There is a shortage of artist workshops and affordable space for creating and exhibiting art in Hamburg. Not only do artists find temporary shelter (Skam, Frappant, Gängeviertel [alleyway quarters]), but they enrich their neighbourhood with a variety of cultural activities, thus fostering the respective city district's development.

 
Through its programme entitled "Creative Elbe Island Quarters: Space for the Arts", IBA Hamburg offers long-term structural development aid. The goal of the programme is to establish and strengthen creative and artistic structures in Wilhelmsburg, creating the necessary prerequisites for an active cultural community on the Elbe islands. As a first project, the Veringhöfe (formerly the Kubi Centre, see photo) are to be developed to become a model location for artists and creatives. Is IBA Hamburg preaching to the converted, giving artists exactly what they have been asking for?

Artists and their activities have been at the focus of urban development efforts for a while. Why are planners so interested in them and how can the things that artists have been doing under adverse circumstances until now be supported, planned or even accelerated? Can this work? What are the side effects? In short: how do you make a "creative hotspot"? 

Reports, concepts, analyses and discussions with:

Uli Hellweg, managing director of IBA Hamburg GmbH

Marit Pedersen, Ministry of Urban Development and Environment, Hamburg

Klaus Overmeyer, Urban Catalyst, Berlin

Yvonne Fietz, Stadtkultur Hamburg e.V., Codeveloper of the usability concept "Künstler Community Elbinseln" ["Elbe islands artist community"]

Thomas Giese, Honigfabrik Wilhelmsburg

Klausmartin Kretschmer, cultural investor, Hamburg

Dodo Adden, Artist Association Skam e.V., Hamburg

Vincent, Mascot of Hamburg's offspace community

Host: Jan Holtmann