cultural offers can be presented to bigger and international audience. In terms of economical themes Breda is working together with the cities Ashford, Gent and Mechelen. The focus is examination of tourism in more detail.

Logistics In April 2009 the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs announced Breda, to be the location for the Institute of Logistics in the Netherlands. Herewith the city of Breda builds an emerging logistic focal point, and therefore now has – in logistical terms – a better position than Rotterdam and Amsterdam. €67 million are being invested by the Dutch government into this institute. It is going to be responsible for researching innovative logistics solutions as support to the ambition of making the Netherlands

market leader in managing transport flows by the year 2020.

Findings Field Research In order to find out the Visual Art related ties of Breda, also field research has been conducted in addition to the desk research. Different interviews were being held in the field of Visual Art in order to answer this question.

and Brabant. For cultural heritage, for instance, the “Goal of the department is local”. In the cultural department “The networks on European level are seen very minimal”. Also they were stating that “on European level they have not Every city is a networked started yet”. Dennis Elbers from KOP Breda told that he city. It`s nothing unique – does have an active and alive network, also abroad, but that the main reason for this is the people he knows. When it`s an illusion. building a network it is important to use the people you Wicher Meijer know and work from there.

Awareness of International Networks In every interview we have been asking our interviewees the question: “Do you know about any international networks within the Visual Art sector?”. It was very striking that most of the interviewees answered “No” to this question. As the interviews proceeded and the team asked more questions, the interviewees stated that there actually are international networks.

To conclude, there are international Visual Art networks in the city but they are simply not visible.

Contacts & Networks The team has made a distinction between contacts and networks. A contact is a person or an organisation to which one talks to and occasionally works with. A network is alive and cooperations are made within a network on a much more active basis.

International Contacts After having finished the research it can be completed that every organisation has international contacts on its own. Most of these contacts are in Belgium and Germany. Wicher Meijer, the director of ‘BredaPhoto’ stated the following when talking about international contacts: “In Belgium we have a close relation to Antwerp and we do something with Munich for example, but not really international networks.

This is the same with Photo Museum Antwerp, they have a certain reputation. They are impressed on what we are doing.

They suggested that we can have one year in Breda and the other year in Antwerp. And via Antwerp you can reach all the interesting people, consumers whatever use it for your festival in Breda. Therefore we have an excellent network in Belgium.”

The department of cultural heritage also has different contacts in Belgium and Germany as Breda being a Nassau city and an ‘Oranjestad’.

According to Marleen Huijbrechts and Marc Berends from the department for cultural heritage these contacts are asleep at the moment. They had been strongly working together three years ago, but since then no new cooperation happened. Also Maurice Spapens explained to us he has customers from abroad, even from Asia, but this is where the cooperation stops. He works with them and then they go their separate way. When having this person in your network more activities could happen. This seems to be happening more in Breda.

International Networks However, these connections are contacts rather than networks.

The real networks are based in Breda itself. The focus of both the municipality and the organisations in Breda is in the city

Exchanges on Artist Level As for the artist scene in town Selçuk Akinci from the political party “Groen-Links” states the following: “We have the Sint Joost as an art academy, with a very large autonomic sector. They do a lot with audiovisual arts. We are trying to get the Max (studios) into place, film facilities for film makers.

We want to have these studios in Breda on a more commercial basis. It should go together with profit making.” Thus, it can be concluded that a vibrant exchange on artist level is happening vividly on itself.

2. Benefits from Art-related networks Every person interviewed agreed that the importance of networks have changed over the years. Below one can find quotes from several interIt is really hard to views that will give a deeper talk about the netinsight and explain why. works of a city. As Wicher Meijer’s explanaa city is not a person and tion is the following: “Then the city is the one who it is important that you have has a network. You have some specialised people, artto think about the person ists, photographers in town in the city. It is not even and from all over the world. about the organisations.

It`s very important they Dennis Elbers make our exhibitions they make the festival strong.”

“It (network) has become a plague” Maurice Spapens is saying. He is continuing “Most important is still words being said... word of mouth commercialisation. Networks (can) grow immensely.”

The organisers of NoisiVision are stating the following: “Everybody says you have to be internationally networked. It is becoming more and more important and almost necessary to be internationally involved and to get appreciation.”

Also Arend Hardoff, member of the city council is sharing this position: “Networks are getting more and more important as the world is much more dynamic. It is not what you can, but what you know. “ Thus, everybody active in the cultural field of Breda agrees, having international networks is important whether if it is appreciated or not.

ECOC in 2018 In the concept of becoming ECOC in 2018, Geert Lenders believes it is very important to be internationally networked.

So he said that “BrabantStad’s and Breda’s ambition in par25

ticular can not develop just within regional or national context since there are too many relevant partners outside”.

As it can be concluded from these statements, the benefits from international networks are status and prestige for the city Breda. This makes a city more attractive for people to live in or for visitors to visit it. People appreciate a city more when it is internationally connected which is important for Breda in order to become ECOC in 2018.

3. Plans and Strategies for Networks

Future plans of municipality In the different documents from the municipality one can find information about the future plans concerning networks.

This information is already worked out and to be found in the background section of this report and at the beginning of this chapter.

In addition the document factor C with the cultural plans of 2008 and 2020, states that the plans are mostly being made local, a position, also being supported by members of the municipality and city council.

Thus Veronique van Duuren is having the opinion that: “after stating the plans of the city one and a half year ago, the city has not started yet with building a network. Although the international contacts are very welcome, they are not having a clear strategy for this.” According to her the strategy that worked for them before is having network meetings where people can meet each other and exchange information and knowledge.

In ‘Expeditie Breda’ one can read the international ambitions of the municipality. However no clear strategies how to get there are stated. In fact, Go!Fusion can conclude that no exact strategies have been developed. As the Alderman of Culture made clear to the team; this is a clear ambition. He is actively busy with generating contacts and networks abroad, but no clear cooperation has resulted from this yet.

Facilitate Networks Selçuk Akinci, head of the parliamentary group of “GroenLinks” in the city council, is having the following opinion “We do not create the networks, but we can facilitate them”. This clearly It is important to have a shows a change of direction in goal to become a creative terms of speaking of networks, city, but the network itself especially for the Visual Art Scene. can make a certain goal as “The municipality seeks cheap ac- well. commodation for artists by filling Wicher Meijer up empty buildings, the sacrifice is that they have to move every couple of years. The very good artists can get themselves a permanent location of settlement.” This is being a more indirect approach to plan - or rather facilitate - networks. With offering cheap housing and ways to build up a company/network for artists one can create a network for the city.

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4. Breda and the Five Dimensions

Visual Art Breda is having both more than ten museums and public libraries. In comparison to the other cities its number of theatre is quite low. Still according to the measurement, Breda receives one point for the Footprint.

In terms of housing, Breda has the 3rd highest rents in the country. This is why it is not receiving any point in this parameter.

Breda is neither receiving a point for tolerance in nightlife nor freedom in being allowed to consume alcohol in public.

Still red light districts are tolerated, so here one point is being given.

Cultural Heritage In terms of cultural heritage some of the city’s oldest buildings are still existing from the funding years in 1252. Thus, one point for the Footprint.

Also the city has recently won the award for the best city center of the Netherlands. In addition, this city center is a pedestrian area. Therefore, two points are given.

Inter City Connectivity Breda receives one point for being located within one hour reach of Rotterdam which houses the financial headquarters of Fortis Bank NV and DHB Bank NV among many others. Additionally, Rotterdam houses the ‘Art Rotterdam’ fair, which is the national art fair of the Netherlands. Also, the city has over half a million inhabitants, outnumbering the measurement of 100.000.

The border of Belgium and The Netherlands is only 15 km away wherefore Breda receives one point.

Breda has a railway station that covers transport to all the wind directions leaving twice (or more) an hour heading for a city within 100 km reach.

Nijmegen in the East is being reachable within 1 hour, twice an hour, so this is where half a point can be given. As for the West there is Rotterdam in a closer distance, but the last city in this direction. Half a point for the regular and, more or less, quick connection can be given here.

Still, even though there are regular connections to Amsterdam, only one train is making the distance within 1.5 hours.

Also Antwerp that is not even 100km away could not be reached within the hour and there is also no train departing every hour with Antwerp as destination. One point By car the Airport in Eindhoven can be reached within an hour as well as the Airport in Rotterdam. The Airport in Eindhoven shifts 1.6 million (Eindhoven, 2008) people a year, for this another point.

Knowledge Economy The size of the city – with 129,19 km2 – can be considered as big, according to the measurements. This gives Breda one point in knowledge economy.

With 20% of foreigners, Breda receives a point for internationality.

Also the monthly salary is higher than the countries average.

Another point for Breda.

Breda has two universities of applied sciences, this is why it gets a point for higher education, but none for universities.

Intra City Connections The intra city connectivity in Breda is not scoring any point.

Here the citizens per square kilometre do not fullfil in terms of geographical factors. Also the inner city public traffic is neither existing at night on weekdays nor in the weekend.

There is no intra city transport on tracks, and also no park and ride possibilities.

5. Network Web Footprints Breda The detailed comparison of Breda with the two other cities is being made in the next paragraph. According to the measurements described in the methodology, Breda gets in the corresponding dimensions the following scores: Visual Art 2

Cultural Heritage 3

Inter City Connectivity 4

Knowledge City 4

Intra City Connections 0

Comparable Cities According to the first desk research findings, two comparable cities in size, culture and geographical position have been chosen. In this part of the report the aspects of the five dimensions are being compared with those of Breda in-depth. The comparable cities were selected as: Freiburg and Graz.

Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany Freiburg im Breisgau is a “Zähringer” city, found in 1091 and situated in the South-West of Germany and on the edge to the black forest. Populated by around 220.000 inhabitants, Freiburg is the fourth biggest city in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg.

Its geographical position, being situated between two “more relevant cities” and the borders nearby, same size, citizen’s density, student city and cultural focus made the team chose Freiburg., Freiburg is the fourth biggest city in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg.

Its geographical position, being situated between two “more relevant cities” and the borders nearby, same size, citizen’s density, student city and cultural focus made the team chose Freiburg.

1. Freiburg and Visual Art When looking at the numbers of museums and public libraries the numbers are smaller than the corresponding offers in Breda. In terms of statistics the library number for Freiburg is missing the central library and the ones from the single faculties of the university. In these terms it is not possible to compare the two cities. Still, according to the system, Freiburg receives no point for libraries and museums.

Regarding the housing, Freiburg is – like Breda – high ranked concerning prices for estate and rental. According to Empirica Freiburg’s rents are the 5th highest, and real estate is stated to be the 6th most expensive in Germany (Empirica, 2006).

This is why no point for this section is given.

Nightlife in Freiburg is going to undergo a great change in the beginning of 2010. According to the state’s law, all clubs are going to be allowed to be open until 5 a.m. in the morning (Fudder.de, 2009). Before, it were five clubs being allowed to open until this time and having to pay an additional concession for this privilege. Red light business is tolerated in both cities. For both parameters, a point is given to Freiburg.

Looking at tolerance of drugs, Breda, as a Dutch city, allows the consumption of soft drugs. In contrast to that, German law does not forbid to drink alcohol in public, even though the city’s council changed legislation for this, but had to drop it again after the administrative court decided so (Unispiegel, 2009). Here another point goes to Freiburg.

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2. Freiburg and Cultural Heritage Both, Breda and Freiburg are having a historical center and a pedestrian area in the inner city. The cities are both mainly shaped by their gothic cathedrals the “Grote Kerk” and the “Freiburger Münster”. The “Grote Kerk” still is the highest building of the city. In contrast to this newer buildings in the town already have overtopped the “Freiburger Münster”.

This makes point for buildings out of the first city years, and one point for the pedestrian area.

Remarkable for the inner city of Freiburg is its “Bächle”. A system of small gutters is seaming every street in the center.

Usually this system had been used to feed the livestock and fight fire. On the streets, mosaics are being found in front of the stores showing their professional activity. One point for outstanding street furniture.

In terms of city branding Freiburg has been very successful as positioning itself as the “Green city”, having the quarters Vauban and Rieselfeld for ecological sustainability, with projects that are also being funded by the European Union. It has received the UNESCO price for ecological sustainability, and has been announced the title European City of the Year 2010 by the Academy of Urbanism (Freiburg.de, 2009) Another point is given here.

Vauban and Rieselfeld for ecological sustainability, with projects that are also being funded by the European Union. It has received the Unesco price for ecological sustainability, and has been announced the title European City of the Year 2010 by the Academy of Urbanism. Another point is given here.

3. Freiburg and Inter City Connectivity As for factors in the inter city connectivity were the first to look at when choosing the comparable cities, both Freiburg and Breda are very closely situated to the neigbour country. Practically Breda is situated next to Belgium, and so is Freiburg concerning France. With being 3km next to the border, Freiburg receives a point according to the ranking.

In addition Freiburg is situated close to the Swiss border. The bigger cities Basel (CH), Strasbourg (FR) and Karlsruhe (DE) are all located in a vicinity of 60 km. As Basel is the financial center of Switzerland, and Strasbourg the host of the European parliament, the point in this parameter can be given to Freiburg.

