On the 3rd of October the Amsterdam Economic Board organized a workshop for European policymakers within the creative industries. Representatives from 11 different European cities and regions participated in this workshop.
1. Creative policies for
a creative city?
The case of Nantes,
France
Creative Industries policies
Amsterdam Workshop
3rd of october 2014
Boris Meggiorin, Head of the international department
Hélène Morteau, PhD.
7. FROM IDEAS TO ACTION
• International Business center?
• 1989: Jean-Marc Ayrault is elected and
refused this project
• 1991-1994 Urban planning proposition
Dominique Perraud and François
Grether
• To protect the industrial heritage and
consider the Island as one single entity
8. CULTURAL RENEWAL - Les Allumées Festival 1990-1996CULTURAL RENEWAL Les Allumées
12. FROM CULTURE TO THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES
Urban experimentations
13. FROM CULTURE TO THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES
Urban experimentations
14. FROM CULTURE TO THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES
Urban experimentations
15. FROM CULTURE TO THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES
European practices
Nantes villes de Nantes, Aachen,
Stuttgart, Eindhoven, Dublin,
Cardiff, University of Birmingham
and CIDA.
31. Creative Industries policies
Entreprises
Cluster Quartier
de la Création
12 sectors
Services
Offices
Culture and
tourism
VAN destination
brand
Estuaire Art
biennale
Heritage
Les Machines
Urban project : a flexible tool to support CI policies
34. • Strong political leadership
• There is no one but many policies dedicated to CCIs
• Mainly based on public policy… sustainable?
• From creative to digital?
CREATIVE INDUSTRY POLICIES
Lessons and challenges
Nantes is located in the northern west of France but southern part of Britanny
580 000 Inhabitants, half part of them are living in Nantes
CCI policies in Nantes are strongly connected to the history of the Island of Nantes;
The island is divided into 3 main areas:
The central part was traditionnally (and since the 19 century) a dwelling area to house the workers
Most of them worked in the western part where was located the shipbuilding industry; Harbourg and train terminal
The eastern part grow in the 60’s around a huge commercial center
The western part was a busy area where more than 4000 workers/engineers were gathered to build ships and submarines
Today, the city of Nantes wants to preserve this heritage and create bridges/spillovers between traditionnal industries and creative industries.
How this has been possible?
Before being considered as a creative and attractive city, Nantes was depicted as « the Grey City » : rainny, sad, industrial, dirty…
This negative image is linked to the collapse of the shipbuilding industry during 2 decays.
Finally, the main employer ( Dubigeon) close down in 1987
It was a social disaster and the western part of the Island became a huge wasteland 90hectares of warehosue, car parks….
Quickly the municipality wanted to find a future for the island:
First proposition is to create an international business center ( Mayor Chauty)
But right after the 1989 municipal election, this project is give up by Jean Marc Ayrault
He decided to to launch a task force to think about the potential of the island.
First study proposed by Perraud: he wants to promote the Island as a single entity and preserve the industrial heritage:
At the same time, JMA decided to bet on culture to renew the image of the city.
During 6 years, local citizens rediscsovered culture but in industrial warehouses thanks to an international festival called Les Allumées.
Each year, artists from a different cities (Barcelona, St petersburg, Napoli, Buenos Aires…) were invited for a 6 days show.
It is a crucial tunring point. The public enjoy discover new unsual spots in the city center.
Jean Blaise who created this festival wants the culture to be part of the public space.
This philosophy helps to attract a famous urban thearter companie : Royal de Luxe which produce a new open door show each two years in Nantes
This event create a strong enthusiam among the population
The Island is a also a strategic area for th mayor. Why? It is nearby the city center and has to be renewed to fight urban sprawl.
In 1999, Alexandre Chemetoff won the definition market and propose a new planning tool (le plan guide): urban planning is evolutive, iterative and fexible and should attapt opportunities. Focus on a sensitive approach.
To manage this urban change on the island, SAMOA is created in 2003 by nantes metropole
Samoa is a public company responsible for the urban projet on the island of Nantes ( 330 ha)
Created for 20 years 2003-2023
In 2003, the companie decided to settle in the Alstom Warehouse 20 000 m2 – 10 employees!
This site will house the Fine art school in 2017.
During 5 years, Samoa share this warehouse with 50 other companies ( from CCI sectors)
The cie rent small offices, workshop to artists, local radios, tv, architects, designers etc…
This experience is the very beginning and the first step of the art and creative district (Quartier de la Création)
Supported by public policies since 2008: the idea is to tranform 15 ha of industrial land into a vibrant cultural and creative hub
In 2010, an academic study reports and describes the benefits of geographic proximity.
Young creative entrepreneurs have many economic BUT also non economic relationships. This experience is a success and produce a « creative ecosystem » or a « creative cluster ».
For the Samoa, it allows to test new functions, create in vivo laboratories before starting urban renewal projects.
11 sites sur l’ile de Nantes (hors halles Alstom)
2 500 m² de bureaux
8 400 m² de lieux d’expérimentation & ateliers
The term cluster is also exported from the EU projet (ECCE) 2005- 2011
Thanks to this project, Nantes starts to develop a strategy to help CCIs to grow with a dedicated ressource center
To sum up: CCIs policy in Nantes is not a planned approach but a rather a combination of urban opportunities, flexibility and international links and individual initiatives
ex: Estuaire Art Biennale
In 2003 and for many reasons, In 2007, The Art Biennale (open door contemporary art biennale) speed up the urban development of public spaces on the western part of the island to welcome massive piece of art.
Le Hangar à Bananes – Banana Warehouse
Leisure area with bars, night clubs, exhibition hall
Where is located the famous elephant.
Urban planning, strategic planning and art are strongly interconnected
New vision about contemporary art (quite different from Bale or Venice)
Create a new relationship with the estuary, to use the landscape as a stage for art
This is alos a great opportunity to create coopreation between traditionnal industry and artists
Step by step, art contaminate the city and it became a strategy to develop turism
Each summer, there is a new event called Voyage à Nantes : a dense programme where art, exhibition, food, exeperience are intermingled
http://vimeo.com/107150772
In 2010, SAMOA develop a second mission or task : economic development of CCIs
To develop and create approriate offices to rent for Ccis
Help them grow
Karting
Inaugurated in January 2012
50 companies
150e/m2/year
New concept called « Less is More »: materials from the local territory, building costs: 500€/m2
Size: from 12,
24, 36, … to 100m2 to adapt the needs of companies
Le projet des Halles Alstom
Futur cœur du QDC
Les travaux de la transformation des Halles Alstom ont commencé et
permettront d’intégrer à horizon 2017, l’ESBANM, une couveuse et une
pépinière créative, des salles de créativité, un hôtel d’entreprise, un
espace d’expérimentation (showroom, prototypage, événementiel,
Fablab) un Dept de rech. et d’ens. de l’Univ de Nantes dédié aux cultures
numériques (suite)
Cluster management team is responsible to create appropriate offices/ equipments but also to offer appopriate economic advices for the CCIs:
We develop a range of services:
Individual coaching + creative factory ( call for proposal to detect innovative projects)
International support
Meeting
Pitch session
Conference
Annual event called Les Ateliers…
We consider 12 sectors to be part of the Ccis
Focus on 5 creative communities
From Grey to Green
Top 3 of the french best/ attractive city ( with Lyon and Toulouse)
It became a turistic hotspot since 2010 thanks to culture and art
To finally measure Cci jobs, we decided to launch a job observatory in 2014.
A useful tool to detect trends and adapt policies