Tom Borrup
I’ve had many great opportunities to witness how different communities organize themselves through, around, or into arts and cultural districts. In September, 2014, I had the pleasure of visiting a community in Marseille (800,000 population) in the south of France, a cluster of 8 small neighborhoods that formed a fascinating and alluring heritage and creative district with an approach I hadn’t seen in the United States.
Marseille was motivated by the opportunity to serve as European Capital of Culture for 2013, an effort that brought together players across government, creative, and business sectors to build working relationships like they never had before. The now 30-year-old Capital of Culture program rotates through the nations of the EU selecting cities to show off their distinctive creative and cultural assets. A total of 75 municipal entities in the Provence region (1.8 million population) – an area with no history of regional planning and little cooperation – demonstrated unprecedented unity and cultural vitality for their year in the European spotlight. It was branded Marseille-Provence 2013 or MP2013.
Hotel du Nord Look Over Bay
In the 7-year process to prepare for MP2013, the group of working class neighborhoods in the north of Marseille felt marginalized, as they had been historically, yet they contain important ancient ruins and rich worker and industrial histories, as well as a strong artist population. They worried their stories would be off the map of MP2013. With European Heritage Days, launched in 2005, Marseille Nord had a chance to flex its muscles and welcome mostly regional visitors. MP2013, however, would bring international attention and visitors and, in turn, a chance to tell their stories to many people. As they organized, the Marseille Nord communities became painfully aware that none of the 8 heritage neighborhoods had any hotels.
On our visit, we visited the charming hillside community of L’Estaque, perched above the major port where cargo ships are loaded and where daily trains once delivered coal, aluminum, and olive oil for Marseille’s legendary soap industry. I traveled with DeAnna Cummings and Wendy Morris, colleagues from Minneapolis, and Kiley Arroyo, a fellow consultant from the Bay Area. Our host was Julie Chenot of the Camargo Foundation, a residency center for scholars and artists located in nearby Cassis. We were exploring a possible creative placemaker residency to enable a cross-section of U.S. placemakers to connect with counterparts in Marseille and learn about the Capital of Culture program.
Hotel du Nord Francois Bookat Cafe
We parked at the train depot in L’Estaque and met several artist residents at a nearby café. They bowled us over with their passion for their community and its stories. We hiked up the hillside and they pointed to a summit with a 5,000-year-old archeological site. History ran deep for them and for this place. Factories and docks close to the water’s edge also contained stories. One artist, from a family of dockworkers, described the art work he installed in the middle of the night to surprise morning workers. They told us about the end of World War II when France was liberated from the Nazis and how workers threw out the bosses who had colluded with German occupiers replacing them with collectivized management. Some businesses were re-organized as cooperatives. These organizational forms, long part of the local way of life, served as the basis of their MP2013 effort.
Hotel du Nord Tour of RRArea
Before the visit, our guide, Julie, informed us we would be visiting Hôtel du Nord. I expected a 150-year-old, restored stone and stucco structure. We quickly learned the “hotel” is a network of 50 home-based units for accommodation – what we call B&Bs – along with a series of heritage trails and a network artisans and producers of foods, soaps, and other arts. Each guest room is equipped with a heritage bookshelf, each host required to participate in the “school for hosts.” The “hotel” has 50 rooms and 50 hosts willing to acquaint visitors with the area’s heritage and 50 heritage routes to connect the rooms to the communities.
A cooperative with a democratic decision-making process and a decentralized capital structure, Hôtel du Nord brings together locals and visitors through shared stories, respect for place and history, and a grassroots economic development effort. Members of the cooperative pay an annual fee and a variable payment based on overnight stays and products sold. Members volunteer to coordinate promotion and websites, and maintain relationships with travel and tourism agencies.
Hôtel du Nord promotes and develops the district through hospitality describing itself as a “residents co-operative…set up to derive economic benefits from the heritage through a varied range of goods and services offered for sale by local people.” Legally structured as a cooperative, it has positioned itself outwardly as a “heritage commission” to gain recognition with government agencies.
From our week-long visit with a couple dozen organizations and communities, L’Estaque and Hôtel du Nord stand out. The artists that welcomed us and led us through their community, stories, and scenery, and shared with us their pride in the ancient hillside, will not be soon forgotten.
