Making Cultural Infrastructure: learning from Marseille

Making Cultural Infrastructure: learning from Glasgow and Marseille is a research exchange coordinated by Theatrum Mundi that aims to build on the significant potential for cooperation between these cities by facilitating exchange between people using, making, and planning cultural infrastructures. It is supported through a Franco-British Cooperation grant from the British Council / British Embassy in France.

The exchange focuses around non-profit organisations involved in the design and management of these infrastructures in Glasgow and Marseille. Agile City is a community interest company that creates space for work, events and learning in Glasgow, aiming also to produce knowledge around sustainable cultural development through collaboration. Plateau Urbain and Yes We Camp are cooperatives that create re-uses of buildings across France to provide affordable workspaces for cultural workers as well as emergency housing and social services for different underprivileged groups.

The exchange consists of reciprocal short study trips by groups who will visit, discuss, and learn from sites that offer different models for the making of infrastructures for cultural production. By comparing and learning from one another’s approaches, it is hoped that new ideas can be developed and an ongoing collaboration kickstarted, leading to more sustainable cultural development in both cities.