Two of the places within 100 km reach are being reachable by train departing in Freiburg within 1.5 hours. It is Strasbourg in France and Liestal in Switzerland. This is why it is receiving one point in this measurement.

The next airport is the tri-national Euroairport Basel Mulhouse, seated about 50km from Freiburg. Bigger international airports are Zurich and Stuttgart, both about 2-3 driving hours from Freiburg. For Breda it is the smaller airport of Eindhoven, about 70 km from the city, but the bigger airports of Brussels and Amsterdam in the vicinity of 2-3 driving hours. The Euroairport fullfils the criteria given, and therefore Freiburg is getting a point for this.

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There are official connections with 9 other cities in terms of the town twinning programme for Freiburg.

4. Freiburg and Knowledge Economy In terms of the demographical sector of the term knowledge economy, Freiburg exceeds Graz and Breda in size with 153,07 km2. Its total population is 219.665 citizens, which is around 37.000 citizens more than Breda has. Also it receives a point for the size.

With 12.6% immigrant citizens it scores the lowest of all three cities. This is why no international point can be given to the city As in both other cities, also the Freiburgers are having a higher net mean income in comparison to its countries average monthly salary. Freiburg receives a point here.

Freiburg has one of the oldest Universities in the country which is also one of the leading institutions in the German university ranking. The four other institutions for higher education are the music conservatory, the college of education, and two universities of applied sciences. These institutions are having all together 27.000 students. Furthermore there are private higher educational institutes in fine arts, graphic design, jazz & rock, tourism management, event management ,sports, and cultural management. For the presence of both universities and other higher educational institutions, Freiburg gets two points.

5. Freiburg and Intra City Connections Taking a look at the Intra City Connections the densities of citizens, scoring with 1.358 and 1.435, are very similar. In terms of urban districts a comparison is not useful to make, especially looking at the statistics. Still, the point for urban density can not be given.

On weekdays it is possible to commute until 1 o’clock at night, and on weekends there are five night buses available.

One point is being given in this section.

The Freiburger traffic corporation VAG offers 4 tram lines at the moment, but is expanding and changing this network according to the new city planning. Comparing the number of guests in public traffic and the road performance that is taking place, the conclusion can be made that the density of usage is higher. Still, Freiburg receives the point for flexibility.

Six park and ride places are inviting citizens from the region and visitors to use public transport, this is why Freiburg is getting the point for encouragement to use public transport.

Taking a look at the Intra City Connections the densities of citizens, scoring with 1.358 and 1.435, are very similar. In terms of urban districts a comparison is not useful to make, especially looking at the statistics. Still, the point for urban density can not be given.

On weekdays it is possible to commute until 1 o’clock at night, and on weekends there are five night buses available.

One point is being given in this section.

The Freiburger traffic corporation VAG offers 4 tram lines at the moment, but is expanding and changing this network ac-

cording to the new city planning. Comparing the number of guests in public traffic and the road performance that is taking place, the conclusion can be made that the density of usage is higher. Still, Freiburg receives the point for flexibility.

Six park and ride places are inviting citizens from the region and visitors to use public transport, this is why Freiburg is getting the point for encouragement to use public transport.

6. Network Web Footprint Freiburg

Visual Art 3

Cultural Heritage 5

Inter City Connectivity 4

Knowledge City 4

Intra City Connections 3

Introduction: Graz and Visual Art Policies Graz is the capital of the province of Styria (“Steiermark” in German, Graz.at, 2009), founded in 1128 and situated in the South-East of Austria. It has around 250.000 inhabitants and is Austria’s second largest city after Wien. It is close to a variety of countries, for instance the Slovenian border is 50 km away and it takes you 80 km to go to the Hungarian border. Italy (200km), Slovakia (265 km) and the Czech Republic (280 km) are further away but still reachable within a few hours.

Graz was chosen to be compared to Breda due to its geographical position, lying at the crossroads of many European cultures. It has 36% more inhabitants (252.000) than Breda (172.000) and has 1.992 inhabitants per square kilometre whilst Breda has 1.358; being bigger and more densely populated. Still, it is also a student city and has a strong cultural focus.

According to the point system Graz scores one point for museums and public libraries.

1. Graz and Visual Art Graz has a very rich cultural scene. Quote: “For the past 40 years, Graz has supported modern and avant-garde movements in literature, arts and architecture. There are several festivals, such as ‘Styriarte’ and ‘Steirischer Herbst’.” (Ess, 2009). The city has 17 museums, 19 public libraries and 11 theatre, meaning four more museums, nine more libraries and nine more theatre than Breda. When comparing the facts one can clearly see that the main difference relies in the amount of theatre there are in both places.

Graz

» One museum for every 14.823 inhabitants » One public library for every 13.263 inhabitants » One theatre for every 22.909 inhabitants Breda

» One museum for every 13.230 inhabitants » One public library for every 17.200 inhabitants » One theatre for every 86.000 inhabitants In terms of real estate, Graz is high ranked with an average price of €1.973 per square meter for an apartment. The rental price is around €6,4 per square meter for an apartment. The price for houses in private property are €1.996 per square meter in Graz-Umgebung (Graz-Area) and €2.278 in Graz.

According to the point system Graz receives another point for the housing, since it is the cheapest capital of the Austrian provinces.

In terms of nightlife, bars close at 2 a.m. but several clubs are open until 6 a.m. in Graz. Red light business is tolerated in Graz. Breda, as a Dutch city, allows the consumption of soft drugs that does not happen in Austria. Drinking in public places is not forbidden in Austria.

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Therefore, Graz receives three more points due to the variety of nightlife, the tolerance of the red light businesses and the allowance to drink alcohol in public.

2. Graz and Cultural Heritage Graz had grown enough in 1379 to be designated capital of “Inner Austria”, an area which comprised Styria and Carinthia, along with Krain, Inner Istria and Trieste (now in present-day Slovenia, Croatia and Italy). As capital, Graz was residence to the Hapsburg dynasty until 1619.

In the following decades, Italian architects and skilled workers arrived and shaped the city with their building expertise. Graz was a powerful fortress of the Holy Roman Empire against threats from the southeast. Later, during the Napoleonic Wars, the remaining walls of the castle fell without even being stormed.

However, the citizens of Graz paid the invaders to spare both the Glockenturm and the Uhrturm, the clock tower and bell tower that crown the Schlossberg. This “insurance” cost the citizens 2.987 Gulden and 11 Kreutzer, around 87.000 Euros in today’s money which seems a fair price considering that the two buildings are now famous Graz landmarks. Since then, the city has distinguished itself primarily in the worlds of science, culture and technology.(Graz, 2009) Romanic, Slavic, Magyar and Alpine-Germanic influences have all mingled in Graz and formed a uniquely distinctive character. The old town has one of the biggest historically intact architectural ensembles of the German-speaking world.

Furthermore, this varied character of different cultures can be seen in buildings ranging in style from Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Historicism up to Art Nouveau. On December 1, 1999, this exceptional city center, which to this day has but a few corners of modern architecture, became a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. Graz’s multicultural tradition has characterised the city for decades, and continues to form the base of its cultural and political identity. To this day, Graz is a place of international encounter and intercultural and inter-religious dialogue. In addition, Graz became European Capital of Culture in the year 2003 which attracted visitors from all over the world.

Furthermore, the Styrian capital is increasingly renowned for its exemplary efforts for sustainability. Two projects, the Ökoprofit and Thermoprofit partnerships, give guidance to be more environmentally friendly, save energy and therefore save money too. Many other international cities have already decided to opt for these ingenious projects. (Graz, 2009). Additionally, Graz was the first European community to be awarded the International Sustainable City Award by the European Union in 1996 and it received the Climate Star Award in 2002 which is a European Prize for the environment.

The capital of “Styria” receives one more point as it still has buildings from the first years of the existence of the city. Additionally, it gets two more points for the multiple awards it has received, and another point for the pedestrian area in the centre of the city. Unfortunately it could not score with the outstanding street furniture.

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3. Graz and Inter City Connectivity Being only 15 km away from the Belgian border and being a central location to reach larger cities like Antwerp, Rotterdam and Eindhoven, all only 50 km away and Amsterdam and Brussels both 100 km away provides Breda a perfect location for businesses operating in the Benelux area, especially logistics companies.

Graz is close to a variety of countries, however the larger cities are further away. The Slovenian border is 50 km and the Hungarian border is 80 km away. Italy (200km), Slovakia (265 km) and the Czech Republic (280 km) are further away but still reachable within a few hours.

In order to reach the nearest bigger cities, it takes 190 km to Zagreb (Croatia), 200 km to get to Ljubljana (Slovenia) and to Vienna (Austria) and 265 km to Bratislava (Slovakia) (Gmaps, 2009).

In terms of transport, the capital of Styria has no harbour however it does have a good train infrastructure. Maribor (Slovenia) is reached in one hour by train and Ljubljana in 3,5 hours. It has direct connections to Ljubljana, Paris (France), Zagreb and Zürich via night train (Switzerland).

The Graz Airport is a rather smaller European airport whose passenger numbers have grown steadily year after year. In 2002 the number of passengers was still around 800.000 and in the year 2008 it reached the one million barrier for the first time achieving concretely 1.008.330 passengers (Homepage Annual Report Flughafen, 2009). Compared to the Eindhoven Airport it transferred around 600.000 passengers less being the exact number of transferred passengers in Eindhoven 1.629.893 in 2008 (Eindhovenairport, 2009) Graz has 12 partner cities namely: Coventry, Darmstadt, Dubrovnik, Groningen, Ljubljana, Maribor, Montclair, Pécs, Pula, St. Petersburg, Triest and Trondheim (Graz.at. 2009).

Graz could only score one point for the near airport in the Inter City Connectivity chapter. The nearby borders and cities are too far away and the railway connections to North, South, East and West are not sufficient to be awarded points.

4. Graz and Knowledge Economy As the major activities of a knowledge economy are to attract and retain knowledge workers, to create new knowledge, to apply new knowledge and making new combinations and to develop new growth clusters, Graz is definitely to be considered as a knowledge city. The city is successful with many cultural projects such as the ‘International House of Authors’ or ‘International Writers House’, a Cultural City Networkproject administered by the Kulturvermittlung Steiermark in cooperation with the office for cultural affairs of Graz. It includes a fellowship programme, where international writers are invited to live and work at the ‘Cerrini Schlössel’ on the Grazer Schlossberg. The house organises events, places artistic and intellectual tasks and edits texts of the authors in the original and in German translations. The main purpose is to enable writers to meet each other and interact creating an environment that empowers their imagination to flourish in a diversified manner instead of being restricted only to liter-

ary culture, and to investigate the extent to which different cultures develop contemporary tendencies in accordance with their own understanding.

Graz additionally has 36.000 students and many educational institutions concretely being four universities, two universities of applied sciences and three conservatoria.

The monthly net mean income in Graz in the year 2007 was €2.168 being slightly higher than the one of Austria which is €2.113.

The Euricor report states that one of the eight characteristics of a knowledge economy is to have the ability of selecting and processing new information and knowledge and turning this into profitable activities. Graz has demonstrated to do this through for instance the creation of activities like the Elevate festival. Bernhard Steirer, the director of the festival, was interviewed in order to get to know the approach they used and how it contributed to the cultural scene of Graz.

Breda does not have at all.

The public transport service was used by 70,83 million people in Graz in 2008 and the road performance was of 11,64 million kilometres.

Additionally, Graz has eight Park&Ride places whilst Breda has none.

In the scoring system, Graz received one point for the density of population, two points for the night public transport, one for the trams available in the city and one additional for the existence of Park&Ride services.

6. Graz Network Web Footprints

Visual Art 5

When asked about his perspective of belonging to an international cultural network he answered: Definitely I do. It is all about connections or relations to diverse areas: to develop media organisations plays an important role in the programme of our festival.

We look at independent media organisations, NGOs. Quite important in our work is to put the focus on individual artists who try to make something different with the way they interact with the planet.

Bernhard Steirer He stated that Graz has a rich tradition in cultural festivals and the municipality gives a lot of funding to cultural initiatives.

According to Bernhard Steirer, Graz empowered many cultural initiatives and had a good cultural climate.

Max Aufischer, director of Kul- If you provide livturvermittlung Steiermark said that ing- and exhibition many activities such as the “Kul- space artists might tRent”, an initiative which facilitates find it a very intermaterial for artists, started in 1989 esting aspect. and until 2001 had already given Bernhard Steirer practical support to artists being involved in more than 550 projects have been successful with their aim of enriching the cultural scene.

On the one hand, Graz could score one point for the size of the city, one point for the monthly average salary, one point for the number of universities, and one point for schools of higher education. On the other hand, it could not score for the multicultural aspect, so how many immigrants are in the city, since less than 20% of the population is foreign.

Cultural Heritage 4

Inter City Connectivity 1

Knowledge City 4

Intra City Connections 5

5. Graz and Intra City Connectivity Graz is divided into 17 districts, 56 in the Graz-Umgebung (Graz-Area, TMC, 2009). Compared to Breda, which has 11 districts in the city and 51 in the area, it is slightly bigger. The city has more than 30 day buses and 8 night buses, whilst Breda has 23 and no night buses. Graz also has 7 tram lines which 31

Research to Strategy

Successful Network Development

The second section of this report is covering the connection from the findings of the research into strategy. It is going to be deeply looked into the successful aspects of network development. Firstly the comparable cities Freiburg im Breisgau and Graz are being discussed in depth. After this, Breda’s Visual Art networks are being looked at in detail.

