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From Place Branding to Placemaking: The role of events

Article in International Journal of Event and Festival Management · March 2017

DOI: 10.1108/IJEFM-09-2016-0063

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From Place Branding to Placemaking: The role of events

Greg Richards

Pre-publication version of Richards, G. (2017) From Place Branding to Placemaking: The role of
events. International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 8(1).

For full text please refer to the journal: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/IJEFM-

09-2016-0063

Abstract

•Purpose

This paper examines developments in the use of events by places from a predominantly place
branding role based on image and economic impacts towards a broader placemaking approach
aimed at holistic improvements in place quality.

•Design/methodology/approach

The research is based on a single case study approach, with the Dutch city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Den
Bosch) as the focus. Data sources include resident surveys, depth interviews and analysis of policy
documents.

•Findings

The Den Bosch case illustrates the emergence of a more holistic approach to the use of events as a
placemaking tool. The city shifted from an ad hoc events policy to the development of a multi-
annual programme designed to produce economic, image, social cultural and network effects. This
approach seems to have been successful in stimulating visitation, increasing visitor spend and raising
the international profile of the city. At the same time, the city has developed many activities
designed to mobilise local stakeholder groups and increase social cohesion, which provide essential
support for the necessary investment.

•Research limitations/implications

There are indications that sustaining such a programme over the longer term is difficult in the face of
political and economic change. Adoption of a holistic approach also requires the mobilisation of a
wide range of stakeholders.

•Social implications

The Den Bosch programme helped to increase social cohesion in the city by involving residents and
local cultural groups in different projects. However, this required a differentiated approach based on
the needs of each group.

•Originality/value

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This study presents a placemaking model that can help to identify the different elements required in
a successful placemaking programme. This is developed from a practice approach, which has the
value of paying attention to how event programmes can be initiated and sustained by a group of
actors.

Keywords

Placemaking, events, Den Bosch, culture, social practices

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Introduction

There has been a growing use of events to generate a range of different outcomes in cities and
regions in recent decades (Smith, 2012, Sadd and Jones, 2009). This has generated a growing body of
literature around the relationship between cities and their events, but much of this research has
been focussed on the ability of events to change the image of places, to attract tourism or to create
employment and income. Events have therefore become an important part of social, cultural, and
tourism policies in cities across the globe (Getz, 2013). These externalities are important reasons for
cities to host, organise and bid for events, but the analysis of these event-related effects tends to
concentrate on single events rather than the holistic effects of a series of events. The growing
relationship between cities and programmes or ‘portfolios’ of events have been relatively little
researched.

This paper argues that as the relationship between cities and event programmes has developed, so a
range of different strategies have been employed by policymakers to try and maximise the benefits
of events as a whole for a range of different stakeholders. This implies a shift away from purely
developing the externalities related to events towards a more integrated approach towards events
as part of wider policy frameworks (Ziakis, 2013). However, the ability of cities to develop holistic or
integrated events policies differs widely (Antchak, 2016), and so a range of different approaches to
the relationship between cities and their event portfolios or programmes has emerged.

This conceptual paper reviews the recent use of events as placemaking tools, and develops an
analysis of the placemaking process in relation to events. This is applied to a case study of the Dutch
city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) to illustrate the ways in events support placemaking policies.
This paper therefore attempts to analyse the developing relationship between events and
placemaking, and develops a model of how this emerging placemaking practice works.

Events and places

Place has long been a central concern of geography, but is rapidly becoming important in a range of
other social disciplines as well (Pink, 2008). Places provide the context in which events literally take
place, and as Casey (1996) has emphasised, place is essentially a form of constantly changing ‘event’.
Cities and regions have long been framed as stages on which events unfold, but the relationship is
increasingly becoming a recursive one, in which events also make places. As Richards and Palmer
(2010) have argued, cities have moved from a fairly passive role as a container or backdrop for
events, towards a more proactive use of events in order to drive a wide range of different policy
agendas.

The rise of purposeful event staging in cities is charted by Smith (2012, 2016), who collects an
extensive range of case studies on the use of events in urban regeneration. Event-led regeneration is
usually more focussed on the physical aspects of placemaking, although many major events have
also developed social and cultural programmes in an attempt to involve local communities in
regeneration processes (e.g. Garcia, 2005).

