When artist and avid cyclist David Byrne, former lead singer for the band Talking Heads, was asked by the New York City Department of Transportation (no surprise) to help judge a bike rack design contest for New York City, he was so enthusiastic about the opportunity that he submitted his own designs.

With his design prowess and public exposure* however, NYC DOT felt it only fair to distinguish his submissions from the rest. Alas, these particular bike racks will be up for only a year, after

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September 2008 is a landmark day for anything having to do with green dance clubs.  That’s the launch month for both Club Watt in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Surya in London, both being presented as sustainable/ecological dance clubs featuring a floor that generates energy from the people dancing on top of it.

It’s been talked about since 2005 by a group now referred to as the Sustainable Dance Club, formed by a group of Dutch ecological inventors, engineers and investors using a

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We’re familiar with the term ‘movie going’, as in going to the movies, but what about those who want a little more socially fulfilling? Every evening in Locarno, Switzerland’s Piazza Grande, during their annual 10-day Locarno Film Festival in August, 8000 participants movies are treated to a film on a massive scale.

Combining an original art experience presented on a four-story screen, set in one of the most beautiful piazzas in Europe (especially when lit up at night, in and of itself, a

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Dancing is one of the most effective ways to relieve stress, benefit from physical activity and have fun. As one dance instructor once said, “You can’t dance angry.“ So why is it that if you longed to let loose on the dance floor with a DJ spinning tunes you’d have to until past 11 pm, weekday or weekend. No more.

Enter Granny Boots every Wednesday night at the Melody Bar (recognized as one of the top bars in the world) in the Gladstone Hotel in downtown Toronto. It starts at 7:30 pm and

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When it comes to industrial design, Milan, Italy is a world capital, leaders in fashion and architecture and home to Alfa Romeo and Fiera Milano, the largest trade fair complex in the world. There is no product
design equivalent in the U.S., but Cleveland, Ohio is poising itself to take on that mantle. What’s the point? For one, design is found to be correlated to economic growth. If you’re wondering how industrial design makes an impact, think of Apple and their influence.

In the heart of

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What do Paris, Toronto, Copenhagen, Madrid, Malta, Montreal, Sao Paulo, Lima, Santa Monica, Chicago, Miami Beach and six cities in the UK have in common? They all host an all night art and cultural festival known as Nuit Blanche (White Night), which lasts from sundown until sunrise on the first Saturday and Sunday in October. While Paris kicked off the Nuit Blanche series in 2002, they were inspired by the ‘Lange Nacht der Museen’ (Long Night of Museums) held in Berlin, Germany since 1997,

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This is an alternative for a growing number of people bored with ‘So what bar are we going to tonight?‘

First of all, a couple of definitions. Mixed-use is a placemaking/real estate development term for combining uses in a building (residential over retail), which also applies to neighborhoods (walkable) and businesses (bookstore coffeehouse bar lounge theater). Mashup refers to the combining of songs, videos, and web application features into a new and distinct product.

Thus, what happens

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In keeping with the spirit of the previous entry, The Dining Room Takes to the Street, here’s how to start your own informal public dining culture with the Permanent Breakfast.

Founded in Austria, the purpose of the Permanent Breakfast is to promote public areas and places via spontaneous gatherings for breakfast. The very first breakfast was held in Vienna on May 1, 1996 among five people, and has since spread throughout the world thanks to its formal program with the basic rule:

One person

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In one of the best NY Times articles ever published as it relates to what this site is all about, writer Penelope Green pens the phenomenon of creatives in New York City spontaneously crafting their own public spaces in The Dining Room Takes to the Streets. The photographs alone that are associated with the article are a must see, and some of the quotes are priceless.

Referred to as ‘invisible theater’, here are some examples of New Yorkers making their own urban gathering places (clockwise

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There are ‘green festivals’, then there’s San Francisco’s second annual Bicycle Music Festival, a one day, 15 band, 7 festival stop, free music festival that uses zero cars, trucks or even electricity. How?

- The bands all carry their equipment via bicycle trailers.
- The audience arrives via bike, skate and foot. They then travel sequentially to each of the seven festival stops in different parts of the city.
- The 600-watt P/A system is pedal-powered, developed by Rock the Bike in

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In the previous entry we looked at Elizabeth Currid’s The Economics of a Good Party and the process by which arts and culture added to the economy. Today, we look at Elizabeth’s answer to the question, “How does the social community (ie the patrons, the attendees, the participants) influence the emergence of arts and culture that then translates to economic impact?“ Her four ways:

1. Access to gatekeepers both formally and informally - Gatekeepers are defined as the purveyors of taste, so if

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How does art and culture translate into economic value? Elizabeth Currid, author of The Warhol Economy presents an invaluable scientific view on an industry regarded as anything but in her article, The Economics of a Good Party: Social Mechanics and the Legitimization of Art/Culture.