Comparable Cities Freiburg im Breisgau and Graz – the comparable cities that had been chosen – now are being evaluated more in detail.

Source for the research have been in-depth interviews with the cultural institutions in the cities, plus, for Graz, an interview with one of the leaders of the successful contemporary electronic art festival ‘Elevate’. Both reports are being structured after the successful aspects for international cooperation, the investments being done and interactions taking place in each city. The sections themselves are then being structured after different aspects of culture, Visual Art and city development.

Freiburg The results for answering the research questions concerning Freiburg were taken from the interview with Achim Könneke, director of the cities’ cultural office. The three major topics of the interview were concentrating on, were the town twinning programme, artist in residence programmes and the cultural 32

scene in Freiburg. Each research question is being answered following the corresponding aspects.

1. Successful Aspects for International Cooperation I think, speaking of networks, partner cities do not really belong into this context, because they are fixed under contract, almost like marriage with rights and obligations. This is not the idea of a network, a network has to have the possibility of being able to flourish and sprawl.

They have to be free to expand, but also fine with cutting a ‘limb off from the tree’. Still through the partnership looser networks can flourish and emerge.

Achim Könneke

1. Successful Aspects in Town Twinning and other Partner City Programs The town twinning programme has been advanced by many European governments after the second World War. The aim was to encourage cities to have a formal link between cities to bring “peace and reconciliation among countries that had been locked in combat” (Handley, 2005). The twinning of towns is a very formal way, almost to be described as a marriage between cities. The exchange usually takes place on cultural and economical level. The city of Freiburg currently has nine partner cities (Freiburg.de, 2009): »» Besancon, France since 1959 »» Innsbruck, Austria since 1963 »» Padua, Italy, since 1967 »» Guildford, Great Britain, since 1979

»» »» »» »» »»

Madison, USA, since 1987 Matsuyama, Japan, since 1988 Lviv (Lemberg), Ukraine, since 1989 Granada, Span, since 1991 Isfahan, Iran, since 2000

Since 1988 it has also the “friendship city” Wiwili in Nicaragua. According to Könneke it needs about 10 years for informal networks to develop with the partner cities. These partnerships are working on very different levels. Some are very vivid and other are only existing on a formal level.

Additionally Freiburg is part of the city network “Zähringerstädte” that is a ring of 20 to 30 cities, all being influenced and founded by the dukes of Zähringen. The dukes have been founding cities around the 11th century in the area of South West Germany and North West Switzerland (Freiburg.de, 2009).

There are several Networks in the Tri-regional area of Germany, France and Switzerland. In the opinion of Könneke they are more to be seen as a regional web, even though it also could be seen internationally. Politically there have already been committees in the Eurodistrict since the 70s, for example TriRhena. In these networks it is mostly mayors, but neither citizens nor actors from the cultural sector active. In the meantime it is also the cultural departments from the municipality meeting up twice a year, having the aim of strengthening the cultural work within this area of the “Oberrhein”. In his view new committees need to be build that are not political to strengthen and market the area. A remarkable example for cooperation is the “Oberrheinische Museumspass” which is unique in the world so far: a ticket that is valid for all the museums in the Rhine area, starting in the Süd-Pfalz down South to Switzerland.

2. Successful Aspects in Artist in Residence and Exchange Programme Artist in Residence are programmes that enable artists of different disciplines to express themselves freely, and without directly having to install financial resources. Usually these programmes consist of free facilities, financial support and travel costs for artists to go and live abroad for a specific period of time. The funding of these programmes are usually made by patrons or art foundations.

According to Könneke the artist exchange network is working over and above the region. In the fine arts it is Freiburg, Basel Land, Basel Stadt, Weil am Rhein, Riehen cooperating with the programme of the foundation “Christoph Merians Stiftung”. The Basel foundation has partner institutions all over the world, for example Rotterdam, Paris, New York, Johannesburg, Peking, Montreal etc. Yearly it is about 15 artists being sent all over the world and 15 artists being welcomed from all over the world.

3. Successful Aspects in Cultural & Visual Art Scene Freiburg’s cultural scene is shaped by theatre, art and music.

Nine stages for theatre, 12 professional or semi-professional orchestras and 24 choirs are present today. Outstanding music festivals are the “ZMF - Zelt Musik Festival” (Freiburg

HPC, 2009) for popular music held in an extra tent city at the town’s edge for two weeks and the “Mehrklang” for the genre of 20th century classical music. Hosting also an “Ensembe Akademie” (Freiburg HPC, 200) and the “Experimentalstudio” (Freiburg, HPC, 2009) for new classical music, Freiburg is one of the leading cities in this genre.

In relation to the number of citizens the Freiburger is the most frequent cinema visitor in Germany. The offer of art house and programme cinema also scores one of the highest compared to the rest of the country. (Zeit Magazin, 2008) Film Festivals and Events like several Open Air Cinemas in summer, the queer film week (Freiburg HPC, 2009), one of the oldest queer events existing since 1985, and the “Freiburg Film Forum” (Freiburg HPC, 2009), as one of the most important festivals in Germany held biennially.

The museums have mainly developed of the old city’s collections. The biggest museum is the Augustinermuseum holding a collection for art and art history starting from the Middle Ages. The “Museum für neue Kunst” is concentrating on contemporary art starting from expressionism of the 19th century. (Freiburg, HPC, 2009). “Kunstverein Freiburg e.V.”(Freiburg HPC, 2009) that had been founded in 1827 is the oldest art association in Germany is displaying its art in a former swimming hall. “Kunsthaus L6” (Freiburg HPC, 2009), founded in 2004, is offering ateliers for fine arts, rehearsal rooms for bands, a guest room for a guest artist and exhibition rooms.

Majorly influenced by the squatting movements in the 80s (Fudder.de, Article on Squatting History, 2007), a few independent cultural institutions have established themselves: Fabrik e.V (Freiburg, HPC, 2009), a cluster for theatre, arts, and sustainability, and E-Werk, the “Arbeitskreis alternative Kultur” (Freiburg HPC, 2009), for contemporary dance, art, and music are the most successful examples. The alternative club “Cräsh” (Freiburg HPC, 2009) and “KTS” (Freiburg HPC, 2009) , and underground autonomous centre for culture and education, are widely noted in the region, and internationally within their scene.

2. Investments for the Development of Visual Art Networks It is seen as most important to Achim Könneke that developing the network is happening out of own motivation. Seeing the give and take mechanism themselves to know with whom to cooperate. As a cultural department it is possible to set impulses for promoting a special purpose, which often has to do with money.

1.Investments in Town Twinning and other Partner City Programmes Besides keeping the ties to the partner cities on the formal level, it is mostly special occasions being used as an opportunity to start to cooperate. According to Könneke it is the cultural institutions themselves proposing ideas, and then mostly seeking for financial support of the cultural office.

In the tri national region it is – for instance – the cultural departments meeting up and seeking ways to develop the whole region together, both culturally, but also economically.

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In the beginning of the partner city programme it was for example where the cultural department tried to boost the music and literature exchange. Now this exchange is happening on itself. In the opinion of Könneke cooperation in this sector cannot be forced, but supported.

2. Investments in Artist in Residence and Exchange Programme Within the artist exchange and in residence programmes it is mostly combining the sources of the German and Swiss cities in the area. Könneke is saying that under the patronage of the “Christoph Merian Stiftung” the accommodation available, the pool of artists, and the funding for sending are being united. Freiburg, for example, is offering an artist apartment in the Kunsthaus L6. The foundation itself owns a few ateliers in an artist cluster in Paris that can be offered. The artist themselves are being put into the same pool for the whole region, and also selected from there.

From the partners abroad it is mostly expected to grant their own artists. Other criteria are professionalism in terms of supporting the artist, and the place itself: it has to be interesting for the artist being sent to go there.

If there are special interests of patrons to send an artist to a specific place, extra funds are being opened for this theme, and the artist can then apply for it. The programme then lasts as long as the funding is available.

3. Investments in the Visual Art Scene “Investments in the cultural and visual art scene itself are mostly born out of a common interest of actors and institutions themselves”, Könneke is saying. The necessity and need for a particular topic unites the organisations and make them act regarding their purpose. Usually, then, these connections last, as long as their purpose is being fulfilled. After this they loosen again and might re-find themselves for another purpose again.

3. Interaction of European Cultural Networks In the opinion of Könneke network interaction is “Thousands of sub networks that are connecting at some single points, for example culture and education, or culture and ecology”. Still he thinks that this has to happen by coincidence and sudden same interest. “If it happens it is great” he is saying, “but they need to move freely and connect by coincidence”.

1. Interaction in Town Twinning and other Partner City Programmes As seen before, the town twinning programme, the artist in residence programme and the wide cultural scene of Freiburg are the major factors making the city successfully connected internationally. According to Könneke the partner city network is a rather inflexible construct that still in some cases is working very vividly, while in other connections is quite asleep. Especially the network of the Zähringer Städte is being seen so. Only anniversaries are being celebrated, and on other aspects there is not much happening.

Often city partnerships are working on very different levels.

There are many networks only existing on the representative 34

level, where delegates or mayors are paying each other visits.

The partnerships are then becoming interesting, In contrast to this, some town ties are exchanging lively. Right now the city is having an anniversary with Besancon, so here are projects happening, but especially with Isfahan and Matsuyama there is regular cooperation.

Isfahan in Iran is one of the most interesting examples. When Freiburg had been establishing ties with the city in the year 2000 there was the impression that Iran is moving towards a democracy. Especially looking at the events in the past year this impression is not holding up anymore. It is often being criticised, and very controversial. Still, many cooperation have been established, because of this partnership. For example the children’s theatre in Marienbad is nowadays continually cooperating with Isfahan and also Teheran. At the moment the theatre is invited to perform the national epos of Iran, the book of the kings, as a co-production of the cities Freiburg and Teheran. The theatre is now invited to go on tour in Iran.

2. Interaction in Artist in Residence and Exchange Programme International interaction in the artist exchange programme in order to exchange knowledge, could be achieved only through the people working at the organisation and the artists that were on an exchange programme and are coming back. The person who works on the grants is meeting communities and doing research, the artists who are coming back to Freiburg give insight and recommendations for good artist in residence programmes.

3. Interaction in the Visual Art Scene As mentioned earlier, it is a common interest that connects the different actors in the Visual Art and cultural scene. In contrast to this new input and networks are “imported” by having a frequent change in the direction of the cultural institution.

According to Könneke the direction of art organizations, for example the ‘Kunstverein’, are bringing in different networks and are cooperating with them. This change is very important, because to many of these networks there would not be any access since they are closed. If cooperation are working very well it is also possible that these connections last and continue, even though the direction is changing. In the ‘Kunstverein’ the previous direction was concentrating on Switzerland, while the new director now is coming from Northern Germany and therefore collaborates with more people from this region. Könneke would be very worried if “cultural institutions had a long-lasting partnership with three to four other international institutions”. “It would be interesting for a while, but then would become something which is happening to the city partnerships” he is saying. As an example would be a partnership with a museum in Breda, but then having the organization asking itself the question: “Why are we again doing something with Breda, if we also could be doing something in Rotterdam?”

In this point it is time to go and remember the original and balanced idea of a network: “it needs to flourish and sprawl, but also should not get hurt if a “limb gets cut off from the tree””

Graz The results for answering the research questions concerning Graz were taken from the interviews with Magister Max Aufischer, director of Kulturvermittlung Steiermark, and Bernhard Steirer, director of Elevate festival in Graz. The three major topics of the interviews were concentrating on the culture networks, artist in residence programme and the town twinning programme. Each research question is being answered following the corresponding aspects.

1. Successful Aspects for (International) Cooperation or Network Development This chapter mainly focused on the interviewees’ perspective on the successful aspects for cooperation or network development.

“I don’t think networks are only related to computers and technological environments. I think networks are more, they go beyond that. In the stable networks, it is not relevant through which media you communicate but much more the ties themselves and the personal existence, the creative potential and the authority of the individual person.”

– Max Aufischer For Mr. Aufischer, computers and internet were only tools to communicate but he was not very in favour of new social networks such as Facebook or Twitter since he prefers to meet people physically.

“The necessity of having networks is a very old system, which results of basic social structures of human beings. The networks, as we approach and understand it today is mostly very bureaucratic cooperation and occur mostly across computer communication and bureaucratic structures.”

– Max Aufischer He believes networking became an end in itself, therefore it is not anymore as stable as it was in the beginning, when no one spoke about the term “networking”.

“I personally, like it much better to work with people and other organisations at eye level. I think it is very important that you work with people who are from different backgrounds and have different opinions. I think it is not useful to work with partners who almost think the same as I do.”

