Transforming Hamilton, Creatively: How to Change a City from a Cowtown to a Wowtown

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In July 2007 a group of stakeholders were invited to form a strategic think tank and engage with Charles Landry, the international authority on creative cities, in a two-day conversation about Hamilton, New Zealand’s largest inland city. Hamilton is New Zealand’s fastest growing city at the heart of one of the world’s richest agricultural areas. The country’s main dairy industry surrounds Hamilton along with significant ag-bio research and hi-tech manufacturing. With its strong agricultural roots, Hamilton has also developed a reputation for being a cultural desert.

The strategic think tank was a rich ideas-generating environment for a mix of minds from businesses, local government, iwi, education and the arts. As a member of the think tank, it was enriching to be involved in deep discussions about how to foster creativity and innovation in Hamilton. By the end of the two days we had high expectations that a seismic attitudinal change was taking place and that Hamilton could be transformed from a cowtown to a wowtown. However, as soon as our council published the resulting “Creativity & Identity Strategy” it was shelved - until grassroots intervention helped its re-activation.

The Hamilton Arts Sector Reference Group is a citywide group that takes a long-term strategic view of arts development. We work as leaders, managers, creators, educators, producers, researchers, and artists. We’ve been meeting regularly since 2004 to promote and nurture participation in the arts, meeting monthly throughout the year. We believe a collaborative approach is vital to help stimulate a vibrant creative city. We decided to intervene and encourage our council to re-activate the strategy by developing our own arts report, which brought instant results.

Our council told us that leadership is essential, and that those involved in arts must make the most of opportunities… We are doing just that!

Stream: Arts Policy, Management and Advocacy

Paper: Transforming Hamilton, Creatively

As Director of the Centre for Creative Industries, Cheryl Reynolds leads creative industries research at the Waikato Institute of Technology. She is the founder of SODA Inc: New Zealand's first creative industries business incubator, she has developed the annual international SPARK arts festival, she founded the arthouse academic publisher RAMP Press, and she organizes Pecha Kucha Hamilton. Cheryl was previously Managing Director of Antenna Audio (London), Executive Director of Impressions Gallery (York), and Founding Director Focal Point Gallery (Essex) UK. She serves on the boards for a range of local national and international arts organisations, businesses, and government agencies, and is a practicing artist.
http://www.cci.net.nz/
http://www.cci.net.nz/report2008/Arts-Report-2008-General-Release.pdf