The Arts on Main development as part of a cultural precinct in the City of Johannesburg
Date
2012-02-08
Authors
Reddy, Sue
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Abstract
Following the launch of the Inner City Regeneration Charter (ICC) in 2007, the City of Johannesburg encouraged various stakeholders as well as public private partnership (PPP) to take back the City by working towards developing a creative, liveable space. Jonathan Liebmann, a private developer responded to the City’s call and developed Arts on Main (AoM), a cultural development within the Maboneng Precinct.
The AoM is a both a production and a consumption based development that houses Johannesburg’s best visual artists, designers, photographers and other creative’s in a single space contributing to the principles of culture–led regeneration.
Public spaces and cultural precincts are recognised in international literature, and over the past years, cultural precincts have rapidly developed across the City of Johannesburg. Many precincts have emerged following the principles of new urbanism with Public Private Partnerships.
This evaluative case study explores the role of a cultural development by establishing the extent to which a privately led cultural space contributes to culture-led regeneration on the east end of the inner city of Johannesburg. The case study is located in the broader development trends of the City, serving the requirements of business, tourism, artists, artist development for the middle-class white cultural consumers instead of the less fortunate artistic and creative communities located close to the AoM development.
AoM serves as a catalyst to encourage economic regeneration on the east end of the inner city of Johannesburg. The AoM development meets most of Montgomery (2007) and Canter (1977) criteria in defining a space as a cultural precinct.
Description
M.A, Faculty of Humanties, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011