Premium
The Artist and the City in “Euro‐Mediterranean” Marseille: Redefining State Cultural Policy in an Era of Transnational Governance
Author(s) -
INGRAM MARK
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
city and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1548-744X
pISSN - 0893-0465
DOI - 10.1111/j.1548-744x.2009.01025.x
Subject(s) - the arts , state (computer science) , globalization , cultural policy , context (archaeology) , political science , liberalization , corporate governance , power (physics) , political economy , sociology , public administration , economy , history , law , economics , physics , archaeology , finance , algorithm , quantum mechanics , computer science
Focused on an arts center in Marseille, this article explores how globalization and Europeanization are affecting relations between local cultural producers, national culture, and the state. In France, the state's claims to reshape civil society through cultural policy have been challenged by critics who conclude that economic priorities have ended an era of civic‐centered state arts policy. At the same time, local authorities in the Provence‐Alpes‐Côtes d'Azur region value “new territories of art” projects as initiatives consonant with Euro‐Mediterranean commerce and exchange. Adapting to this context, these artists both challenge and rearticulate state cultural policy. They pursue the same universalist Republican ideals of earlier state policy but they re‐define them for the distinctively Mediterranean setting of Marseille. Thus, in spite of anti‐state discourse by artists, and fears that the public nature of their work has been compromised by economic liberalization, this case shows the ongoing power of the state to shape cultural policy discourse at the same time that it shows artists interpreting the terms of this discourse in ways that are dynamic, locally‐distinctive, and transnational.