– Max Aufischer “Every personal network is also a work related network. I think there is no difference” – Max Aufischer When asked which are the elements of him or his organisation his network is most likely to associate with he responded: “To have simple and clear outcomes. Products, so people can realise their cultural products, that we can communicate on different activities. That you have products like exhibitions or paintings, photographs, books. If we don’t deliver those products I think networks are not meaningful. There are other places to go if you just want to talk.” – Max Aufischer

“What I believe makes our team strong is the diversity we have as we all have different interests. Our product, the Elevate festival brings all these different people together and in the end the main goal is to bring all the organisations together.” – Bernhard Steirer “We have all kinds of participants in our network. There are media partners, public funding organisations, there are people who contribute financially to the project, organisations which deliver internal contributions, lightning contributions, artistic contributions, booking agencies, magazines such as Vivax and Groove. In the end we all sit in the same boat and there is definitely much exchange in this underground genre.” – Bernhard Steirer “I believe you do networking because it is inspiring, it is a good feeling to be connected around the globe, it is interesting to look at other people’s work and sometimes it is practical to help other people and being helped by others.”

– Bernhard Steirer “In my point of view, if you want to work with someone for a longer period of time, reliability is very important, especially in this work environment. If you work together with people over hundreds or thousands of kilometres you have to trust those people. A lot of so-called deals are built upon only a handshake, so immediate trust.” – Bernhard Steirer For Mr. Steirer, the most important aspect of having a strong network was to be able to rely on the people of the network.

Since technology has made possible to establish connections to people from all over the world, reliability is even more important than it used to be since you cannot physically interact with them.

“Not many (web based) social networks are used., they are only useful to know what other people are doing. To communicate email or phone are still the best.” – Bernhard Steirer After being asked whether it is difficult to enter a Visual Art network in Austria he answered: “I think you can answer this question quite universally for all networks. If you are good at what you do because you like what you are doing, if you are a person who is extroverted and communicative, it is quite easy to handle networks.” – Bernhard Steirer For Bernhard Steirer the best networkers or leaders of networks are people who are extroverted and communicative.

In order to succeed with your network, being passionate about your work is essential in his opinion.

2. Successful Aspects in Town Twinning and other Partner City Programmes The city of Graz has currently 12 partner or sister cities: »» Montclair, United States of America since 1950 »» Coventry, England since 1957 »» Groningen, the Netherlands since 1965

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»» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »»

Darmstadt, Germany since 1968 Trondheim, Norway since 1968 Pula, Croatia since 1972 Trieste, Italy since 1973 Maribor, Slovenia since 1987 Pécs, Hungary since 1989 Dubrovnik, Croatia since 1994 Ljubljana, Slovenia since 2001 St. Petersburg, Russia since 2001

As one can see, Graz has many partnerships with cities and they are spread all over the world. One remarkable fact is that five partnerships are located in Eastern Europe concretely Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary. This is certainly due to its geographical location being close to the borders of the mentioned countries.

The partnership with Coventry dates back from the early years after WWII. Dubrovnik is the only twin town of Graz that has also been declared UNESCO World Cultural Heritage City. The friendship between Pécs and Graz originated due to the close contacts environmentalist organisations had in both cities. St. Petersburg is the so-called “Venice of the North” and has a rich artistic and cultural environment. The artistic connection between Graz and the second largest city of Russia has been vibrant and prosperous over the years. Art organisations arrange exchanges and the well-known conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre, Maestro Valery Gergiev, visited the Austrian city already on several occasions with his ensemble. The partnerhip with the Norwegian city Trondheim was signed due to the close relationship of the cities’ technical universities.

“I established the “Kulturvermittlung Steiermark”. It was our task from 1992 to 2001 to prepare Graz for the European Capital of Culture event. Therefore, we fostered our contacts mainly to our partner cities and also the connections to our partners in South-Eastern Europe, on both a city and multilateral level. That means we started very early, even before the terms network and networking came up.” – Max Aufischer “Another service in our organisation is the Cultural City Network, where we have informal cooperation between cities in Central and Eastern Europe and with our partner cities. All this, as I said, is on a very informal level. Our goal is to realise projects on a multilateral base.“ – Max Aufischer When asked when he regards an organisation as being part of his network he answered: “ If we have projects where we work together, they become automatically part of our network. For example, we did an exhibition project with cities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. All of the people we worked with are part of our network, as they get information on what we are doing so they will be able to work together with us on other projects.” – Max Aufischer

3. Successful Aspects in Artist in Residence and Exchange Programme The International Writers House is a Cultural City Network- project, and is administered by the Kulturvermittlung 36

Steiermark (KVS) in cooperation with the office for cultural affairs of the City of Graz. It is based on the Hotel Europe programme developed by Walter Grond in the Forum Stadtpark and modified for the CCN. “Another service we have is the International Writers House where we have a grants system. We invite authors, mainly within our writers in exile programme, where we host persecuted authors, who are threatened in their home countries.”

– Max Aufischer The International Writers House scheme includes a fellowship programme, where international writers are invited to live and work at the ‘Cerrini Schlössel’ on the Grazer Schloßberg.

The IHAG organises events, places artistic and intellectual tasks and edits texts of the authors in the original and in German translations. The objective of the invitations is to enable writers from different cultures to meet and interact with each other, so that their imagination is brought to bear in a diversified manner instead of being restricted only to literary culture, and to investigate, in the spirit of enlightenment, the extent to which different cultures develop contemporary tendencies in accordance with their own understanding (Ihag, 2009).

4. Successful Aspects in Cultural & Visual Art Scene The city of Graz has many cultural projects to ensure the good cultural climate for the future. The interviewees shared the same opinion that Graz has a rich culture scene.

“We are an association who gets subsidies from the public authorities. We have four main focuses: Cultural advisory of the activities within the city, within the educational system meaning schools and other educational establishments. Secondly, we have ‘KultRent’ which provides a practical support for artists -they can borrow technical equipment and whatever they need for their exhibitions. Then, we have the ‘International Writers House’ and the Cultural City Network.”

– Max Aufischer The demand of KultRent is very big, between 1989 to 2001 approximately 550 projects have been supported in Austria and the neighbouring countries. (Kulturvermittlung, 2009) “I definitely see myself as part of an international cultural network. It is all about connections or relations to diverse areas: to develop media organisations is an important role in the programme of our festival. We look at independent media organisations, NGOs. Quite important in our work is to put the focus on independent media organisations and individual artists who try to make something different with

the way they interact with the planet.”– Bernhard Steirer

1. Investments in Artist in Residence and Exchange Programme

“We have a quite rich tradition of cultural festivals in Graz.”

– Bernhard Steirer

Artists are continuously searching for inspiration and exchange. Artist in residence and exchange programmes can be a very good plan of action to internationalise a city.

5. Investments for the Development of Visual Art Networks Through the research it has been found out that many people agreed it is very important that a network can operate freely.

It loses performance when it becomes too institutionalised.

Therefore, to supply the facilities to artists through possible grants but also to give them freedom in order to make the culture scene flourish are considered important elements.

“The city of Graz does give financial support to artists. We have several grant systems, where our organisation has the biggest. The city does not arrange these, it is arranged by several cultural institutions in the city area.” – Max Aufischer “We do not differ between cultural projects in the different art sections, so between seniors, the young art scene or youngsters. We also have a grant for artists from the Central and Eastern European area, a system which enables us to invite these artists to Graz.” – Max Aufischer “Indirectly networks can do something for a city, but therefore a city needs to know what it wants to achieve with its networks. This goes in close cooperation with its resources and how the city uses them to hook up on new impulses.”

– Max Aufischer “Time is definitely much more important then money.”

– Bernhard Steirer “I would say it takes about one year to create a strong and reliable basis for a new network. However, sometimes it is really about immediate trust.” – Bernhard Steirer “Networks are very important for a city. If nothing moves, the city will not move. Plenty of communication and movement is essential for the cultural life of a city.”

– Bernhard Steirer

“We have about 100.000 young people in the city from the universities, the universities of applied sciences and schools.

Therefore, we attract a lot of young people to the city. Out of our universities and universities of applied sciences we have good education in arts but not in visual arts. There is often the need for young people to leave the city because most of the artists cannot survive in Graz by selling their art.”

– Max Aufischer “Artists are always searching for inspiration and exchange.

If an artist has the feeling that a city is dead, he or she will not go there. Grants attract artists too.” – Bernhard Steirer “There is a lot of funding coming from the municipality to support artists.” – Bernhard Steirer “I can give you a good example of what the city of Graz is doing at the moment. They are providing space for artists in residence. It is similar to mini art galleries where artists live and work for a certain time. This is really a chance for a city to bond people that normally might not like to stay. Providing living- and exhibition space is a very important aspect for artists.” – Bernhard Steirer

2. Investments in the Visual Art Scene “The components a strategic network should have is ideas.

Everyone says we need more money and more people but that is not true. In order to achieve that networks survive, it is very important to get new input, new ideas to have it vivid and vital.” – Max Aufischer He compares it to a website. If no one overworks it, no one will need or visit it anymore.

When asked about the efforts in the creation of long lasting sustainable networks he answered: “This is not possible. In a network you only have the people who develop it. On the one hand we want to present the diversity of of Europe and the world. On the other hand we want to make everything long lasting and sustainable for hundred years.” – Max Aufischer

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He thinks sustainable networks are dangerous because they are too structured and institutionalised.

He stated that they did many activities in the public space in order to involve the citizens of Graz in the ECOC candidacy.

6. Interaction of European Cultural Networks When asked if he sees himself as part of an international cultural network: “Yes and no. Everyone who works in international dimensions is part of an international network.

We work together with different institutions but I would not describe them as network partners. These are very different organisations, people, differing from human-rights organisations such as Amnesty International to the national and international PEN (an international authors organisation), different cultural associations, schools and artists. Everyone who is more or less involved in our projects. We have a very long list, a list of artists in Graz and most likely all countries in Europe and also internationally. The farther away the less networks we have.” – Max Aufischer Having less networks farther away is regarded as positive by him, since he states that one can save many costs, especially transport costs in Visual Arts.

He has no prescribed structure to work with the participants of his network. Those participants are predominantly representatives of institutions, artists, authors, teachers, cultural promoters and city council when they work together with cities. However, he says: “If there is the possibility to work directly together with cultural makers, then we choose this way.” – Max Aufischer “I cooperate with the ‘Cultural Forum’ of the Austrian Ministry for foreign affairs and with several information networks and structures.” – Max Aufischer In the creation and in terms of having long-lasting networks, personal contact and personal meetings were in his point of view the most stable instruments. He does not want to work with someone he met via the internet and whose character he does not personally know. He believes it is not helpful to create a cooperation via the internet. He thinks it is important to have feedback of the person and for longer and complex projects the people should be involved in the work place.

1. Interaction in the Visual Art Scene The general opinion of the interviewees was that relatively new communication means such as internet and the mobile phone have simplified some aspects of daily interaction. Still, nothing can replace the personal feedback another person can give you and especially artists need interaction to find inspiration.

“Internet has made communication much easier and networking is even more important than it used to be.”

– Bernhard Steirer

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“I think the most important aspect is the power of the network. There are many networks that consist of people that discover they are interested in the same topics working in different areas and thus want to exchange what they have been doing and are interested in what others do. It is a constant feedback process. The character of the networks is diverse and it is difficult to say how you can measure it.”

– Bernhard Steirer

7. Conclusion From the responses of the interviewees one can see that Graz has a rich cultural scene having many projects on multiple levels ensuring the dynamics and the creative input from artists for the city. Many projects are running since more then 10 years and are successful with their aims. Due to the location of Graz, some of the projects provide services for artists of the neighbouring countries such as Slovenia and Hungary.

For the interviewees, internet is merely a tool to communicate with the people of your network but it will never replace a physical meeting. The feedback that you get from the other person when interacting physically is very important for both of them. Both of them considered that there is a difference between partners and people from your network. At least a year has to pass to consider someone as belonging to your network, although in some cases it is about immediate trust.

Networks need maintenance and freedom, if they become too institutionalised they will not be successful. The artist in residence programme of Graz is quite successful and was rated very positively by both interviewees.

However, one interesting fact is that Mr. Aufischer stated that networking used to be much more important in the past then it is nowadays, while Mr. Steirer believes that through the creation of internet which made communication easier networking has become even more important than it used to be.

Breda In the following chapter a closer look will be given into pillars of Breda’s Visual Arts network and how these assets create possibilities for Breda to connect with attractive Visual Arts networks abroad. Firstly Breda’s offer in relation to Visual Arts is going to be discussed. Secondly this is being followed by an explanation of the attractive networks from abroad. At last an answer is given to the question of what potential these networks connections have.

1. Criteria for Visual Art Networks Looking into the definition of Visual Arts we know that this is as wide as theatre, architecture, fashion, gaming and sculpturing. For networking to succeed it needs people sharing information, knowledge and resources usually through a platform where people with a similar interest gather. These people can be representatives of Visual Arts related organisation as well as artists and individuals with an interest in Visual Arts.

1. Aspects of Visual Art Networks Networks in general, ‘work effectively when it has strong leaders’ according to Arend Hardorff, party chairman in Breda. Magister Aufischer from The Cultural City Network in Graz makes a similar remark saying that the authority of the individual person is important. He also explains how the organisation prefers to first talk to potential partners in person.

Arend also explains that a city needs a fair share of platform where communication can take place. So in order for Breda to have networks work efficiently, a platform is required where leaders can meet face to face and where communication can take place concerning Visual Arts.

