the comparable city, the team first looked into the hard facts being important according to the definition of Visual Art, but also what actually shapes a creative city, and which measurable factors are enabling those. According to the five dimensions the following Visual Art indicators had 5 Creative Institutions been chosen: and Support Housing
Cultural Heritage Image & Cultural Heritage
For intra city connectivity transport inside the city is the main aspect: Does a pedestrian area exist, how many bus lines are there, and how many kilometres do they cover? Are there night-buses existing, and how many people are being transported? Looking at all these factors made it possible to visualise how the compared cities are being similar, and what makes them different. The in-depth interviews later on gave an even broader image. Before looking at the choices for interviews at the end of this part of the research, the first view is taken on the choice of the actual comparable cities.
Tolerance
5
Inter City Connectivity 5
Geography Transport
Knowledge City 5 Demography Education
Intra City Connections 5
Geography Transport
Based on this, a table had been created, to show differences and similarities in each indicator. In the sector of Visual Art, the creative institutions, plus how they are supported, is being measured by the number of museums, libraries, theatre, and the proportion of employment in culture and entertainment. In terms of housing the prices for real estate and rental are crucial, and tolerance can be measured by opening hours in nightlife, the existence of red light districts, and the tolerance of drugs. Cultural Heritage can be compared by the city’s image and the presence of cultural heritage. The critical factors here are city branding, the age of the city, and its recognition by UNESCO for being world cultural heritage. Geography is the major factor of influence when looking at the inter city connections. Where is the city situated geographically, which borders surround them, and which cities are nearby were the first important questions. The aspect of transport plays a crucial role when looking at inter city connections as well. The hard facts here are the existence of a railway station, a harbour, and the distance to the next airport. When looking at the knowledge economy, demography, and education are being the factors to investigate. Demography measures the population by number, aging, immigrant, salary and employment rates. Education shows the number of Universities and students, especially under the aspect of internationality.
Rationale for Our Choice What is it that makes Freiburg in Germany, and Graz in Austria comparable cities to Breda? First of all, in terms of very obvious reasons like number of citizens, number of districts and the geographical position they are being very similar to Breda. In addition, Graz had been European Capital of Culture in 2003, and Freiburg is aiming to become cultural capital in 2020 for Germany. Both cities have a vibrant cultural life and are internationally connected. In the research section of this report, the two cities are going to be introduced in detail and compared according to the five dimensions. Here a closer look is taken to provide a broader scope and insight. In the research to strategy section the interviews with the cultural actors of the cities are going to be the basis for finding out its networking performance in the Visual Art sector. For Breda it is going to be interesting how mechanisms work here and what the investments are. It is going to be found out if some ideas might be interesting to put into action in Breda and Brabant as well. Addendum: Rationale for not Selecting Other Former European Capital of Culture Lille, Liverpool, Glasgow and Ruhr2010, are the comparable cities that come in someone’s mind in the first place, especially in the context for BrabantStad and Breda. Lille is comparable in size and condition, before it became European Capital of Culture in 2004. Now it is a well known place for Visual Art and international connections. Liverpool and Glasgow are cities that made a 180° spin from being industrial dark places into being vivid cultural cities with international recognition. Ruhr 2010 is, like BrabantStad, an agglomeration of cities that had been candidating in cooperation. Even though these cities are excellent examples and comparable cities for the role Breda is playing in the context of BrabantStad, the team had decided not to investigate here, because all of these city’s changes and impacts already have been studied to full extent in other studies. Thus, not choosing for these towns had been an active decision of not getting conclusions that already had been made before. Freiburg and Graz are cities that had not been looked at in detail within this context, and are very comparable as well. Studying these cities is going to give a more diverse understanding of the topic. 11