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Even though events have long been used as a policy tool for places, the link between events and
placemaking has only recent been examined in detail. Arguably this may relate to the primarily
temporal approach to the study of events, compared to the spatial approach adopted in most
studies of place. But it is becoming increasingly clear that events have not only an important
temporal dimension, but that they are also spatial phenomena. In addition to the spaces occupied by
events during their staging, they also have important spatial effects that last well beyond the event
itself. The spatial effects of events have generally been ignored in the placemaking literature, which
generally traces its origins back to Jane Jacobs (1961) and the urbanist movement in the United
States. The focus of much early placemaking research was therefore on the physical development of
neighbourhoods, generally in search of a human scale of development that would improve the
‘quality’ of space and place. In the past such approaches to placemaking were predominantly
architectural, dependent on interventions in physical spaces to increase the quality of place.

A shift towards the integration of placemaking and events coincided with the growing need for cities
and regions to profile themselves and attract attention and inward investment following the
economic restructuring and urban repositioning of the 1970s and 1980s. Events were increasingly
designed to produce a series of integrated place effects, as in the case of the Barcelona Olympic
Games in 1992 (Moragas and Botella, 2002). Attempts to extend the temporal effects of the Games
to a spatialized process of place transformation were marked by the fact that 83% of the budget for
the event was invested in physical development projects. The success of the Barcelona Olympics led
to them being used as a model for many other cities (Degen and García, 2012). At a smaller scale,
the European Capital of Culture event in Glasgow (1990) also became a model for European cities
seeking to use events as a stimulus for culture-led regeneration and image change (Garcia, 2005).
Arguably the consolidation of this event as a placemaking model stems from the 2001 ECOC in
Rotterdam, where Intendent Bert van Megglen deigned the programme around the theme
‘Rotterdam is many cities’, derived from Italo Calvino’s novel Invisible Cities (Richards and Wilson,
2004). The programme included not just major events designed to attract large numbers of people
and media attention, but also smaller scale events aimed at developing community integration.
Events such as ‘Preaching in Another Person’s Parish’, in which preachers of different faiths spoke in
places of worship of other religions, were among the most successful and memorable elements of
the 2001 programme (Hitters and Richards, 2002).

Such developments created an appreciation of the importance of giving events and the spaces they
create not just an attractive physical dimension, but also an image or brand that would be attractive.
As early studies on city branding outlined, it is possible for cities or locations to brand themselves to
position themselves and attract attention (Hankinson, 2001; Kavaratzis, 2004). According to Anholt
(2007) a competitive brand identity could be achieved by the city doing things, making things, other
people talking about the city, or the way the city talks about itself, all of which can be facilitated
through events. The staging of events has therefore come to signify much more than just the
physical shaping of space, but also the making of place through representational and creative
processes. Cities have therefore become not just stages for events, but places that are also produced
through events (Richards & Rotariu, 2015), and Smith (2015) proposes a term ‘eventalisation’ as “the
process through which urban space is produced via the staging of events” (p.37).

The development of events as a broad process of place shaping has therefore created the need for a
more integrated or holistic approach to the relationship between events and places. In order to

4
gather support for placemaking programmes, it was important to gain the interest of a range of
different stakeholders, including politicians, businesses and increasingly local residents as well. This
made it important not just to emphasise the making of physical space, but also to the imagined or
symbolic space of the city and the lived experience of people in the city, giving the event meaning to
local residents. The imagined dimensions of placemaking were important in the symbolic economy
outlined by Lash and Urry (1994). Places tried to increase their symbolic value in order to attract
mobile flows of capital, money, attention and talent (Kavaratzis & Ashworth, 2005; Dinne, 2011). The
search for a ‘competitive identity’ (Anholt, 2007) led cities to present themselves in a series of
different ‘windows’ and present a range of different attractive images to the outside world (Lindell,
2013).

In summary, therefore, the more holistic approaches to placemaking that have emerged and which
events have now become a part of, consist of three important elements: the physical city itself, the
lived experience of place that is shared among the stakeholders or users of the city and the symbolic
imaginings of the city that are projected through city images and brands. The following section
outlines how the relationship between placemaking and events can be analysed by considering the
different elements of space that combine to create place.

