This document discusses Montreal's revival and the role of local artists. It first describes Montreal's economic rise and fall, but recent renaissance. It then discusses Richard Florida's concept of the "creative class" and how cities attract them. Montreal has focused on design, branding itself as a UNESCO City of Design with over 25,000 professionals. It also discusses Montreal's music industry, with linguistically divided but collaborating scenes. The proximity of venues encourages networking and infrastructure support for artists.

1. Quebec Studies 300 Fall 2016
Montreal’s revival and its creative
class:
what roles have the local artists
played for the city’s nouvelle
renaissance?
Neal Won
1
FOR
DISTRIBUTION

2. Table of Contents
I. The rise and fall of the city, yet rising again from the same ashes – p. 3-5
II. Concept of the Creative Class – p. 6
III. How to make the city more creative?– p. 7
IV. Montreal: Design Capital – p. 8-10
V. Music, and the Sense of Collaboration – p. 11-13
VI. For future references – p. 14
2

3. The rise and fall of the city, yet rising again from the same
ashes
• Montreal used to be the nation’s leading economic
entity, the financial epicentre of Canada
• Toronto took over the role after the 1960s due to
the “rise of French after 1960 as the dominant
language of business in Quebec...” (Polèse &
Shearmur, 2004)
• “By 1978, Montreal had clearly become a second-
class citizen in Canada’s urban structure”
(Higgins, 1986)
• Long tension between the traditional Anglophone
elite and the Francophone majority, political
turmoil, economic downfall during the 70s and the
80s, and etc.
3

4. The rise and fall of the city, yet rising again from the same
ashes
• The city is rising from the same ashes
• One of the Top 10 Major American Cities of the
Future and one of the most business-friendly cities
with one of the most well-suited foreign direct
investment strategies in the American continents,
according to the Financial Times (fDI Intelligence,
2015)
4

5. The rise and fall of the city, yet rising again from the same
ashes
• The city’s cultural industry is generating
economic impacts of $10.7 billion every year
(Tourisme Montréal, 2016), 9.6 million tourists
among the total of 28.6 million visitors
(Tourisme Montréal, 2015)
• Leading tourist destinations in the world, as
well as one of the most favored venues for
international conferences and organizations
((American Express Global Business Travel,
2014); (Meetings + Incentive Travel, 2015))
• Surely, the city has been greeted by a new era
of renaissance, yet how?
5

6. Concept of the “Creative Class”
6
Richard Florida,
Martin Prosperity Institute, the University of Toronto
• Richard Florida introduced the concept of the
“Creative Class” in his 2002 bestseller, “The Rise of
the Creative Class”
• The Creative Class as a new economic class,
“people in science and engineering, architecture and
design, education, arts, music and entertainment,
whose economic function is to create new ideas,
new technology and/or new creative contents”
(Florida, 2002, p. 8)
• He argues that they are the backbone of urban
economy, and driving the growths of cities in the
21st Century.
• This idea has become “part of the language of
regeneration experts, urban planners and
government policy makers attempting to revive the
economic and cultural life of cities” (Edensor et al.,
2009)

7. How to make the city more creative?
7
• “The future of cities depend on the ability of
particular urban areas to provide more
attractive places for increasingly rich workers”
(Glaeser et al., 2001)
• For instance, Paris has many appealing
qualities
• The advantage of its service sector and its
products which rely on scale economies to
function (the Louvre)
• Large stock of buildings which are
considered by many to be beautiful (Ibid.,
p. 32)
• The question of whether if city is able to
provide the ‘consumers’, the people, with the
appropriate lifestyle and surroundings that can
fulfill their needs
• E.g., Minneapolis-St. Paul, Seattle, Boston
and Portland generate, attract, retain high
concentrations of artists better than any other
regions (Markusen & Johnson, 2006)

8. Montreal: Design Capital
8
• UNESCO City of Design, the only Canadian
member of the UNESCO’s Creative Cities
Network (Design Montréal, 2016)
• Over 25,000 design professionals, 34% of the
overall economic impact of the cultural sector
(UNESCO, 2016)
• “With its worldwide renown for the arts, and
international festivals ranging from jazz to
fireworks, Montréal exudes creativity and is an
environment in which technology, design and
the arts can all interact” (Stolarick & Florida,
2006)
• Focusing on ‘soft’ qualities, such as the
culture and design, rather than revitalizing the
old manufacturing sector, way more cost-
effective and value-added process

