Went to London a few weeks back; I went up for the RCA Interaction Design show - which was great! Saw some absolutely fab work (blog more on that another time maybe). On the way home, I picked up a few magazines - most notably Dazed and Confused (Vol2#27) - The climate change special. It struck me hard how there are all these people out there doing really great and exciting work; and me … well, I kind of feel like I am dying a slow death of lack of creative expression! And then there is Southampton; grrr. I have got to make something happen. It really upsets me that a city the size of Southampton should have so little creative stuff going on.

Now, it may be that I‘m just not moving in the right circles to see what is going on under the surface; but usually in a town, the underlying creative flow tends to be exposed in pockets; with shops, bars and galleries - and really that’s not happening!

The city council have some grand ideas about converting a big old department store to an arts centre. The latter is a laudable effort and the John Hansard Gallery certainly needs a new home! The list of the other partner organisations : Art Asia, City Eye and the Performing Arts Organisation, give some indication of the direction this centre will take.

I don't want to run down the efforts of organisations like aspace; to me they represent the type of organisation that Southampton needs in order to really develop a creative community.

My problem with so many arts organisations is they have an agenda - rather than simply encouraging artists; whether that agenda is about social development or cultural awareness or whatever, it always seems to get in the way of truly world class fine art.

What we need is an area with shop spaces, with cheap rent open to specific types of business, that encourage a creative community to grow up around them, with local art studios. As you add cafes and bars into that mix, you get cross over. But the driving force remains people, ground up. Not big visions but facilitation, encouraging organic growth. Opportunities not structures.

Oh and a few decent buildings wouldn't go amiss! If the city council wants to encourage creativity, it needs to start with the planning department (and perhaps throwing in some awards for really exciting architecture int he city).

Just my tuppence worth.