The relationship between placemaking and events

Lefebvre’s Production of Space (1974) outlines the need to consider not just the physical space, but
also the lived experience and the imagined or symbolic space of the city. These elements
subsequently formed the basis of Soja’s (1996) idea of ‘Thirdspace’. In Soja’s view the physical space
of the city is transformed through different representations, of which recent examples include
models of the ‘creative city’ or the ‘eventful city’. The physical space is also experienced and in turn
transformed by users of the city through their everyday lives. Richards (2015) argues that the triad of
physical, imagined and lived space can be mapped onto a social practice framework (Shove et al.,
2012), where physical space is formed of materials or resources, the imagined space gives and takes
meaning from the social and cultural context and the lived space is the recursive result of the
creativity of users of the space. Seen in this way, placemaking becomes a holistic practice in which
the interplay of the triad of spatial elements makes place (Table 1).

Insert Table 1: The relationship between place and placemaking practice

For example, Harvey (2002) dissects these elements required for successful placemaking in his
description of the rise of Barcelona. The Catalan capital has successfully given meaning to its position
as the ‘Capital of the Mediterranean through a

steady amassing of symbolic capital and its accumulation of marks of distinction. In this the
excavation of a distinctively Catalan history and tradition, the marketing of its strong artistic
accomplishments and architectural heritage (Gaudí, of course), and its distinctive marks of
lifestyle and literary traditions, have loomed large, backed by a deluge of books, exhibitions,
and cultural events that celebrate its distinctiveness. This has all been showcased with new
signature architectural embellishments (Norman Foster's radio communications tower and
Meier's gleaming white Museum of Modern Art in the midst of the somewhat degraded

5
 fabric of the old city) and a whole host of investments to open up the harbor and the beach,
reclaim derelict lands for the Olympic Village (with cute reference to the utopianism of the
Icarians), and turn what was once a rather murky and even dangerous nightlife into an open
panorama of urban spectacle. All of this was helped on by the Olympic Games, which
opened up huge opportunities to garner monopoly rents…

The physical developments such as architecture and museums helped to give meaning to the city
and in turn affected the lived experience of Barcelona, which was transformed from an industrial city
into a leisure consumption zone. To emphasise that the relationship between materials, meaning
and creativity is not simply a positive spiral in placemaking terms, Harvey also warns that

The later phases of waterfront development look exactly like every other in the western
world: the stupefying congestion of the traffic leads to pressures to put boulevards through
parts of the old city, multinational stores replace local shops, gentrification removes long-
term residential populations and destroys older urban fabric, and Barcelona loses some of its
marks of distinction. There are even unsubtle signs of Disneyfication.

In the case of Barcelona, as in many other cities, events arguably have an important role as a
potential catalyst for ‘making things happen’ (Baerenholdt, forthcoming) as well as being shapers of
physical space, carriers of imaginings of the city and part of the lived experience of place (Richards,
2015). But in order to have an impact on placemaking, events have to be more than an unconnected
series of happenings that take place in a particular location. There should be a holistic, strategic
approach to the relationship between a place and its programme of events, a system that Richards
and Palmer have analysed in the context of ‘eventful cities’. The move from being a ‘city with events’
to being an ‘eventful city’ is a potentially interesting moment, because it marks the point at with
place stakeholders begin to realise the potential of events to change things and have longer term
effects rather than just short term impacts.

The need to make connections across a range of policy areas to secure event legacy rather than
limited and short term impacts is also increasingly being recognised (Chalip, 2006). To have a
significant impact on place, events not just need to be viewed holistically, but they also need to be
seen as part of a long-term development process. Only then can events make a real difference to a
city (Anholt, 2007). The time scale may be as much as a 25 year planning horizon (Richards and
Palmer, 2010), and this requires a strategic approach. This is also what has been variously referred to
as ‘strategic placemaking’ (Wyckoff, 2014) or ‘sustainable placemaking’ (Palermo and Ponzini, 2015,
pp. 19-20). This long-term perspective also requires a shift in our thinking about events from short-
term happenings to long-term or recurring structures in places (Richards, 2015).

