Scotland�s major cities will be able to bid for the title of the UK�s capital of culture under a new competition suggested last night by a government minister.
Scotland's major cities will be able to bid for the title of the UK's capital of culture under a new competition suggested last night by a government minister.
Cities across the country will be given the chance to repeat the success of Glasgow's status in 1990 as European capital of culture under a new scheme announced by Culture Secretary Andy Burnham in a speech in Liverpool.
That city's year as European capital of culture - 2008 - has been deemed a success, generating £176m in tourism and attracting 3.5 million first-time visitors.
Mr Burnham would like to see this success spread to other cities, with the title of UK capital of culture potentially given to a city every four years.
The winner would host a major cultural festival as well as providing the venue for the biggest prizes in the arts, such as the Booker Prize for literature, the Turner Prize for art, music's Brit Awards and the Baftas.
Glasgow has recently been given the title of Unesco City of Music, while Edinburgh is the first Unesco City of Literature. They would be expected to consider entering the race for the new title, as would Aberdeen, Inverness and Dundee.
Glasgow was the first UK centre to be given the title of European capital of culture. The year is often seen as a turning point for the city, refashioning its image from a place primarily known for industry to a modern conurbation that valued culture and the arts.
The leading players in 1990 were the then Glasgow District Council and Strathclyde Regional Council, with £32.7m invested in city of culture events - £6m from private sources.
Among the main attractions were the performance of Luciano Pavarotti, the operatic tenor, at the SECC, the Ship theatre show in Govan and mass events such as Keeping Glasgow in Stitches and The Big Day music festival.
Edinburgh would also have a strong case for UK capital of culture status with its world-leading annual festivals.
In his speech, Mr Burnham said that the lessons learned about the power of culture to transform a city's reputation and economy had not been built on after Glasgow's 1990 success.
He said: "In 1990, lessons about the power of regeneration led by culture emerged from Glasgow's year as European capital of culture.
"But, back then, they were not widely embraced, absorbed and made mainstream because the government then cut arts funding in the years that followed."
He added: "I know from friends in the arts world that the arts still bear the scars of the mistaken policy of the government in the last recession in the 1990s where their blanket policy of equal misery for all' produced demoralised and ineffective arts organisations."
He said he had given the task of establishing the prize to Phil Redmond, chairman of Liverpool's year of culture and a leading TV producer.
Mr Burnham said: "By receiving national recognition as a city of culture, every city in the UK could be given an opportunity to bring out the creative skills, talent and enthusiasm of its people - to showcase itself on the national stage and change people's perceptions of how the city sees itself and how it is seen by the rest of the country.
"I wish to invite Phil Redmond to chair a panel to consider the feasibility of a British city of culture prize beginning in 2011 - how it may complement the Cultural Olympiad.
"It would consider how frequently it would be awarded, but a working assumption could be a four-year cycle.
"It would also need to consider a core list of events that the winning city would gain the right to host, such as the Turner Prize or the Brit Awards and a range of others."