Simply speaking, arts and culture establishes economic value the more it’s recognized as a scene, when people pay to share in the experience via goods or events. The real question is, how does it become a scene

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So many emerging artists in one city - how can one possibly see them all? Enter Artomatic, Washington DC’s five-week multimedia experience showcased in a single building that is one of those no-brainers as far as finding something to do on a given evening - this year being from May 9 through June 15 one block west from a subway station. Where else can you experience the work of 1000 local artists in one building over 28 days… for free? Not only that, but there are several events going on

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Urban square spon-taneous: Mass-created fountain

In this ongoing series of spontaneous creative happenings that are attracted to the public stage that is the urban square, 1500 students gathered in Place Ladeuzeplein, Leuven, Belgium to create their own instantaneous Bellagio Fountain… out of the infamous Coke and mentos, thus breaking the world record for… most mento-coke fountains at once.

Ok, it’s not the kind of thing that jives with the Story of Stuff, but whoever has a problem with

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Urban square spontaneous: Roman pillow fight

What’s the so called Committee for the Termination of National Apathy to do to achieve its mission of relieving anxiety and stress? A national pillow fight of course!

Some 300 people celebrated the third annual Roman Pillow Fight on Sunday, April 27, 2008 in Piazza Santa Maria in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome, simultaneously commencing massive pillow action at precisely 6 pm when the piazza’s clock tower began to chime.

It’s one of those

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Here’s a much more conscientious alternative to the Hummer limousine (no, not a hybrid Hummer limousine)... Prague’s tram-based nightclub, known as Tramix. Yes, that’s a roving streetcar dance party with music, disco lighting and two bars, bringing new meaning to the term bar hopping.

The nightclub streetcar circuits the Czech capital late at night once a month. What’s the big deal? From an experience economy point of view, one of the event’s organizers, Honza Komarek, states it best, “When

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This is another one of those ‘it was just a matter of time’ things…

We’ve gone over how to crowdsource places and scenes, but not events.  Well, here’s a real world example in Scotland…

The Tennent’s Mutual is a music festival with a quarter of a million $ budget (this can obviously be scaled smaller or larger depending on your market)... that its founders will allow music lovers to “shape, create and dictate gig provision - from selecting artists and debating locations to calling the shots

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You may think the most popular, buzz-inducing events that creatives flock to are sponsored by city or arts-related organizations with budgets, but not so. Remember, creatives are attracted to natural cultural districts, which in turn consist of third places, events and scenes sourced by individuals.

A case in point - let’s look at the ongoing events attracting creatives in Washington DC:

Pecha Kucha - The first Thursday of the month, the DC version of this nationwide design presentation (a

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Austin looks to keep their ‘Live Music Capital of the World’ reputation

How important is live music to the city of Austin? How many cities do you know of that have a Live Music Task Force? Not only that, the city-funded group won’t consist of the usual suspect government bureaucrats, but local musicians, music venue owners and regular music-loving Austin residents - all deciding how to spend the government’s money to keep Austin’s Live Music Capital of the World reputation thriving.

The

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Austin music event brings in $95 million

We all know how important music and events are to local culture, but what about to the local economy? The City of Austin wanted to find out what kind of $ impact its annual SXSW (South by Southwest) music, film and interactive festival provided and got their answer: $95 million.

Conducted by Angelou Economics, the $95 million figure that the festival was calculated to have brought to Austin’s local economy in 2007 was double that of estimates by the

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Pecha Kucha Night - ‘Speed art & chit chat’ for creatives

In 2003, two employees of Klein-Dytham Architecture (KDa) in Tokyo felt there was a profound need for a place that young creatives could socialize, network and present their work publicly. Thus was born Pecha Kucha Night, which has since spread to 103 cities around the world.

Each month a group of designers, creatives, artists meet in, well, a creative space to view peer presentations of their work. Ah, but what makes it all so

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‘Crashed Ice’ brings cultural identity to northern cities

Cities love having an event followed by the sentence, “Only in ____”, even if it’s just for that year. It provides them with a unique cultural identity that sets them apart from every city in the world, such as the Running of the Bulls, only in Pamplona.

Speaking of which, who knows if that was part of the inspiration behind Crashed Ice, where four gutsy padded-up skaters fight through elements of roller derby, hockey and the

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Establishing a music scene 101

Every district wants a music scene, but not every district has one. Creative class author Richard Florida, a music fan to the nth degree, is spending a lot of research time providing the answers why, the first findings of which can be found in his recent report, Music Clusters: A Preliminary Analysis.

First of all, one needs to understand that only this with music as primary employment are defined in this study, not self-employed musicians, secondary

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A treatise on building vibrant cultural quarters

Today’s entry will be a little uncommon, but rather extraordinary as we present Urban Cultures’ detailed presentation behind their Cultural Quarters: Necessary Conditions and Success Factors checklist. There really are few if any firms that have such fine-grain knowledge in helping cities invest in such places, and we’re glad to be associated with them.

The treatise follows:

An essential prerequisite for a vibrant cultural quarter is the

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Cultural Quarters: Necessary Conditions and Success Factors checklist

Continuing our understanding of natural cultural districts, here’s Urban Cultures’ (profiled previously) Necessary Conditions and Success Factors checklist for what makes a vibrant cultural quarter:

Activity
- Extent and variety of cultural venues
- Presence of an evening economy, including café culture
- Strength of small-firm economy, including creative businesses
- Access to universities and education providers
-

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