These principles are now being recognised by a growing number of cities and regions around the
world. In Music/City: American Festivals and Placemaking in Austin, Nashville, and Newport, Wynn
(2016) examines the use of ‘festivalisation’ as a means of improving the quality of life. He argues
that events serve a central function in processes of placemaking because they provide the ‘liquid
urban culture’ that is capable of making things happen in cities. Events, or as Wynn dubs then
‘occasions’ can make places because of their catalytic function within urban systems. However, as
Richards (2015) points out, not all events have the ability to change things. In fact, many more
events are ‘iterative’, serving to reinforce the status quo rather than challenge it. Few events can be
seen as ‘pulsar’ event capable of acting as catalysts that physically or symbolically change places.

6
Pulsar events need not be large scale, but they arguably need a certain level of embedding in place
in order to produce significant and long-lasting change. This embedding helps to establish links with
place actors, and also to strengthen the meaning of the event in a place.

In terms of placemaking effects, therefore, cities and regions need to think about events in much
broader terms than simply economic or image impacts. To have a placemaking effect, events also
need to add to the meaning of the location, and creativity needs to be employed to ensure that the
meanings develop are embedded in place and appropriate to the needs and capacities of the city or
region. These meanings of place also need to be reproduced in the daily lives of inhabitants and
other users of the city, as Pink (2008) has emphasised from an ethnological perspective. As
Zimmerbauer also argues, in the creation of place image (or brand) regional identity is to some
extent a prerequisite for successful image building. In other words, the lived space (of identity) has
to be linked to the conceived space (of image), usually through actions that relate to the concrete
space of a city or region.

Placemaking can therefore be seen as a holistic process that takes the basic resources or materials
provided by a place and gives these meaning for place stakeholders, which in turn requires the
creative use of symbols and concepts attached to those meanings (Richards, 2015). The principles in
the model can be seen reflected in the growing number of cities that are taking a broader, place-
based approach to their events programmes. For example, the Dutch city of Rotterdam has a
conscious strategy of programming events that underpin the ‘Rotterdam Story’ and the city’s
identity (Rotterdam Festivals, 2016). This strategy was tied not just to traditional economic activities
such as the Port of Rotterdam (linked to the World Harbour Days event), but also to emerging
‘scenes’ such as food and gastronomy (The opening of the new Market Hall and the World Food
Days held in 2013). In Manchester, UK, the development of a programme of ‘pillar events’ was
similarly linked to efforts to make the city more distinctive as the ‘original modern’ city (Haven-Tang
and Jones, 2009), a positioning strengthened by physical regeneration and the creation of new icons,
such as the Lowry Building on Salford Quays in Manchester.

This paper applies this placemaking model to the development of events in the Dutch city of ‘s-
Hertogenbosch (or Den Bosch), which has made use of sporting and cultural events to put itself on
the map and extract externalities to benefit the different stakeholders in the city.

Methodology

This single case study (Ying, 2003) has been developed using empirical material collected from the
city of Den Bosch (The Netherlands) in the period 2007-2015. The single case study approach is
designed to produce an empirically-rich, context-specific and holistic account that can contribute to
theory-building. As Bennett and Checkel (2012) suggest, ‘process tracing’ was used for the in-case
analysis, placing the emphasis on processes and sequences of events to provide a causal explanation
of the case. A mixed methods approach was adopted to cover the different aspects of the
relationship between events and placemaking (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004).

In order to analyse the policy context and strategic considerations guiding the placemaking effort,
depth interviews were held with the City Marketing Manager, the Events Programme Manager, the
Mayor Ton Rombouts and the European Project Director of the city. To analyse the effects of policies
on the operational level, managers of six cultural institutions were also interviewed. To extend the

7
scope of the analysis interviews were also held with four cultural networks (museums, music venues,
festivals and cultural entrepreneurs) with contacts in the city. These interviews concentrated mainly
on the representation of the city, and how this affected the placemaking processes being developed
through events (Beuks et al, 2012). The respondents for the interviews were selected through
purposeful sampling, with the ability to provide rich information on the development of the case
being the main selection criterion.

