Summary:
In this episode, our host Adrian Ellis speaks with author and renowned urban expert Charles Landry. They go over his remarkable career, retracing the route and influences which led him to his famed Creative City concept. They also discuss his current focus on creative bureaucracy – best illustrated by his annual Creative Bureaucracy Festival.

After, Adrian is joined by Stephanie Fortunato to explore key takeaways. They discuss the practical applications of Charles’ work, especially as an ethical reminder to cultural institutions to prioritize ideals of openness and curiosity in an increasingly polarized world.

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References:

• Robert Skidelsky, Keynesian economist and emeritus professor of political economy at Warwick University
• Sir Peter Hall, geographer and urban planner, and Professor of Planning and Regeneration at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London
• Marc Pachter, Cultural historian and American museum director who headed the United States National Portrait Gallery from 2000 to 2007
• Culture at the Crossroads: Culture and Cultural Institutions at the Beginning of the 21st Century – a book by Marc Pachter and Charles Landry
• Creative Bureaucracy highlights the human perspective. It understands people are at the heart of the system. It puts the lived experience of working within or with a bureaucracy centre-stage…
• The Creative City Index, developed by Charles Landry and Jonathan Hyams, is a method for assessing cities holistically.
• The Creative Bureaucracy Festival: creating a better bureaucracy isn’t easy and can’t be done alone. It requires hard work and strong partners…
• Poetry in Theory: An Anthology 1900 - 2000 (by Jon Cook) – brings together key critical and theoretical texts from the twentieth century which have animated debates about modern poetry.
• Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake – “the more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them.”
• The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling – James Hillman presents a vision of our selves, and an approach to the mystery at the center of every life.

Bio:

Inventor of the Creative City concept, Charles Landry is a renowned author and international authority on the use of imagination and creativity in urban change. He is currently a fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin – and creator of the annual Creative Bureaucracy Festival. Through his writings and advisory work, Charles helps cities identify and make the most of their potential by triggering their inventiveness and thinking and by opening up new conversations about their future. His aim is to help cities become more resilient, self-sustaining and to punch above their weight. Charles facilitates complex urban change and visioning processes and undertakes tailored research often creating his own projects. These include the Urban Psyche test developed with Chris Murray and the ‘Creative City Index’ in collaboration with Bilbao and developed with Jonathan Hyams, a strategic tool that measures, evaluates and assesses the innovative ecosystem of a city and its capacity to adapt to radical global shifts and adjustments.