(Barnett, 1996, p. 185)
The city as "collage" is possibly the finest metaphor for the urban world. Nowhere else do so many different people and purposes come together as in the city. No other place cries out so much for art, and is itself, an inspiration to create art. The realization that cities are living entities has initiated a renewed interest in the preservation and development of their respective parts. So much of Modernist Theory favored the abandonment of the past. It was as if we were all residents of some totally new age that bore virtually no relation to any past era. Were we born long ago and teleported to our present locations? Cities, like people, have their family histories. They have "memories" that are important to them, and stages of life that bring a smile to the face, or even a tear to the eye. Old neighborhoods can be restored to their formal glory. Old buildings can be put to new uses. Renovating the city is akin to visiting a favorite place after many years' absence, and suddenly discovering, in the same scene, things that you had never seen before. City planners must look at,
Cities as 'cultural crucibles' and the contribution of their innovative milieu... consider town planning and urban design or the spatial relationship and locational issues between cultural facilities and places of entertainment and consumption, and the city polity and development. (Evans, 2001, p. 28)
Thus one sees art everywhere in the city. The city itself is the canvas. The many different, and often very different, men, women, and children who inhabit the modern city, must be given free rein to express their individuality, for it is this that makes the city livable. The more human the urban space, the more inviting, and invigorating it will be. The great triumph of urbanity comes in the carefully balancing of the needs of single individuals with the needs of many individuals i.e. society. If this is done successful, a place is...
The city is not some sort of museum of sterile, "official" art - it is the creative heart of humanity.
References
http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98904517
Barnett, J. (1996). The Fractured Metropolis: Improving the New City, Restoring the Old City, Reshaping the Region. New York: Westview Press. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=102715365
Evans, G. (2001). Cultural Planning, an Urban Renaissance?. London: Routledge. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5000579396
Guillen, M.F. (1997). Scientific Management's Lost Aesthetic: Architecture, Organization, and the Taylorized Beauty of the Mechanical. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42(4), 682+. Retrieved April 24, 2005, from Questia database, http://www.questia.com. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=100248456
Kline, E. (2001). Chapter 11 Indicators for Sustainable Development in Urban Areas. In How Green Is the City? Sustainability Assessment and the Management of Urban Environments, Devuyst, D., Hens, L., & De Lannoy, W. (Eds.) (pp. 275-297). New York: Columbia University Press. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=102047425
Munck, R. (Ed.). (2002). Reinventing the City?: Liverpool in Comparative Perspective / . Liverpool, England: Liverpool University Press. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001335583
Shibley, R.G. (1998). The Complete New Urbanism and the Partial Practices of Placemaking. Utopian Studies, 9(1), 80+. Retrieved April 24, 2005, from Questia database, http://www.questia.com. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=82254990
Weaver, J.H., Rock, M.T., & Kusterer, K. (1997). Achieving Broad-Based Sustainable Development: Governance, Environment, and Growth with Equity. West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press.
It's All about Image
