Barclay Price considers how better co-operation between Glasgow and Edinburgh can help boost their global competitiveness.
Neighbouring cities around the world often have a history of fierce competition and jocular rivalry and Glasgow and Edinburgh have certainly indulged in both. However, this is changing as both cities recognise that to compete in an international environment, collaboration is essential. The Glasgow Edinburgh Collaboration initiative (GECi), established a year ago by the two City Councils and Scottish Enterprise, has identified the cultural and creative sectors as key areas for partnership. Despite their relatively small size, Glasgow and Edinburgh support creativity of international quality, providing a vital economic and cultural infrastructure for residents and visitors.
At a recent meeting co-ordinated by GECi, a range of cultural leaders from the two cities explored potential barriers to, and opportunities for, enhanced cross-working. A key point of agreement was that as Glasgow and Edinburgh had each built their cultural reputations by combining a local distinctiveness with an international perspective collaboration should recognise each citys unique cultural identity. While each city would need to continue to ensure that it had the relevant cultural infrastructure, the group welcomed the fact that the two cities had moved a long way in recent years to avoid any unnecessary duplication or competition. For example, the redevelopment of Glasgows Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum was of a different nature to the redevelopment of the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh; and the Edinburgh festivals are of a very different nature and audience from Glasgows Celtic Connections festival.
The group accepted there is a major problem in encouraging audiences to move between the two cities. It is not unusual to meet someone from one city who will quite happily recount they have only visited the other once, if at all. Whilst the bulk of cultural activity in Glasgow takes place in the autumn and winter, Edinburghs main cultural event happens in August. However, research shows that relatively few people from each city travel to the other to attend such events, with transport being identified as a key obstacle. The connecting train service does not run into the early hours, even during the Edinburgh festivals, which not only discourages residents from one city travelling to the other, but is also a barrier to tourists who might wish to stay in one city and take in the culture offered by both. As such, GECi is currently in discussion to enhance connectivity between and around the cities.
GECi also recognised that more cross-marketing was needed, and so work is underway on an online portal for cultural information, as is exploratory work on a combined arts booking system. However, the main impediments are historical perceptions; changing these will be a long-term task. But then, Scotlands cultural organisations and artists have a long history of partnership, and what competition there is takes place in a collaborative atmosphere.
Scotlands ambition to be the best small country in the world requires Glasgow and Edinburgh to continue to operate as the powerhouse of the economy; to be a hub for growth in information-based industries, and to offer distinctive tourism that also cross-sells. An energetic cultural life is a factor in each of these, and GECi provides a focus for innovative thinking that will help ensure that culture continues to be considered as highly significant to the economic growth of the whole of Scotland.
Barclay Price is Director of Arts & Business Scotland. t: 0131 220 2499;
e: barclay.price@aandb.org.uk;
w: http://www.aandb.org.uk