Magister Aufischer also explains that the acceptance of networks very much depends on good ideas and enthusiasm.

Also working with people from different backgrounds who have different opinions; ‘I think it is not useful to work with partners who almost think the same as I do’. This suggests the importance of Breda to be networked internationally as people and organisations abroad can have a very different approach to Visual Art related matters.

The same person from the Cultural City Network in Graz explained that face to face contact is important in establishing relations and potential partnerships. It is also said that less networks exist with farther away places as a result of the high costs for transporting equipment in the Visual Arts sector.

2. Visual Art Networks in Breda “The city is just to small for international artists to be appealing. // I do not think there is a really big underground scene in Breda or at least I am not aware of it. // They (the people in Brabant) do not have the wish to be an international meeting point.” – Dennis Elbers Within Breda the existing networks on Visual Arts are to be found through Colin which is an organisation that visualises creative networks as well as supports the knowledge exchange

between entrepreneurs, governments and education.

The Graphic Design museum in Breda houses the national collection of Graphic design, which used to be scattered over the country. KOP Breda is an interactive exhibition place for Visual Arts where many artists from abroad exhibit their work.

According to Arend Hardorff there are informal networks around the Arts Academy: Sint Joost. Internationally Breda is connected to the Premsela foundation which has exhibited Art in the Graphic Design museum.

Artists from VAK Breda have their own networks explains Maurice Spapens. ‘I hardly know any artist who does not have exhibitions abroad to sell work’. He has clients from all over the world, for instance from Indonesia.

A Visual Arts network is huge explains Joanna van der Zanden from Platform 21 as you have the people making arts: the makers, the creators. You have people like curators, organisers, producers. The lovers, people that make money out of it. People who like; get theories out of it. Then there are connections with other sciences or other creative disciplines.

And of course all the people that like to see art, read about art, magazines, the media. Joanna suggests to start the other way around asking: ‘who is totally not involved in arts?’ She suggests to look outside the conservative network group and ask everybody to be involved.

3. Reciprocity within Visual Art Networks Setting criteria for an international network which Breda would like to connect to make it sound like Breda could simply pick one according to its needs. However this can’t be true as the success of networks depend predominantly on how well its give and take mechanism functions. People would not connect to a network in Breda unless it is interested in what it has to offer. In addition the term “network” itself only scratches the surface of a broad field. Networks have to be differentiated, according to specification and use.

The Visual Art network of Breda is in need for ‘goods’ being information, knowledge, products, resources etc., but logically a network only exists when purposes or action are being exchanged and distributed equally.

When there is a common interest and there are no hierarchical reasons involved through many different parties, creativity can flourish as it has no fixed context. Different parties from different areas and letting them meet on one level: students, cultural managers, directors, social cultural institution people. So for example Achim Könneke explains that all parties should function on one level with different backgrounds and ideas; meeting up with the will to do something together.

He also explains that before cooperation can be established it is very important that both parties are motivated and that there is identification; ‘they should have the perception to be part of the partners organisation’. A partner could feel part of the organisation when they arrive in an open atmosphere where information and knowledge is exchanged freely, in return they might open up as well; thus creating a constant knowledge exchange.

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4. Visual Art Related Features in Breda On Visual Arts Breda has a lot to offer which makes the city an interesting place for people with an interest in Visual Arts.

According to the speech of Dr. Karel van der Waarde (Van der Waarde, 2009) one of the aspects of Breda that prove its reputation is the fact that there is one graphic designer per every two hundred inhabitants.

Moreover Breda is the first in the world to have a museum entirely dedicated to Graphic design. Breda has at least 20 places where arts are shown during the year, these places are spaces varying from public spaces such as the city hall, but also hospitals, museums and private galleries show artwork.

Another strong asset that Breda has is ‘The Blushuis’, a creative cluster that houses about 40 companies active in the creative sector. The province is also supporting the construction of a second location on the same complex with space for the Gaming Academy of the NHTV and other creative industries and technologies; from writers to film directors, from publishers to designers. A new company that will be housed in The Blushuis is the marketing department of Studio100 that does some popular film productions for children.

Furthermore Breda has announced, through its Strategic Agenda City Marketing: ‘Expeditie Breda’ that it is building on a Leisure complex on the Bavelse Berg with sport, wellness, in- and outdoor events, recreation, retail and a Leisure Management institute.

Also a knowledge and production centre for the Audio Visual sector is expected to be established in Breda being called the Markstudios (Ave Brabant, 2008). This centre will organise meetings to stimulate the Audio Visual sector of Breda by bringing together educational institutes (like the NHTV, Sint Joost, ROC) and entrepreneurs in order to link Breda within Brabant with other AV-clusters in Europe. The Markstudios will also have a facilitating role with mediation and coaching activities. In 2009 also a fund is set up that give subsidies to film makers.

Besides all the above assets Breda has in the field of Visual Arts it knows three festivals on Graphic design; the Graphic Design Festival, BredaPhoto and the International Film Festival.

Other hardware Breda has to offer existing and potential networks is good connectivity with cities like Antwerp and Paris but also within the borders with Rotterdam. Breda also connects to the airport in Eindhoven, a journey that would take one a bit over half an hour to arrive.

2. Visual Art Networks in Planning In this section the Visual Art networks that Breda has in range in terms of focus and attractiveness are outlined.

3. Existing Networks On a political level Breda cooperates with Malta. According to Lia Voermans from external affairs every Dutch city also candidate for ECOC, has been talking to Malta about working together. Though the prestigious title has first to be de40

cided on in 2012 before a partnership becomes really active.

1. Perception of Planning in the Comparable Cities To secure innovative and creative ideas to come to a city in the future and keep the network vital and vigorous it is important to bring in new people to the cultural organisations explains Achim Könneke from the cultural department in Freiburg. He also mentions for the same reason how directors in cultural institutions are changing every couple of years: ‘when a new director steps in they bring their international networks and partners’. The change is very important, because many networks are limited. Previous networks that existed before the change usually do not continue to exist, because they really depend on the person. Although the good partnerships that really worked well, might survive.

What is perceived as a problem in Freiburg is that usually a cultural organisation has the problem of too much work, to less money. They have to take care of getting their daily business done and usually they do not have the time to think about extra or other projects. Achim Könneke: ‘it is quite unrealistic that the cultural organisations do get the idea to do something themselves and extend their network’. They are unable to, since their heads are full of only thinking of survival.

He also believes that: ‘the future might not be so bright for cultural organisations thinking about a new project or about connecting to a new network.

Achim Könneke: ‘A city has different faces and therefore needs to cooperate on different levels depending on the focus it should have different networks for the different fields, different networks for the different cultural institutions. Having networks on all different levels working independently makes a city a networked city.

2. Planning in Breda In ‘Expeditie Breda’, Cultural Heritage is mentioned as extra pull factor for international business and industry. Especially America and China value this.

Veronique van Duuren thinks that future planned networks for Breda are very likely to be created with cities in Belgium and France like Antwerp, but also on a national level with Rotterdam. Lia Voermans explains that Valenciennes, a city in France that Breda has contacts with, has a focus on Visual Arts since four years already. Contacts with Valenciennes are exWhat is missing in Breda: To want something new. Experimental atmosphere. Breda is always on the safe side of the line, it is not very new. The municipality is conservative. They are not interested when small companies want to do something new. They like prestige objects/projects, like the museum or a big opera house, but small things they forget. Maybe that will change now, because of the ECOC story.

The progress is very important in this that gives opportunities. Breda is missing dynamic, new experimental stuff.

That is what makes something special.

Lia Voormans

pected to be only more intensified in the coming years.

Also the linguistic skills of the average person in Breda are perceived as good; ‘well educated and speak different languages’, according to the Strategic Agenda City Marketing Breda. This improves the position of Breda and its attractiveness in creating international networks.

4. Elements of Attraction to Focus on As Breda wants to expand its Visual Arts network it should know what attractive elements it has to focus on (as a city) in making itself an attractive player for networks with European reach. But what attractive elements should Breda focus on when looking at a potential partner city, what are assets of their network and what potential connections are there.

1. Attractive Elements of Breda to Focus on Networks are getting more and more important as the world is much more dynamic. Arend Hardorff party chairman of the PvdA even puts it like this: ‘It is not about what you can but who you know’. He explains that it is about being in the right place in the right moment. A good example is the HSL line and the national logistic knowledge centre which is a result of being in the right networks in Brussels and The Hague.

The settlement of the Logistic centre in Breda is a clever choice as it is right between Rotterdam and Antwerp, already perceived as the traffic junction between the two cities.

Breda as a society has already done some major steps towards being more open and culturally dynamic. The settlement of universities like the Avans and especially the NHTV, with a lot

of international students and international companies helped to improve the international climate. The Dutch institute for animation film: Niaff, is even talking about getting a master in fine Arts to Breda. This would be another acknowledgement for Breda as city of Visual Arts.

‘But we should not become lazy’, explains Dennis Elbers. We are now much more open-minded than we were 10 years ago, but Breda needs more strong leaders in all departmental and managerial fields. Dennis also observes a lack in strong leadership, Breda should get more enthusiastic people in the cultural field; ‘people that really want to do better’.

A possibility would be to get staff from the commercial field, someone that has experience from working in private companies, to direct or advises a cultural organisation on specific topics like marketing and innovation. With doing this there might be more competition in the cultural field of Breda as people from the private sector could bring a more competitive focus.

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Another very interesting aspect Breda should look into as it should be attentive in attracting new artists, is: ‘open source’.

This allows more amateur artists with inspirational ideas to enter the network of Visual Art in Breda.

Joanna van der Zanden from Platform 21 explains that if you have an ‘open source’ system within programming and for the activities you organise, other networks can easily step in which helps to stay playful. ‘You see this in Sweden and Denmark and in Germany as well’.

Staying playful, which Joanna mentions, is important for Breda as playful attracts young people who need the freedom and room to create and design things that would not reveal itself in any normal climate.

What she found out, that there is more open source and open minded people where not a really governmental set up network of cultural institutes is active. Where people have to fight harder to show and to make cultural programmes. She explains that she has seen this in Seoul and expects that it exists in many other places in the Asian world.

In the international context Breda has had an artist in residence programme, according to Maurice Spapens, a fashion artist, this has failed completely. Nevertheless he is very much in favor of such a programme where organisations abroad arrange the exchange which would make it easier for artists to come to the city. Additionally he adds, that Breda is missing a cheap shop or a place where artist can display their arts.

What can be learned from this that there is an interest for an artist exchange programme but that this might need to be set up different from the previous programme. Maurice seems to encounter difficulties with exhibiting his art and the costs involved. It might be clever to bring artists in closer contact with organisations that are willing to exhibit art free of charge and attract also a broad public. Such an organisation can be the Amphia hospital, the library and the Chassé.

2. Attractive Elements of a Foreign City to Focus on When Breda seeks to expand its international Visual Arts network and after it has fully evaluated its own assets, it is time to look at what attractive elements a network has which Breda would like to connect to.

According to Veronique van Duuren, from the Cultural department in Breda, a networked city that Breda would like to connect to, is interested to work together and also extravert.

Moreover it is active in cooperating and not afraid to learn from others and to receive information from other organisations. Veronique explains that as when working together you need a clear goal and one should not think something is hers or his, but believe that sharing the knowledge makes you stronger.

5. Network Strategy In the following chapter will be the weaknesses of the strategy of Breda regarding networking discussed as well as the pitfalls of networking strategies in general. Last will be looked into the strengths of the strategy of Breda and from that its ability to establish international networks.

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1. Weaknesses in Strategy In the following is described what aspects of the strategy of Breda are weak and what could be done to come to a solution or come to an improvement of the situation.

Joanna van der Zanden foresees a problem as when you want to have grip on a network or measure the size of it; you might exclude people and close the network to new participants and new user groups. Breda should be careful when establishing a network platform to not exclude people, businesses and organisation that might not be the obvious participants in Visual Art. The Premsela foundation is believed to be a member of the Breda Visual Arts network. The foundation has connections with Dutch designers, national cultural institutions dealing with design fashion as well as with design events all around the world. Talking to Platform 21 in Amsterdam which also has ties with the Premsela foundation: “it is only possible to participate in the network when you as a member have a clear notion of where you stand and where you are about; being about design and fashion is to wide of a focus.” This could also be said for Breda that is focusing on both Graphic Design and Cultural Heritage. Dennis Elbers from KOP Breda and Selçuk Akinci from the city council believe that Breda has not yet defined their focus enough. Dennis explains that on Cultural Heritage a city like Den Bosch has much more to offer.

Selçuk recognises that Cultural Heritage is important, but that functions more as a nice decor for people that visit Breda. As for the Film Festival he thinks it needs a few years to settle itself but: ‘we should focus more on arti-films, graphical films or computer animation and manual animation’. He believes it should not only be about attracting the mainstream visitor.