To review the effects of placemaking on the lived experience of the city, surveys of residents and
visitors were conducted. In Den Bosch data were gathered from a panel of local residents
maintained by the city, with survey waves in 2008, 2012 and 2015. The sample of 8,500 panel
respondents (2015) is largely self-selecting, which carries the danger of over-representation of
people interested in civic affairs (O&S, 2015). However, weightings were applied to the overall
analyses in order to correct for potential bias. Regular surveys relating to the events programme
have been conducted with the panel. Standard questions have been asked about resident’s opinions
on the content or the programme, intention to visit, city marketing issues and social cohesion. The
response rate has varied between 58% in 2008 to 47% in 2015. The results of the survey have been
weighted to account for differences in response between neighbourhood, gender and age. In 2016
specific research was conducted to gauge the effects of major events staged in the city. These
included stratified random post-visit surveys of visitors to the Noord Brabantsmuseum (10,000
online surveys completed, response rate 30%) and stratified random surveys of visitors in the city
centre. Visitors were asked about their reasons for visiting Den Bosch, their impressions of the city
and the programme and the use of Hieronymus Bosch as a figurehead for the city.

Policy documents analysed included the events and tourism strategies for the two cities, and reports
on levels of business and tourism activity. Statistical data on business, employment and tourism
were also analysed from official statistical sources. These include a national panel survey conducted
by TNS NIPO, a national market research organisation.

The quantitative data were analysed using SPSS software, while the interviews were transcribed and
subject to thematic coding and matrix analysis to identify the relationships between dependent and
independent variables. The primary data from surveys and interviews and the secondary data from
statistical sources were compared and contrasted in order to provide data triangulation and
methodological triangulation in order to validate the data (Denzin, 2006).

The city of ´s-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch)

The Dutch city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) has long struggled with placemaking issues.
Although it has a historic inner city that offers a comfortable leisure environment and ample
consumption opportunities, it has struggled to find a focus for social cohesion and identity
formation. This problem has increased as the city has grown, swallowing surrounding villages and
creating sleeper suburbs that do not automatically see themselves as part of the old city.

City marketing approaches in the 1990s.

As van Limburg (1998) showed in an analysis of place-marketing attributes of the city in the 1990s,
events have long been important to city marketing in Den Bosch. The most important place
attributes identified by respondents was events (36%), followed by shops (32%) and history (20%).

8
The historic aspects of the city were linked to aspects of tangible heritage, notably the cathedral. A
later study by LAGroup (2006) also indicated that the general image of the city was linked to the
cathedral, and the city was seen as historic, atmospheric and ‘cozy’ (gezellig). Attempts to change
this relatively staid image through events included staging the start of the Tour de France in 1996.

Den Bosch toyed with various city marketing initiatives in the 1990s and early 2000s, leading up to a
branding as a ‘meeting city’, which was widely judged as a failure. It was the lack of a clear identity
that was judged as the major problem, which led to the search for a new icon for the city.

However, the events held in Den Bosch were very diverse, and did not have a significant impact on
the image of the city for residents or visitors. One recommendation in the report was to link the
events more strongly to the identity of the city. The city at this time was looking for a new
figurehead or icon for the city, and so the research also investigated the potential of Hieronymus
Bosch as a marketing asset. This revealed that 62% of respondents had heard of Bosch, but the
report concluded that the link between Bosch and the city was barely developed. As the report
underlined, the presence of paintings by Bosch would be important in attracting potential visitors.

Selling Bosch

Eventually the city decided they needed to do something with Bosch, whose fantasmagorical images
of heaven and hell were known worldwide. The painter was born, worked and died in the city from
which he took his name. But as the LAGroup (2006) report indicated, there was one major barrier to
using Bosch as a figurehead: the city had no works by the artist in its possession. His artworks are
spread across Europe and North America in 15 different museums in 9 different countries. This
seemingly fatal flaw in plans to market the city through Bosch and his legacy did not deter the city,
however. Rather than relying on tangible resources such as paintings, they decided to use the
creative legacy of Bosch as an inspiration for developing creative, intangible heritage and developing
events.

The Mayor and a small team of advisors played a key role in this decision, as they were convinced
that there was a need for a vision which would rise above short-term political issues and drive the
city forward over the longer term. This group was able to convince the city council to provide initial
funding for a programme of events to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the painter’s death in 2016.
A foundation was created to manage the programme, and it set about gathering support and raising
funding for events and activities, including a major exhibition of artworks by Bosch. After this initial
phase, a small group of sponsors was put in place to secure additional funding.

