ABSTRACT
This editorial in the Geelong Advertiser, endorsing the expenditure of significant funds for the pursuit of a Guggenheim Museum signals the continued potency and widespread endorsement of the Cultural Capital redevelopment strategy across the world. Geelong had long been a major manufacturing centre (see Chapter 7) but suffered a number of economic shocks over the 1970s and 80s so that efforts to restructure the economy and re-imagine the city were intensified, focusing firstly on the search for a new image, then on waterfront redevelopment and more recently on efforts to secure a Guggenheim museum and build a cultural precinct (Johnson 1990, 2002, 2006). In such moves, Geelong was echoing the experience and strategy of many cities around the world. This Chapter will examine the common pre-conditions for these strategies adopted by Geelong, but also Bilbao, Singapore, Glasgow, and many other cities as they searched for ways to move from industrial wastelands to re-inventing their urban image and economic foundation around waterfront redevelopment and the creative arts.