From talking to organisations in Graz it has been remarkable what was said about networks in Eastern Europe, as people in Eastern Europe who are engaged in the cultural sector seem to emulate what the Western-European countries do. Which would mean that less can be learned from them in the cultural field. Lia Voermans recognises this notion and adds that it takes a lot of energy to maintain these Eastern European contacts especially, because there is a lack in speaking English properly. This would mean that cities in Eastern Europe are less likely to be wanting to establish Visual Art related networks with. Though this cannot always been chosen precisely as the European Union also did for Breda offering them to interact and exchange knowledge with cities in for example Turkey.

2. Pitfalls in Establishing Networks ‘Long lasting partnerships with cultural institutions are only interesting for a while’, according to Achim Könneke from the cultural department in Freiburg. The factor long lasting will bring it to look like a city partnership that is less flourishing, because there are too many regulations and boundaries.

Magister Aufischer seems to support this statement by saying “they (networks) are too structured and everything becomes institutionalised”.

Cities are hierarchical of which the city administrations are a typical example says Achim Könneke. ‘Networks with city administrations are not the creative or interesting networks,

these are no more than normal work related relationships’.

Achim Könneke explains that networks have to happen by coincidence; suddenly having the same interests. ‘Networks need to move freely, and connect coincidently’, he says.

Breda should thrive to connect to a non-hierarchical network in which they can move freely. From talking to Veronique van Duuren, the policy officer for culture of the municipality of Breda: ‘it might be too early for Breda to say it is networked internationally’. She says: ‘the institutions have networks but these are not yet formalised and this is a process that takes time’.

Another pitfall in networking explains Achim Könneke, is that cultural departments have the international networks instead of having the cultural organisations guide it. He believes that a city that has a partnership with another city based on contracts slow a network to flourish and sprawl.

3. Strengths to Strategy Breda seems to have a good environment for businesses as according to Arend Hardoff sometimes companies that wanted to settle in Breda had to be refused. In terms of quality of life Breda does seem to do well as they expect the city to grow to 185.000 inhabitants in 2020, which means an increase of almost 15.000 people. Breda is also getting many day visitors and with Breda having the title: ‘Beste Binnenstad’ (best inner city) of the Netherlands only more are expected to arrive.

Also for artists, Breda has an environment where there is enough demand for arts. Maurice Spapens who started his artist career at VAK Breda explains that everywhere in Europe it is hard for an artist to survive. And so it is in Breda, but on the whole he seems to have a positive perception of the arts market in Breda.

The expected settlement of an international primary and secondary school to be opened in August 2010, Breda is expected to become more attractive for international companies. (GTE, 2009. This is to increase their attractiveness for artists to come to Breda. So for example with their families for longer than a year. Also for prospective settlers like smaller enterprises or young families with children this is an improvement to the climate and so the quality of life making it more tempting to settle.

6. The Visual Art City In the following paragraphs for Breda interesting networks will be discussed as well as potential networks. Interesting networks are different from the potential networks as there is no direct link with Breda, but there might be in the future when potential networks are established.

1. Interesting Networked Cities Freiburg has contacts with Lemberg in the Ukraine exchanging music and literature. With Isfahan in Iran they say to have a very exciting partnership, as Freiburg is the only German city having a partnership in Iran. Many interesting partnerships have been established as for example the theatre in Marienbad is continually cooperating with its Children and Youth theatre programme with Isfahan and also Teheran. The

partnership with Isfahan is perceived as very important, but with Matsuyama there are also regular projects.

Magister Aufischer from the Cultural City Network explained about an exhibition project they did with cities in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which they now perceive as part of their network. These are countries that have many restrictions to what can be exposed, but these artists might have valuable input to projects in Breda.

The organisation of the Photo museum in Antwerp finds the BredaPhoto interesting and respects their approach. Wicher Meijer explains: ‘We have an excellent network in the whole of Belgium we can use in Breda’. He explains that the cooperation with Antwerp has helped them to improve the quality of the workshops of BredaPhoto.

2. Potential Cities for Establishing a Visual Art Network The cultural department of Freiburg speaks about the regional network with Switzerland and France which is actually Tri-national, but not considered as such. Within the network there is regular exchange and networking meetings take place within the cultural sector. The main door to the region is the EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg. From here all the partners of the project can be reached between 15 and 50 minutes; Basel and Base Land (Switzerland), Colmar and Mulhouse (France) and Freiburg (Germany).

The city of Freiburg has an artist exchange network in fine arts with Basel Land, Basel Stadt and Weil am Rhein. The “Christoph Merians Stiftung” foundation in Basel has partner institutions all over the world: Rotterdam, Paris, New York, Johannisburg, Peking, Montreal, etc. Annually fifteen artists are being sent around the world, and vice versa the region is welcoming fifteen artists from all over the world for this exchange. Freiburg for example has one atelier that is then being used by the incoming artist, Basel owns own ateliers in Paris. Magister Aufischer says: ‘This does make it a changing international network, because partners are not fixed forever but ever changing.’

This network approach is interesting as in Breda more things could be done to have artist come from abroad and stay longer.

On the one hand, Breda can learn from the cities, in terms of establishing and deepening the bonds in all directions. Internationally with Antwerp in Belgium, but also Rotterdam in the West, and for the European Capital of Culture candidacy of course with the B5. The model of starting a pool with all the surrounding cities for artist exchange could be an example, then again connecting with Freiburg and looking how they developed it and what their experience is being.

Also from the past on Breda was always very active in the international context as to its strategic location and due to its connections with waterways it could maintain international trade contacts. This century old tradition has given Breda the title ‘international city’ which has influenced culture and still the people of Breda seem skilled in this area; it is in their blood. (Expeditie Breda) Strategy: Enhancement of Breda’s Networking Performance 43

Strategic Recommendations Networking Visual Art Internationally Based on the research and research to strategy parts of this report, three strategic recommendations for increasing the networking performance of the city of Breda have been developed: the center of creativity, reconverting a part of the town, and city communication on- and offline.

As mentioned in the research, there are international networks in Breda, but they are not perceived so. This is why the recommendations are built on making networks, art actively more visible. Before it is possible to start with newer and cutting edge strategies, this can be the basis for the Visual Art networks that can be expanded. These three ideas are only showing the first small steps towards an internationally connected Visual Art city.

Strategic Recommendation I

Development into “Centre of Creativity”

Cities across Europe became ‘more and more preoccupied by the notion that cultural industries ... may provide the basis for economic regeneration, filling the gap left by vanished factories and warehouses, and creating a new urban image that would make them more attractive to mobile capital and mobile professional workers.

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The ‘Centre of Creativity’ is a place where student and artist team together and form a small creative enterprise. The graduated students are professionals in their field, but might not find many job opportunities or perceive bigger cities as more suitable due to a more varied cultural climate. The ‘Centre of Creativity’ is an excellent opportunity for graduates to get the real life experience which is an asset when applying for jobs in the future.

The teams get assigned by companies from which concepts are created, products developed and revenue is made.

“Cities across Europe became ‘more and more preoccupied by the notion that cultural industries ... may provide the basis for economic regeneration, filling the gap left by vanished factories and warehouses, and creating a new urban image that would make them more attractive to mobile capital and mobile professional workers.” (Monclus, Guardia 2006) The ‘Centre of Creativity’ is a big step towards the creation of an attractive climate for international artists and students to collaborate with their Dutch peers. The ‘Centre of Creativity’ focuses on Graphic Design which is supporting the vision of

Breda becoming Capital of Graphic Design and the ECOC candidacy of Breda within BrabantStad.

The educational institutions benefit as the ‘Centre of Creativity’ is also a connection between university and professionals where experience is usually demanded. The experience factor can be increased through the creation and running of an own creative enterprise.

1. Condition Artists (Visual Art) The always changing cycle of artists and students makes the ‘Centereof Creativity’ an ever changing and dynamic place.

The different artists bring their own expertise and style. Artists can also work together on different disciplines and thus, create a cross-sectoral collaborative activity. A photographer could supply material to a game designer and an audiovisual artist could work together with an architect or with someone specialised in light arts. Having these artists together in one building or area enforces the exchange of knowledge and resources.

“Talent powers economic growth, and diversity and openness attract talent ... Building a vibrant technology-based region requires ... Creating lifestyle options that attract talented people, and supporting diversity ... These attributes make a city a place where talented people from various backgrounds want to live and are able to pursue the kind of life they desire.” (Monclus, Guardia, 2006) As the artists have access to first class equipment and facilities they are more likely to want to settle in and the decor of an old factory is tempting as it has less restrictions and is often associated by artists with vibrant environments which provide more freedom.

The ‘Centre of Creativity’ functions along the values of Tolerance, Inspiration and Partnership. Tolerance is an excellent value to make Visual Arts flourish. Inspiration comes from working among and with artists from different disciplines, mind sets and backgrounds. Partnership stands for the teams consisting out of students and artists that bond and form a creative company. These values together make it a breeding ground for artists and their teams.

Also important are facilities like wireless- and high speed internet as this is a condition for good communication and for companies to do business.

2. Condition Heritage/Housing Vanished factories and warehouses, which Breda has so many of, could function as a residence for artists that have the knowledge and education to establish a name and become independent.

“Breda has 180.000 inhabitants and the area is 160 hectares big, just to give you an impression. Definitely not all the buildings are going to be transformed, but it will be a big project. So, it is one of the biggest challenges for Breda for the next 20 or 30 years.” – Selcuk Akinci

As the municipality of Breda has already researched the city of Hamburg, which has right now Europe’s biggest transformation project (‘Hafen-City’ project) with 155 hectares being reconverted, the ‘Centre of Creativity’ could be an outstanding starting point for this process.

The location where the ateliers and offices are housed should not cost the municipality any maintenance as these buildings are run down but only the basic supply of electricity and water is needed. This idea is being developed in further detail in the second strategic recommendation.

3. Condition Inter City Connectivity The aspect of inter-city connectivity steps in when the R&D labs invite an artist or student from abroad. In the case of an artist from abroad, this artist is invited to work in a professional atelier and is offered free accommodation. In return he has to work together with three students who give him assistance in fields like accounting, marketing, organisation.

Students are selected through a selection process in which they have to apply for the position as an apprentice in order to work in one of the R&D labs. The needs of the artists are considered together with how the individual strengths of the members can be combined to one effective and productive team. Together they operate as a company; a Creative Enterprise. As an enterprise they produce, sell and market all their products.

At first the labs will get assigned by clients such as retailers and shop owners from the area, preferably from the city of Breda. Nevertheless, when the concept is getting more attention and has proven its success it could undertake projects with cities (abroad) other than Breda.

To increase the communication between cities, the produced work could also be lent to other cities and then mainly organisations related to arts. The organisation receiving the work could then decide to make a financial contribution (a donation) to the ‘Centre of Creativity’ which then again can be invested in the facilities.

4. Condition Knowledge Economy In this concept, knowledge is not only required as students are selected through their capabilities and level of competences, but knowledge is also generated as every player of the team will bring in a different skill or talent. Altogether they form a creative enterprise, each individual taken separate would not be able to pull off an operation like this. As mentioned before, every student is graduated from their University of Applied Sciences.

Increasingly, small businesses, which until now did not show any relation with fine arts, are investing in fine arts as they are starting to realise it can benefit their sales and retain its customers and clients base.

“Investing in art can be an affordable way for small business owners to increase and maintain customers and client bases, plus reap the benefit of an investment that increases 45

in value over time. Plus, there can even be a tax advantage as the art, or part of the purchase price can be deducted.

Many small business owners, especially professionals such as doctors, lawyers, dentists and insurance and financial advisors, advisors, brokers and agents have reaped the benefits of displaying good investment quality fine art in their offices and reception areas.

Recent studies have shown that products benefit with increased sales when marketed with fine art. Professionals who display good fine art in their places of business experience that their clients and customers view them as having more authenticity, authority and professionalism.”

- Judy Rey Wasserman (Wassermann, 2008) Additionally, attending gallery exhibitions and art trade shows helps to meet new people which might turn into business contacts. This approach has benefits for many parties as artists can sell better their artwork due to increased attendance of people in their exhibitions, local businesses profit from an improved image and by maintaining better their database, citizens can experience art and culture in more places than just exhibitions, the local government sees an enriched cultural scene in its town and it motivates art students to create pieces of art.

Breda is very known for its shops and variety of retail. It has the third biggest surface for retail shops in The Netherlands.

Through all the people visiting the shops and experiencing the artwork the word is spread that Breda has a focus on Visual Arts. A good connection point would be to set up a project linking the local businesses with the ‘Centre of Creativity’ where artists and students develop artwork for the local entrepreneurs. From small to big budgets, the project is accessible to both small and big retailers. That is one of the strengths of the labs, different labs can specialize in different assignments from different size. Together with the students a business plan can be written in order to also keep the smaller assignments profitable as well.

Another approach could be to display artwork in the hospital of Breda. The Southampton Hospital in England has been placing paintings from emerging artists of the area in their corridors for many years. When the hospital was in a financial crisis due to a bad management long after it started trading with the artists, it resulted that one of its biggest assets was that artwork. The hospital decided to sell the paintings which contributed significantly to the recovery of the financial crisis.

5. Condition Intra City Connections Intra, also called internal, connectivity shows the level of flexibility and freedom the ‘Centre of Creativity’ has to offer to its citizens and businesses within the city.

The Centre with all its work spaces and ateliers could be on a location where citizens can easily drive their car and on cycle distance from the city.