There was initial enthusiasm for the plans from the populace, as 83% felt that Bosch was a suitable
figurehead for the city (Afdeling O&S, 2008; Marques, 2013). Over a third of residents also saw
Hieronymus Bosch as being associated with the city, and his image was seen as historic (65%) and
fantasy (59%). The high level of identification of Bosch as a figurehead for the city continued in the
Panel surveys for 2010 (82%), although this level fell in subsequent measurements in 2012 (77%) and
2015 (76%) (Afdeling O&S, 2012, 2015). As in previous research on major cultural exhibitions, much
of this waning enthusiasm may have been linked to a perceived lack of information in the build-up to
the event, and the long run-up to the launch of the Bosch Year (Richards et al., 2014).

9
As well as variations in time in the strength of the Hieronymus Bosch connection, there are also
important spatial differences. Analysis of the panel data for 2015 shows that in the centre of the city
over 80% of residents agreed that Bosch was a figurehead for the city, but this fell to under 70% in
some suburbs. Intention to visit the exhibition also fell with distance from the city centre (39%) to
the periphery (as low as 8%) (see Figure 1).

Insert Figure 1: Intention to visit the Hieronymus Bosch exhibition in 2016 by city district (2015 data
from the city panel – Afdeling O&S, 2015)

This research made it clear that not all residents of Den Bosch were equally enthusiastic about
Hieronymus Bosch or the programme of events. The organisers therefore undertook activities to try
and give the event more meaning for all residents of the city. This included the development of
events targeted at the different neighbourhoods of the city, such as the ‘Bosch Dinner’, in which
different neighbourhoods competed against one another in a form of medieval masterchef. Another
event based on cohesion and inclusion is the ‘Bosch Parade’, a floating procession held on the river
encircling the city centre. This is staged by many associations in the city, who construct artistic floats
in the spirit of Hieronymus Bosch and provide a spectacle for a large number of residents and visitors
to enjoy. Research shows that level of involvement in this event are high, and that it creates feelings
of pride and social among the participants (Agterberg, 2015).

These actions seem to have had some result, as the identification of Bosch as a figurehead rose in
many of the outlying areas of the city between 2012 and 2015. However, in the meantime,
identification had fallen in the city centre. Part of the reason for this might have been the sea
change in the political climate, with a rise in populism and increasing scepticism about cultural
investment at national and local level.

However, awareness of the exhibition planned for 2016 rose from 65% of respondents in 2012 to
68% in 2015 (Afdeling O&S, 2015). Measurements carried out at the 2016 Bosch exhibition itself also
showed that over 85% of visitors felt that Bosch was an appropriate figurehead for the city. This
indicates that Bosch was capable of providing a high level of meaning for the city, and this was
appreciated by residents and visitors alike.

The biggest challenge for the city was in gathering the materials required for staging a major
programme of events related to the painter in his nature city. Faced with the challenge identified in
the LAGroup report that it did not have any works by Bosch, the newly-formed Bosch 500
Foundation adopted a creative and innovative strategy for mounting the exhibition. They developed
the ‘Bosch Research and Conservation Project’, which brought together leading experts on the work
of Bosch from the Netherlands and abroad. Through the project they offered the cities that possess
Bosch paintings to research and if necessary restore their works. This project helped to position Den
Bosch as the global hub for knowledge about the life and works of Bosch, and gave it a key role in
the preservation of his legacy for future generations. The project offered its services free of charge
to the other museums providing they agreed to lend their works for the exhibition in 2016. A
network of ‘Bosch Cities’ was created, linking all of these cities, and eventually agreement was
obtained from almost all of them for the loan of their paintings. Much of this work was carried out at
a high diplomatic level, with the Dutch government being enlisted to help convince the Prado

10
Museum in Madrid and the Monastery of El Escorial to send their works to the Netherlands. Initially
agreement was granted, although some of the works were later withdrawn when the Dutch research
project declared one of the paintings to be by a follower of Bosch, rather than the master himself.
The Cure of Folly and The Temptation of St. Anthony were downgraded from bona fide Bosch
paintings to the work of the artist's workshop or followers, as Cascone (2016) reports:

The Noordbrabants was initially promised one of the disputed Spanish pictures, Extracting
the Stone of Madness. In the loan agreement of last September it was described as “by
Bosch”. But the Dutch museum later advised the Prado that it would be shown as from the
workshop or by a follower, dating to 1500-20. The Prado was annoyed, and withdrew the
loan. “It is unacceptable to request a painting as a Bosch and then show it as something
different”, Miguel Falomir, the museum’s deputy director, told The Art Newspaper.