9. Montreal: Design Capital
9
• Montreal’s pivot to brand itself as a design
metropole in order to attract investment, talents and
tourists (Leslie & Rantisi, 2011)
• The city always has had an inspiration to be an
international ’alpha’ city ever since the Drapeau era,
desire for fostering a symbolic economy in the city
to replace its rapidly disappearing manufacturing
base (Paul, 2004)
• Design and creativity have become the core values
of the city’s economic development plan, the city
aims to “mobilize different influential
stakeholders...better design...build on Montreal’s
status as a UNESCO City of Design” (Ville de
Montréal, 2011)
• “Design, beauty, and creativity are important
elements that set Montréal apart from other cities of
the world and attract tourists” (Leslie & Rantisi,
2011)

10. Montreal: Design Capital
10
• “The biggest enemy of good design, good
architecture is that people are blind and they
look at the sidewalk instead of looking at the
architecture” – An anonymous official at Ville
de Montréal
• In Montreal, ”design provides an opportunity to
improve the quality of life of its
inhabitants...[as] the only city in North
America to have its own design department at
the magistrate level” (Stocker, 2013)
• It is crucial to see how Montreal’s design
sector workers have been cooperating with the
city officials to revitalize the economy and
brand the city as the design capital of the
world together
Quartier des spectacles,
a cultural district dedicated
to arts and entertainment

11. Music, and the Sense of Collaboration
11
• Montreal’s linguistic characteristics and “its
bilingualism and the consequent evolution of
distinct scenes and supportive public and
private organizations influence network
development in its music industry” (Cummins-
Russell & Rantisi, 2012)
• Used to be considered as “one of the three
most significant markets and production for
disco music in the Western world” (Straw,
2004)
• The city’s music industry and its musicians
“get a further boost from locally emerging and
expanding technologies which include
multimedia, audiovisual and digital sound...the
city is considered as the third strongest in
North America in concentration of music
industry businesses” (Music Canada, 2014)
Osheaga, hosted in Montreal every year, one
of the most reputed music festivals in the
world

12. Music, and the Sense of Collaboration
12
• Two distinctive musician clusters within the city
• English communities such as the West Plateau, Mile End and
Saint-Henri
• French communities such as the East Plateau, Hochelalga-
Maisonneuve, and Mile End
• “Language...heavily inflects not only the visible and audible
aspects of musicmaking and its relation to the culture
spaces of Montreal, but at a fundamental level also shapes
the network...the systems and patterns of cooperation
structuring musical culture” (Stahl, 2001)
• Although linguistically divided;
• The proximity of venues to one another and location
within a cluster of musicians and other artists allows
patrons to move conveniently between them, often on
foot (Cummins-Russell & Rantisi, 2012)
• “encourage the formation of a supportive
infrastructure...that brings together local industry
actors and provides them with space, networking
prospects, funding and other benefits”(Ibid)
Networks and place in Montreal’s independent music industry
Cummins-Russell & Rantisi, 2012

13. Music, and the Sense of Collaboration
13
• The city is much more a cultural mosaic or
patchwork than a melting pot (Stolarick & Florida,
2006)
• Montreal wants to foster the sense of collaboration
and sees it as a quality that “makes it possible to
transform into links with organizations that can offer
ideas to spark innovation” (Ville de Montréal, 2011)
• Strong alliance between various industries, such as
the case of Montreal’s technologically advanced
music business scene, is one of the features that
has transformed the city ‘creative’ and gained itself
a competitive edge over others

14. For future references
14
• If you want to know more about the concept of the Creative Class and how it has affected Montreal; see
Florida, R. (2002). The Rise of The Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure,
Community and Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books; Paul, D. E. (2004, June). World cities as
hegemonic projects: the politics of global imagineering in Montreal. Political Geography, 23(5), 571-
596; and Stolarick, K., & Florida, R. (2006, October). Creativity, Connections and Innovation: A Study
of Linkages in the Montréal Region. Environment and Planning A, 38(10), 1799-1817.
• For Montreal’s design strategies, see; Rantisi, N. M., & Leslie, D. (2006, December). Branding the
Design Metropole: The Case of Montréal, Canada. Area, 38(4), 364-376; and Leslie, D., & Rantisi, N.
(2011). Fostering a culture of design: Insights from the case of Montréal, Canada. In P. Jeffcutt, & A.
C. Pratt, Creativity, Innovation and the Cultural Economy (p. 181). London: Routledge.
• For Montreal’s music industry, see; Stahl, G. (2001, September 1). Tracing out an Anglo-bohemia:
Musicmaking and myth in Montreal. Public, 99-121; Cummins-Russell, T. A., & Rantisi, N. M. (2012).
Networks and place in Montreal’s independent music industry. The Canadian Geographer / Le
Géographe canadien, 56(1), 80-97; and; Music Canada. (2014, June). The Next Big Bang . Retrieved
November 15, 2016, from Music Canada: http://musiccanada.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/06/TheNextBigBang.pdf