It does not have to be a place where the artwork is to be exhibited as the city has many beautiful spots where this can be done. Though, the Centre could have an open house every 46

half year where the inhabitants of Breda can meet the artists and maybe listen to their story of life and see them at work.

Meeting them face to face can create an understanding of the livelihood of an artist but can also show what the added value is of involving students to the Centre.

Artists could give workshops during an open day in which they introduce themselves and show the public their talent.

Business days could be organised for local businesses on a separate note, these are days where all the teams present themselves and their expertise. Business owners can get in contact with the teams and talk about possible assignments but businesses can also tell their interest and a concept can be developed with reservation.

The team of students are educated on different topics, like for example a law student could focus on the regulations of the company, a business student could be involved in selling the art and a third could focus on the financial matters.

This good infrastructure is essential for a city that strives to be well connected internationally.

6. Investments to Contribute to Development of Visual Art Related Networks Creative people and projects need to be based somewhere. A creative city requires land and buildings at affordable prices especially for younger businesses or social entrepreneurs (Landry 2003). The ‘Centre of Creativity’ is located in an old factory or warehouse not directly in the centre of the city which makes it affordable and attractive for young graduates that want to start their business. This creative ‘Hotspot’ for young entrepreneurs invites artists and students from abroad every second year or so in order to give the students and artists enough time to get familiar with the market they are willing to serve, get to know about the skills of the team and run the company with confidence.

Favourably each student is put in charge of his/her own field of expertise which could be accounting, marketing, management etc. As a young graduate an ideal opportunity to not only get responsibility but also to be creative and innovate working with an artist and really working towards the realisation of a concept.

Artists that come to Breda and experience the city as positive with all its values and assets in the field of Visual Arts, they might have found a place where they feel they like to stay. As talent has to travel according to Selçuk Akinci, many artists will continue their work somewhere else but have experienced the hospitality as well as Breda as city of Visual Arts.

When a partnership proves to be successful, the graduates together with the artists can even decide to find a permanent place to settle. When an international artist or a local artist with international students decide to settle the concept has succeeded. In terms of having international talent with international networks active and contributing to the business community of Breda.

7. Reciprocity Mechanisms The programme is giving the universities who are supplying the students, proof that they have trained their students well and that they are ready for the field.

It increases the chance that a talented student stays in Breda or in the region as they get to know the city better. For a student that has already been studying in Breda for several years this is maybe less relevant, but for an exchange student who would normally leave the city without knowing so well and without having enough time making friendships and getting accompanied to the city, this is very relevant. Also for students that have already lived in the city for several years, but are not yet sure if they want to stay, this is an excellent chance to get involved in the business community of Breda.With this project the municipality that is subsidising the ateliers and the equipment, would start an excellent marketing campaign for the city. They offer students the possibility to develop more in their expertise, but also to attract new knowledge from abroad. This is a competitive advantage which will be made visible in the concept created for the business community in Breda. Furthermore, through the shops and local businesses the city is benchmarking itself as a city of Visual Arts and reaches a wide public.

8. Network Development in the Future When the concept proves itself locally it can be set up in partner cities like Valenciennes. Or a partnerships with other cities, like it is an example in the Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg area, where they have artist exchange programmes that are alike in terms of artist exchange, but different as the artists together with the students establish a very own enterprise and develop their very own products.

9. Conclusion The motivation of choice for this strategic recommendation was its condition to involve many stakeholders. By incorporating students, artists both local and foreign, local shops and companies, local educational institutions, the local government and the citizens, this concept is an outstanding opportunity to show what the essence of networking is. It is all about collaborating and exchanging knowledge to discover creativity.

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Strategic Recommendation II

City Quality Repurposing a District to Enable Alternative Lifestyle Quality of Life is the major influence for people to choose one place over the other. For both, the cultural industry to grow, as well as urban diversity, the quality in life is important. (Euricur report; Manchester) Urban diversity is also considered to be an incubator for the cultural industry.

1. Attracting the Visual Art Scene with Higher Quality of Life In order to be the city of Visual Art with an internationally well established network talented people need to be attracted.

This can be done in numerous ways. It is not only the professional life that plays a role but also, and maybe this is even more important, the quality of life. ‘talented people do not simply select a place to work based on the highest salary, they are typically concerned with a whole series of place-based characteristics’ (Florida). And also Castells supports this idea; Talented people are attracted by places where they can enjoy life (Castells). It is therefore important for a city to enjoy great quality of life. By this Go!Fusion means a surrounding and infrastructure of the city which is appealing for an artists. Many things Breda already has, such as green life and a historic city centre.

Still in context of Visual Art facilitating and inter city connectivity Breda misses several crucial factors. After talking to different people in the field, Go!Fusion found out that the city does not offer a nightlife or “horeca” in which artists feel satisfied. Dennis Elbers director of the KOP gallery is saying that: ‘It is really hard to find a good restaurant to go to or other appealing places in the city...If we get people here we often take them to other places’. Also the creative direction of NoisiVision is seeing this problem: “No good places to visit, a lot of pubs”

2. Change Nightlife Nightlife is an important point concerning the quality of life.

The offered nightlife in Breda nowadays is not diverse enough.

This is why it is not attracting creative people sufficiently.

In order to offer artists a better environment, the nightlife of Breda needs to change. This plays a crucial factor in their decision to come to the city and the current offer does not match their needs and wants. It is therefore a recommendation of Go!Fusion to adjust the current nightlife in the city by having 48

I think it is very important to create moments to meet up with people and maybe meet u with a lot of them.

Dennis Elbers

small changes. The team would like to state that this does not mean the offer has to change completely.

The nightlife itself can not be built up by the municipality. Still it is possible to support diversity by lowering entry barriers for innovators and opening up, for example with off-times. Right now people from the creative field are having their parties in an illegal underground, since here it is possible to have a free atmosphere and stay as long as one wants.

Breda could support the club scene with expanding opening-hours, for a test only with something comparable to the ‘koopzondag’ for special venues that is frequented by the nonmainstream audience. This could be implemented in the Electron, to have one night out comparable to the E-Pulse festival and in cooperation with students.

Those artists would contribute to the dynamics of the local society being it by creating art, organising events or doing both.

Selcuk Akinci

3. Open Area: Repurposing a district to enable alternative lifestyle Regenerating a part of the town could be a solution how to attract more diverse and alternative people and entrepreneurs to the city. This is partly already happening in the Belcrum area. The theatre and art galleries like KOP, Electron, and Het Aardappel Imperium should though only being seen as the beginning of the development. Still many facilities are not I do not think there or only partly being used. The Belcrum is a really big unarea could be reconverted even more as derground scene in a creative part of the time and so become Breda or at least I lively, and through the change of the rail- am not aware of it. way station also play a more central role Dennis Elbers in the city.

Niche shops, scene cafés, free art zones, galleries, affordable rehearsal rooms for bands and new clubs could find facilities and settle in the area with the industrial touch. Also the coffee shops of the city center could be relocated into this area.

4. Investments To support the development of an area like this the city could use areas it already owns, and facilities that are already existing. These facilities could be redeveloped at a minimum: sanitation, sanitary installations, reinstallation of electricity and heating.

This basic investment in infrastructure is supporting the regional economical sector in both creating work for the local suppliers, which is happening through the investments being done by the municipality, but also from the private investments from the microThe problem is there are entreprises settling there. not many artist houses in This businesses again Breda and if there are they are mostly focussing o n are really expensive. lifestyle issues that is part of the Maurice Spapens creative industries.

5. Reciprocity Especially at the beginning it is crucial to attract the Visual Art makers with affordable prices and the possibility to also self-govern the community.

Self-governance could, especially for people from the economical area – at first give the feeling of something incontrollable and non-concrete. To give away this power, and let something new sprawl and develop, this though is an approach that can develop bottom-up. In his book about Emergence, Steven Johnson is asking the question about the feature of all these well working systems of ants, brains and cities is.

His answer is that, in simple terms, “they solve problems by drawing on masses of relatively stupid elements, rather than a single, intelligent “executive branch.” They are bottom-up systems, not top-down.” (Johnson, 2002) Geert Lenders, ‘Cultuurmakelaar’ (Cultural broker) of BrabantStad is supporting this theory: “In the last years they have seen that the regional and the local government are starting to realise that it is not sustainable to develop policies top-down. There is an increasing awareness that in the process of defining policies you have to interact with organisations and individuals than writing down policies and communicating them to the citizens. Particularly for this project it is very important to establish these contacts as soon and as long-lasting as possible.”

6. Network Development in the Future Letting the scene govern itself is a natural process of learning and doing, but also failure has to be part it. Giving the administration into the hands of the creative makers themselves will also let them grow professionally, not only in organisational issues, but also very likely in political discourse and activism. An excellent example for the development and professionalisation of these kinds of places is “de hall of fame” in Tilburg. First it were a few small self-governed communities using the space in the old fabric hall. Then they found a community, and now they are having a board in professional terms and are planning their moving with the whole cluster to an other part of the town. Often it is people living and creating spaces for arts that are suddenly getting involved with organisational issues. Often they educate themselves, find people who support them or can learn from.

7. Conclusion Reconverting a part of the town so can have multiple effects on the variety and perception of city life. Not only it enhances the quality for creative people, it also can give them the opportunity of professionalising their skills. The new part of the town has various positive effects such as strengthening city image and economy, but also reviving yet sleepy areas.

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Strategic Recommendation III

City Branding Online & Communication

1. Communication of Visual Art In order to be the city of Visual Art inhabitants and visitors need to know that Breda is the city of Visual Art. This can be communicated in different ways. After conducting research Go!Fusion concluded that the inhabitants of the city are not aware of the theme of the city.

As Veronique van Duuren said during an interview ´People who live in Breda can be more proud about the city.’ In order to become the ECOC in 2018 it is important that people feel connected to the theme of the city, as Arend Hardoff said: ‘Great challenge to engage the inhabitants of BrabantStad in the project, as they associate with Brabant but BrabantStad is something different. In that regard it would have been easier to get Breda nominated than BrabantStad. To make them proud, part of the project and involve them on a voluntary level is going to be quite a challenge.’

It is not only a big challenge to engage the inhabitants but also to let visitors feel instantly when entering the city that they are in the city of Visual Art. It is therefore a recommendation of Go!Fusion to adjust the communication of the theme of the city both online and offline all taking into account the theme Visual Art. The following text will further explain this.

2. Online This section is going to deal with the improvements that can be done in the virtual presentation and connection of the city.

The first recommendation is about the official homepage that is, very likely, the first connection a stranger to the city has.

The second suggestion is about an official platform for Visual Art. No advertisements everywhere in the city Breda. Lack in Breda, breda.nl there can happen more, only about breda and the mayor and so on does not connect to the real city, there you can use visual arts.

Maurice Spapens

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www.breda.nl A well known fact is that the internet has been growing immensely over the past few years; the Internet has consolidated itself as a very powerful platform that has changed the way we do business, and the way we communicate (Worldstats, 2009). The first action people undertake when planning to visit a city, especially from abroad, is to search for information on the World Wide Web. A common tool to do this is google, and when typing in Breda on google the first thing that shows is www.breda.nl. This is logic, it is a website that contains practical information of Breda for inhabitants and visitors.

On the contrary, the website does not communicate the mes-

sage ‘Breda, city of Visual Art’ anywhere, although the website is a perfect way to do that. Without changing the exact content graphics and designs can be inserted in the website, which will already give a strong message. This can be done via a competition among artists or students in the city of Breda.

The assignment can be; ‘design graphics for the website www. breda.nl, with also taking into account the cultural heritage of the city.’ Since cultural heritage also plays a big role in the city, this should and could be communicated through the design of the website. The chosen winner by the municipality will have a great opportunity to display all their talent and the city will have a website clearly communicating Breda and its theme.

The recommendation stated above will make the inter city connectivity and the intra city connections stronger and will also communicate the cultural heritage and the Visual Art of Breda.

Visual Art Webpage Secondly there is not one point where artists, organisations and people interested in Visual Art can go to in order to find information on this topic. This is also supported by the different players in the field, a quote from the interview with Maurice Spapens; ‘Where is one place where you can start with finding out where all the organisations are?’

A great example of this is the Visual Art network website of the city of Shropshire in England (VanNetwork, 2009). Here all information on artists, openings and happenings concerning Visual Art can be found. A website like this could be developed by all parties in the Visual Art sector of Breda. A circle of artists, web-designer, graphic designer, game designer etc. could develop the platform in a conjunction. This project itself is going to connect creativity from different disciplines, but also is going to make the networks visible. Cultural heritage can play a role by being symbolised and re-invented graphically. A result of this website will be that the art scene of Breda will be communicated as a whole rather than a city with different art components. This will strengthen the theme of the city and make it stronger as a candidacy for the ECOC in 2018.

With the idea stated above the Visual Art scene will be communicated clearly to key players in the field and the visitors.

It will also connect the city as a whole (inter city connectivity) and the message sent to the outside world will be strong (intra city connections).

3. Offline For the offline presentation of Visual Art one idea had been developed. It deals with a connection of Visual Art on street level, taking ideas out of the bionics theory into account.

