The funds for Kreativ.Quartiere RUHR - what will we do with the money?

At the opening ceremony for the Capital of Culture RUHR.2010 on the premises of the industrial monument Zollverein, the former prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Jürgen Rüttgers, promised that millions of Euros would be provided for the development of the creative quarters in the area (Kreativ.Quartiere RUHR). But how, and where? They have to be spent until 2013, that's a given, due to the set period of sponsorship - but a concept for the allocation still doesn't exist.

A trend towards creative quarters 

In the course of the master plan cultural metropolis RUHR, the regional organisation Regionalverband Ruhr (RVR) and its affiliate for communal business development, the wirtschaftsförderung metropoleruhr (wmr) will work out a concept on the location development of the Kreativ.Quartiere RUHR and their systematical promotion. This task field, based on the experiences made since 2007 by RUHR.2010 GmbH, communal business development departments, cultural and urban development offices, ECCE, and wrm, is still new to both parties.

Unfortunately, most of the Kreativ.Quartiere RUHR are named as such because it's a current trend. There are neither location managers nor up-to-date websites referring to the quarters which are more than mere declarations of development intentions or location marketing. Facility rooms such as the t.a.i.b., or the church of St. Mary (Marienkirche) in the ViktoriaQuartier Bochum are rare. In Dortmund, the harbour and the U area are still in limbo. Creative location occupancies are not appreciated. And they don't let you on some premises or into a building until the work on it is completely done. So, where's the time and place for creative urban development by the tenants, the residents themselves? Why don't they include the young founders into the location development?

Counterproductive granting of funds?

If the financial support for Kreativ.Quartiere RUHR is not used creatively, there is a danger of it becoming counterproductive. There is nothing worse for creative people than to work in a finished, impersonal room lacking any identity due to its preset interior - because they can't influence its development. According to BFM, the following objectives are important for the development of creative quarters:

- supporting interim usages
- including the users into the design of public space
- creating uncommercial cultural venues
- maintaining and reusing (industrial) buildings with a specific identity
- organising local and ecological supply and disposal
- offering affordable rents
- establishing communication structures among the users
- appointing a quarters manager as a helping hand and advisor

Such planning processes, open and aimed for participation, in which different users try different usages of the location, and where there's room for experimenting, meeting people, and networking, where exciting and new things happen, are still new, and they make estate owners, administration people and politicians feel uneasy. BFM hopes to nudge the concept of the master plan into the direction above mentioned by adding constant "drops in the bucket" of the conservative clientele, hoping for a more relaxed attitude and confidence in creative urban development. As German miners used to say, wishing the others good luck for their shifts: Glück auf!

Related videos: 

• Creative-Quarter – Lohberg
• Forum d´Avignon 2010 – Culture will not survive when given away free of charge

Related blogs:

• Wolfgang Waldner: "Creative quarters cannot be realized without local players"
• Charles Landry: "It is crucial to have low cost space available for both, working and living"

Go to channels:

• Creative.Quarters
• Dortmunder U: Crossover