Paintworks is lovely in summer; seagulls, sunshine, river, nice atmosphere, lovely buildings to work in. I was there the other day meeting Wildfire about a secret project, and it’s a great place: full credit to the people behind it, Bristol needs this kind of place.
On the other hand, Paintworks is a 12 acre site, a small dot in a big city. I would say pimple, but I don’t think the analogy is fair to the achievement of Paintworks. But we need more than a dot; we need a thread of creative business and innovation woven into the fabric of the city. The seeds are there, they need to grow.
That means providing clear support through planning, the built environment, and leadership. Some of that can only come from the public sector. The rest, we can do.
– Extra food for thought —
- Silicon Valley is 40 miles long and 15 miles wide.
- How to be Silicon Valley and why geography may not be destiny (a fairly well-known essay by Paul Graham)
- Counter point arguing geography is destiny
I don’t think we should be Silicon Valley. Only Silicon Valley can do that.
I think we should be Bristol, without any reservation or limitation to our self-belief in doing so. We should understand the texture of the city, and above all how to make the most of it – through networks, physical environment, and the story we tell about Bristol.
(The comment on texture originates with Dick Penny)
Completely agree with the sentiment that we need something bigger. I believe that if we get the BBC relocated into the right site then we can talk about Bristol’s “creative arc” going from the skills stuff on Spike Island via arts, cultural consumption and experimentation on the Harbourside via Watershed, Colston Hall, Old Vic and Pervasive Media Studio ending up in the Media Business “Quarter” made up by BBC, Creative Depot and Paintworks. In commercail business terms – it covers the whole media value chain. A great story could be built around this – just needs some public sector primimng activity to get it up and running