Visual Art and Connection on a Street Level Visual Art should not only be visible on the internet, but especially also in the daily life of citizens, and people who are coming to visit the city. Surrounding and infrastructure should also be adjusted here.

In terms of making the network existing online also visible to people walking around in the inner city and on the streets.

Symbols could be created for the buildings in the city. They could be displayed in a special way on the pavement.

The symbols can support the local feedback culture that is also visible in animal life: Ants for example are not able to see the size of their colony at all, still they experience their life differently and therefore can assume and react accordingly only from meeting other ants or smelling their traces. This local feedback shows how decentralized planning could work out. The complete decision making process is spread out over thousands of individuals.

The mass therefore is making intelligent assessment it is “the odd interaction between strangers that changes on individuals’ behaviour.” This interaction can also be broken down to street level and symbols in the surroundings as shaping factors of the environment.

It is an idea that is already implemented in a historic way in the city of Freiburg. Here it is the symbols for the professional activity being visualised as a symbol in front of their entrances. A mosaic of scissors so can be found in front of a hairdresser, and you can find a ring with a jewel in front of a jewellery.

Organisations, Houses, Shops, Art Galleries, and clusters that are being labeled with their special sign, or symbol for the house can then be connected with different paths. There could be special routes being created through the city. There can be developed - for example - a Visual Art tour on foot, the monument tour, a church tour etc.

Special brochures according to this could be published by the municipality, and offered in the tourist office, the railway station, to the new students of the city.

This is an idea, for example, that could perfectly become an assignment for the ‘Centre of Creativity’ which is being described in the first recommendation.

4. Conclusion As mentioned before, the first and far most priority of Go!Fusion is not to create and develop new networks but to make the networks visible that already exist in Breda as a first step. The above mentioned recommendation will do exactly that. When tourists, inhabitants or people interested in Breda visit the website they will instantly see and feel that Breda is the city of Visual Art. One can see what is happening and that the city is alive. When also involving students studying in Breda, it will be a total package of involving people.

A missing point in the city is one central facility where one can go to to find information on Visual Art. A website is a solution to this. All the different parties involved can look at the information easily.

Also, when visiting a city the theme of the city needs to be clear. According to the opinion of Go!Fusion this is something which could change in the city as well. Therefore another recommendation is to have symbols in the city which give the city more character and make the theme of a city more visible.

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Strategic Recommendation IV

Friendship City Programme

As mentioned in the part for interesting cities for Breda to connect with, it was not only spoken about regional international networks, but also, both in Freiburg and Graz, about the town twinning programme. Here it was already stated that Breda could learn from these cities. Even though the fixed context of having town twinning partnerships is not being described positively from Achim Könneke from the Freiburg cultural department in first place, it is still enabling new networking opportunities and most of all the occasion for cultural actors to come in contact informally.

It is very important, that the cities fit, so informal networks can start to grow, and they are not only working on the representative level. Achim Könneke is saying on this: “City partnerships are working on very different levels depending on case these partnerships are working very well or not at all. It needs to be differed if the networks work on a representative level where delegates or mayors are paying visits.”

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1. Visual Art, Cultural Heritage, Knowledge City “So nowadays this has to be made more strategically. Freiburg is for example looking for cities which are somehow comparable, this could be size. Hamburg is only having other port cities as partners”, Achim Könneke says. He adds: “it had become mostly common for new city partnerships being developed over the past few years that the cities connecting themselves are having something in common”.

This is what Breda has to consider and develop precisely when thinking about cities to connect with. As the major aspects for Breda’s candidacy together BrabantStad is Visual Art, but also Cultural Heritage and Knowledge Economy play a big role, this could be connecting points for new city partnerships.

As already being stated Breda is part of the networks with the Nassau cities and ‘Oranjesteden’. Freiburg has this with the Zähringer cities. A problem that is being seen in both cities, that these connections are rather asleep, and only anniversaries are being celebrated on a very formal level. Cultural Heritage therefore should not only focus on historical backgrounds, but also on other aspects. Finding an innovative way to connect in this point could become a cutting-edge strategy and unique selling proposition.

2. Inter City Connectivity In terms of Inter City Connectivity the conjunctions are very obvious. As Breda is opening up and establishing ties with an other city, this introduces a whole range of possible activities. Both cities can use the new tie in communicational and marketing matters in the beginning, to make the connection visible. Creating awareness within the citizens will open up possibilities for them to connect. This can not only happen on cultural cooperation with exchange and conjunctional projects, but also with other sorts of exchange programmes with schools and the universities of applied sciences.

3. Reciprocity “Still you can ask yourself the question which sort of city networks would be relevant and do they really have to be executed that tightly like the partner city idea, having a contract and being a partner for all eternity. For example Freiburg and Innsbruck: the partnership exists, because probable the mayors had a few beers and realised that they really liked each other. This of course is not the way it should be.”, so Achim Könneke.

This is definitely not the way, reciprocity mechanisms should work like. It needs further research and investigation in terms of finding the right strategy and scheme after which Breda is connecting with other cities.

4. Development in the Future Looking at the development of partner cities within the last 50 years, Achim Könneke concludes that it is taking about 10 years for many non-official networks to develop. “This networks being developed are not only important for the cultural institutions, but more for the specific scenes”, he is continuing.

From this, one can conclude that it is taking the period of 10 years for the partnership to develop and build its own spreading and informal networks.

Looking at the success of some partnerships like conjunctional theatre productions from Freiburg and Isfahan/Teheran, these cooperations do have the possibility of a vivid future.

5. Conclusion As being outlined before, town twinning programmes do have positive effects on very different levels, but are needing in-depth research and time to develop. It is an investment to consider concisely, so that Breda does not end up with establishing networks that are not starting to become alive.

Finding a strategy that makes them vivid and do not end on only existing on the formal level is crucial for this concept.

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Final Conclusion

“Breda Footprints for the Future�

After having dealt with extensive research and the research to strategy, now strategic recommendations have been developed on how to enhance the Visual Art networks of the city of Breda. If the municipality and city council are going to develop and act according to these ideas for approaches, Breda is having great opportunities to enlarge its five dimensional Footprint in the future: Visual Art, Cultural Heritage, Inter City Connectivity, Knowledge City and Inter City Connections.

Visual Art 2

1. Visual Art Scoring only a two of five points for Visual Art which should actually be the present visible theme over town shows that there is huge scope for improvement in this section. Apperantly Breda has very much space and potential to improve here, since many active artists already live in the city.

The conditions present anyway are not supporting their lifestyle sufficiently. This is where the the strategic recommendations on on the Center of Creativity, Repurposing a Part of the Town, and City Branding can set foot, to enable artist a welcoming atmosphere, space to develop and experiment, grow in becoming professional, and making the Art present in town visible to every person.

Cultural Heritage 3

Inter City Connectivity 4

Knowledge City 4

Intra City Connections 0

As being visualized in the Footprint, Breda is mostly scoring in the middle field for the crucial factors of a well connected Visual Art City. For Inter City Connectivity it scores the highest from the cities being compared.

Knowing in which sections improvements can be made is the first step towards a well networked city. Having additional creative approaches can make Breda as city of Visual Art become visible and livable within the next years.

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2. Cultural Heritage Cultural Heritage is rated relatively high for the city of Breda.

It is scoring 3 points for the pedistrian area, the presence of buildings from the founding years and for having won a price for the best inner city of the Netherlands.

Starting to create outstanding street furniture or other visible objects shaping the perception of the city can be enhanced both by the city branding and the center of creativity ideas.

This will also help with creating a unique selling proposition which will increase the possibility of winning awards.

3. Inter City Connectivity For Inter City Connectivity Breda has been scoring four of five points. Even though the train connections to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp are not being perceived as the quickest, they had been receiving points from the system. Here there is improvement coming ahead with the HiSpeed line making it easier for Bredaers to travel, and incoming visitors to come.

According to the recommendations other aspects to improve are again in general City Branding as becoming a known and desirable place, and, even more importantly a Friendship City Programme that starts to flourish beyond official relationships.

4. Knowledge City

6. Final Conclusion and Future Footprints

As for the Knowledge City, Breda is already well developed with receiving again four of five points. The only improvement missing according to the measurement is the presence of a university.

It is not being seen as realistic that Breda is going to have another university. Still the current system can be improved by the suggestions being made by Go!Fusion to develop in this sector is the Center of Creativity, starting with new approaches of students starting into professional life in conjunction with artists and present entreprises. Creative Entrepreneurship is also being supported and enabled by repurposing a part of the town.

As being shown above the future of Breda can be defined and determined by various actions in the described fields. Implementing and developing the four precise ideas given, and establishing the Intra City Connections are going to give it a positive influence on becoming a well developed city supporting the Visual Arts. As is had being said by Selรงuk Akinci Breda has already grown and evolved intensely with opening up over the past 10 years. Continuing on this track and putting the chances and ideas being given into action will make Breda a successfully networked city.

5. Intra City Connections Intra City Connections in Breda must be, according to the footprint, a real issue scoring no point for the parameters taken. This is a problem that can mostly be solved by investing into public transport. Here the density of citizen per square meter was a factor as well as transportation at night and the offer of park and ride possibilities. Unfortunately none of this was sufficient enough to be awarded points.

Being able to move easily and quickly throughout the city though is an essential, and therefore definetly a factor to improve. It should be planned, improved and implemented by the city planning office. As Breda is a leading player in transport and logistics, the team is convinced that a new system for the transport and logistic inside the city could be invented.

This topic needs, most of all, a lot of further investigation and research.

There are no concrete ideas the team is proposing regarding this point since it is obviously clear where actions can be taken. Density of citizen can of course can not be increased, still though it is possible to increase the density of busses or bus stops, or the density of busses coming time-wise. Also it would be possible to introduce a tram system and more frequent transport at night. If the transport system is established it will be no big stap to introduce park and ride facilities.

As just mentioned, Breda should have the power and possibility to do this as already being a city connected very well in inter city matters in terms of logistics.

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Products The final Products for this report are worked in into three formats.

Presentation Website: www.bredafootprints.com Book / PDF

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Appendix Online, and in the appendix document of this report questionnaires for the interviews, the summaries of the interviews, and further information from the desk research on Breda can be found.

Questionnaire Summary of Interviews Annemie van der Zand (Noisivision, Breda) Arend Hardoff (Chairman PdvA) Achim Kรถnneke (Kulturamt, Freiburg) Bernhard Steirer (CEO of Elevate Festival, Graz) Dennis Elbers (KOP, Breda) Geert Lenders (Cultural Broker, BrabantStad) Jan Maas (Noisivision, Breda) Joana van der Zanden (Platform 21, Amsterdam) Jeroen Coenders (Structural Design Leader at Arup, Amsterdam) Lia Voermans (Program Director External Affairs and City Marketing, Breda) Magister Auffischer (Kulturvermittlung Steiermark, Graz) Marc Berends (Heritage Department, Breda) Marleen Huijbregts (Heritage Department, Breda) Maurice Spapens (Artist, and board member of VAK, party member SP, Breda) Selรงuk Akinci (Party leader Groenlinks, Breda) Veronique van Duuren (Cultural Department, Breda) Wilbert Jan Willems (Alderman of Culture, Breda) Wicher Meijer (Breda Photo, Cultural Communication, Breda)

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Imprint

Research Report: Breda Footprints Research and Strategic Development on International Visual Art Network Publisher Go!Fusion, www.bredafootprints.com Editors Anouk Gardien, Barbara Ruder, Philip Hemmerich, Raoul Hoomans Layout Sebastian Sadowski, www.sebastiansadowski.com Fotos Page 22: photocase.de, Andre Günther Page 40: stock.xchng, Ruth Livingstone Page 45: stock.xchng, Junior Gomes Page 46: stock.xchng, Giuseppe Acquaviva page 52: stock.xchng, Sjack Harks

This report had been produced as the result of the final years project for International Leisure Management – Creative Industries – at NHTV (Academy of Leisure), Breda.

Research Report: Breda Footprints is published by Go!Fusion.

This research report is provided under a Creative Commons License of Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike. © 2009 Go!Fusion. Some rights reserved. www.bredafootprints.com

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We would like to warmly thank our interviewees for taking the time and giving us valuable information in this context: Annemie van der Zand (Noisivision, Breda) Arend Hardoff (Chairman PdvA) Achim Könneke (Kulturamt, Freiburg) Bernhard Steirer (CEO of Elevate Festival, Graz) Dennis Elbers (KOP, Breda) Geert Lenders (Cultural Broker, BrabantStad) Jan Maas (Noisivision, Breda) Joana van der Zanden (Platform 21, Amsterdam) Jeroen Coenders (Structural Design Leader at Arup, Amsterdam) Lia Voermans (Program Director External Affairs and City Marketing, Breda) Magister Auffischer (Kulturvermittlung Steiermark, Graz) Marc Berends (Heritage Department, Breda) Marleen Huijbregts (Heritage Department, Breda) Maurice Spapens (Artist, and board member of VAK, party member SP, Breda) Selçuk Akinci (Party leader Groenlinks, Breda) Veronique van Duuren (Cultural Department, Breda) Wilbert Jan Willems (Alderman of Culture, Breda) Wicher Meijer (Breda Photo, Cultural Communication, Breda)