Toronto. Password: Creativity

Painful to watch: The Bilbao Effect

You could whisper it, shout it, breath it out, or, more appropriately, do it in a lovely drawl all the while with the smallest hint of a sneer that only a true blue-blooded Torontonians could do.  Creativity.  It may be the shiniest button out there - but it doesn't mean its the only thing that holds up the jacket.  And cue in Bilbao Effect or, in layman terms, the utter fallacy of 'build it (something shiny and glamorous) and they will come'.  I refer, ofcourse, to the majestic Guggenheim Museum in the city of Bilbao - its beautiful, its new (ish), and it says something (probably).  Bilbao was just another decaying Spanish industrial city before - but, for the Museum, it was just the luck of being there at the right time - the City started to turn around just at the time the Museum took up residence in the city. Economy and infrastructure improvements were already on its way but the Museum inevitably remained the superstar and took home the credit.  Reproductions of this archi-porn has sprung up around the world (ahem ROM and AGO) - but have not received the level of success achieved before by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao - but small wonder as the context was completely different!

Gentrification: Thanks white people

So, then I beg to ask why have we allowed ourselves to be sold hold, line, and sinker, that creativity is such a good thing?  I love art and I love culture. But these two are not synonymous with making a city identifiable with its citizens.  Art and culture are innately programmed to engage people without and within their environment.  ''What good does it do to do to build cultural temples if the pilgrims have shuttle back home to edge cities, intent on what they think the real business of life is--to make money, to stay afloat, to get quickly onto the lucky side of the gulf between the rich and the poor.''  We've been sucked into creativity as a way of live.  Its completely reorganised the way we see things as they are and the way we think that they should look like.  Maybe Toronto should stop trying so hard and just try to be, you know, a city - not for the idea but the people.