Cultural Planning as an approach to build creative cities: a case of Mysore

Abstract

Vision meets strategy in a cultural plan. A cultural plan translates the cultural needs and identity of a community into a tool for implementing recommendations. These recommendations seek to address gaps in cultural service delivery, expand participation, broaden the impact of culture, identify new opportunities, and stake out the City’s identity through cultural expression. A cultural plan is devised to address distinct objectives specific to a city’s cultural sector, including all art forms and heritage, cultural activities, creative industries and resource providers. Culture can be defined in many ways, recognizing that there are many, many different ways to define culture, none definitive, none wrong. Culture is the folk-spirit having a unique identity and culture and is cultivation of waywardness or free Individuality. So cultural planning is cultural approach for planning but not planning of culture. It is not only for tourism or heritage conservation, religious activities or art, Music, Dance but it is a holistic approach for planning where all these are considered together which helps city and its citizens to build their own identity and improve civic life. Cultural assets can be quantified as tangible and intangible assets in a city. These assets are related with many factors influencing the transformation of culture. So there are many parameters to study culture and its transformation and implications of it on civic life of a city. Mysore being the cultural capital of Karnataka state in Southern India and city was the capital of princely state of Mysore. So Mysore still retains that grandeur with huge cultural capital. For that one needs planning policies which addresses this unique identity of a city and help improve it. Culture activities induce creativity in minds of participants or stake holders. Creative thinking is essential for innovation which is backbone of a creative city. This study is classified broadly into two categories one is to study the creative economy of the city that is to study creative industries which are native identity of the city or the region and to give policy proposal for the improvement of those industries. And second one is to study cultural creative space in the city and potential of different cultural capital of the city to propose local level action plan and guidelines for improvement of these cross cultural interactive spaces. These provide a platform in the prominent areas of the city for different creative players and creative industries to showcase themselves with dignity.