Aarhus : Investing in new generation museums to boost local attractiveness

The Culture for Cities and Regions project is organising a three-day study visit to Aarhus (10-12 May 2016) to explore how arts and culture can improve territorial attractiveness, the overarching socio-economic ecosystem and livability of a city. The study visit will aim at facilitating peer-learning between 20 representatives of cities and regions from all over Europe.

This is the 11^th of a total of 15 programmed study visits under the project.

More information on the previous study visits is available here: https://culturalheritageinaction.eu/resources/

This medium-sized city stands at the edge of innovation in businesses and Aarhus University ranks among the top 100 world universities, including within the cultural and creative sectors: Aarhus has the highest degree of specialisation in Denmark for architecture and design.

Aarhus will be European Capital of Culture in 2017. The theme ‘RETHINK’ aims to create a ‘cultural laboratory’ in the region where innovative and alternative solutions can flourish. Aarhus 2017 includes a focus on urban development, integration, business development, tourism, infrastructure and international collaboration.

This study visit will focus on museums in Aarhus, and how they are testing and implementing new approaches to form part of the ‘new generation of museums’. Iconic museums of Aarhus (from an architectural as well as from a cultural programming perspectives) such as the new library (Dokk1), the Old Town, Mooesgard museum and ARoS will all present their vision and how they work in practice to deliver on this forward-looking approach.

A delegation of 11 European cities or regions will exchange on Aarhus’s experience in the cultural sector. The participants come from Aalst (Belgium), Athens (Greece), Berlin (Germany), Bristol (UK), Birmingham (UK), Ghent (Belgium), Kalamata (Greece), Leeds (UK), Nice (France), Šilutė (Lithuania) and Turku (Finland).

They will be accompanied by Arthur Le Gall (KEA European Affairs) and Péter Inkei (Budapest Observatory) who will share their hands-on experience of policies for culture, creative industries and innovation.

The full case study of Aarhus is available at: http://www.cultureforcitiesandregions.eu/culture/resources/Case-study-Aarhus-City-of-museums-WSWE-9XMLR8