SMU-Centre 42 Series: Creative Hubs: Nature or Nurture?

The aim of this session is to explore the notion of the ‘creative hub’. Globally, creative hubs have become a popular instrument for used by many (usually public) organisations for displaying support for arts and cultural activity.

This session will explore how the notion of the creative hub has become over-extended to the extent to which it has lost focus. It will also raise the question of what, if anything, is different between ‘creative’ and ‘non-creative industry’ hubs. Finally, and arguably most significantly, it explores what it is like to work in a hub, and what hubs might be a ‘response’ to. Running through the session is a debate about the governance of hubs: by and for whom? I argue that governance is more than simply a matter of being a caretaker for a building; instead, it requires the skill to curate relationships, and aspirations.

The Arts and Culture Matters Series is a platform for robust, lively and collegiate discussion of the issues and challenges related to the arts and cultural landscape. Each discussion will collectively convene members of the arts and creative community including artists, scholars, students, and policy-makers, to explore timely topics that will nurture and advance understanding on the arts and culture, especially in and from the context of Singapore. This series is organised by the Arts and Culture Management Program, in the School of Social Sciences at the Singapore Management University. For 2018, the series is produced in partnership with Centre 42, a non-profit theatre development space.