The most important work to stay in Madrid was the Garden of Earthly Delights, Bosch’s most famous
painting. To fill the gap left by this key work, the city enlisted the help of the creative team from the
Efteling, the biggest theme park in the Netherlands. They suggest using the entire city centre to
recreate the painting, with scenes from the Garden of Earthly Delights being placed at strategic
points. Visitors were encouraged to photograph the figures, also helping to generate social media
traffic to showcase the exhibition and the city. This arguably had the effect of making Bosch more
accessible to a wider audience, beyond those fortunate enough to get a ticket for the exhibition.

The market square at the centre of the city was also enlisted as a literal backdrop for a light show
designed in cooperation with the Efteling. Images from Bosch’s paintings were projected onto the
gables of the medieval buildings to tell the story of Bosch and his life in the city. However, just
before the first show was due to start in March 2016, the building next to the birthplace of Bosch
collapsed, creating a gaping hole in the ‘screen’ for the performance. The shows eventually started
in May, drawing crowds of around 1000 people every night. In spite of the immense challenges
involved in securing the paintings and the hiccup of the collapsing building, the Hieronymus Bosch
programme was successfully launched. The television coverage of the opening of the Bosch
exhibition was watched by 1.3 million people. This stimulated an enormous increase in ticket sales,
and four weeks after the opening all 300,000 tickets then available were sold out. The capacity of
the exhibition was subsequently increased, and from February to May 2016 it attracted a total over
420,000 visitors, approximately twice as many as had been expected (TRAM, 2007). As Bailey (2016)
reported, this was ‘an astonishing number for a city with a population of less than half this figure.’
Demand for tickets was so high that towards the end of the run the opening times were extended
well into the night, and by the final weekend the museum was open non-stop.

Statistics from web analytics site Alexa.com (2016) indicate that traffic to the JB500 website
increased significantly between January and May 2016, with the website rising from a rank of 1
millionth in the world to less than 400,000. Many of the top linking sites to the JB500 website were
from media such as the New York Times, the Huffington Post and the Guardian.

The excitement stimulated by the exhibition and other elements of the 2016 programme helped to
attract media coverage worth an estimated 16 million euros in the first half of 2016 (JB500
Foundation, 2016). But perhaps the biggest benefit was the strong link created between the painter
and his city. Even though the Prado decided to stage its own Bosch exhibition in 2016, much of the
media coverage of this event made reference to Den Bosch as the painter’s birthplace. Surveys of

11
visitors to the Den Bosch exhibition also indicated that 85% felt that the painter was a good
figurehead for the city, and that the exhibition had made a strong (48%) or very strong (36%)
contribution to this feeling.

Examining the placemaking practice

The Hieronymus Bosch programme in 2016 was an undoubted success, but what contribution did it
make to placemaking in the city? This section examines this question through a consideration of the
key elements of the placemaking practice: materials, creativity and meaning.

Materials

Den Bosch was already well known in the Netherlands as an attractive city with a historic core. This
environment had served the city well as a backdrop for events, including the start of the Tour de
France (Jokovi, 1996). However, there was little linkage between the diverse range of events and the
city itself, as the LAGroup (2006) study concluded. The basic materials for an attractive place were
clearly present, but these had to be made more relevant to both internal and external stakeholders,
particularly given the growing competition from other historic cities.

The use of an iconic artist is a common placemaking strategy in other cities where the works of the
artist or other physical artefacts can be seen (Marques and Richards, 2014). In the case of Den
Bosch, however, the lack of materials in the form of paintings by Bosch had led to the city virtually
ignoring him as a potential icon. This lack had to be addressed by gathering resources from
elsewhere (securing the paintings to mount the exhibition) and by developing new resources, such
as the Bosch Experience lightshow and the physical representations of the Garden of Earthly Delights
placed around the city.

Creativity

In order to secure the paintings essential to the Bosch exhibition the city had employed enormous
creativity, funding a Chair at the University of Nijmegen to head the Bosch Research and
Conservation Project, appointing a Canadian Bosch expert to head it and then involving the other
cities in this vast collective effort. This had also required financial resources, because not all
museums were willing to lend the paintings for free.

Creativity therefore had to be employed to gather a total budget of 28 million euros during a period
of economic adversity. Creative solutions included positioning the Bosch Programme as the ‘National
Event’ for 2016 with support from the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions. In order to
spend such a large sum of money during a period of spending cuts at national and local level,
creativity also needed to be employed to keep different stakeholders behind the project. Efforts to
increase support among local residents included a ‘Bosch Dinner’ event in which teams from
different neighbourhoods competed Masterchef style to produce the best Bosch themed meals,
dressed in colourful costumes inspired by Siena’s Palio (Richards, 2015). Over 15,000 local
schoolchildren were also given free entry to the museum during the early days of its run, helping to
spread the word with parents as well. The whole programme for 2016 included around 90 projects,
many of which were aimed at increasing social cohesion. These a school musical themed around
Bosch that was offered free to all Dutch junior schools, and the linking of the 2016 Carnival
celebrations to Hieronymus Bosch

12
The Bosch Cities Network has also helped to position Den Bosch as the global hub for knowledge of
the works of Bosch and of his contemporaries, and has helped to boost the image of the city as a
cultural and creative place (Richards, 2015).

Meaning

Exercising creativity alone in the use of materials is not enough to deliver sustainable placemaking
benefits to a city or region. A lack of meaning led to the failure of the previous city marketing
campaigns, in spite of a strong portfolio of popular events. So the JB500 Foundation worked to
generate meaning by organising events specifically aimed at increasing social cohesion and
identification with Hieronymus Bosch as a figurehead for the city, such as the Bosch Dinner and a
Bosch Parade on the river in the city centre (Richards, 2015). Research on the Bosch Parade
(Dollinger, 2015) indicated that a large majority of local cultural groups felt included in the event and
that it had a strong positive effect on participants, including making them feel ‘more connected’ to
the city. Much of the generation of meaning for the programme involved the creative development
of storytelling, linking Bosch and his work to the city, and underlining his relevance for the present
and the future of the city as well.

The meaning of the programme proved more difficult to develop for other stakeholders, particularly
the commercial sector. Many business figures were sceptical about the ability of event-led
investment to generate significant returns for them. As Beuks et al. (2012) found in their study of
local stakeholder networks, there was relatively little involvement of enterprises in the city with the
Hieronymus Bosch programme in the development phase, except for those in the cultural sector.

Only when visitors started arriving and the effects could be directly felt were these stakeholders
more enthusiastic. Many of the shops in the city then displayed stickers and themed their window
displays on the work of Hieronymus Bosch. After the exhibition a group of restaurant owners also
raised 40,000 euros to contribute towards staging future events. Although not financially very
significant, this gesture was important in signalling a change in attitude among the business
community in the city, from ‘what can the city do for us?’, to also thinking about ‘what can we do for
the city?’.

The municipal administration has also changed its view on the role of Hieronymus Bosch in the city.
Before the programme started many legislators were sceptical about the value that this would
deliver, and it was a struggle to secure all the financing necessary. After a failed European Capital of
Culture bid (Richards, 2014) there was also increasing opposition from some actors in the cultural
sector, who saw the exhibition as taking resources away from other events and organisations.
However, following the exhibition the council indicated its willingness to secure the legacy of Bosch
for the city through future events and attraction development.

The Den Bosch experience shows that all three basic elements of the placemaking model are
important in helping to change the image and the reality of a city through events. In many cases it is
difficult to clearly separate the materials, meaning and creativity dimensions of the model because
these elements need to be interwoven in order to be really effective. But if one of these essential
elements is missing, then placemaking initiatives are likely to fail. Another important aspect of the
Den Bosch case is the long-term perspective taken the development of the events programme. The
planning of the programme started in 2006, a full decade before the anniversary year, and the

13
events developed in the programme are also planned to continue long after 2016. This has arguably
helped in developing the relationship between the events and the city, bringing stakeholders
together and convincing them of the importance of the programme. The city was also aware of the
need for a holistic approach to the placemaking process, as evidenced by the development of
‘supporting policies’ in areas such as accessibility, economic development and cultural policy. All of
these aspects enabled the city to move more easily from considering the short-term impacts of the
event programme to a more long-term view of effects or ‘leverage’ (Chalip, 2006).

However, the Den Bosch case also provides illustrations of the challenges of effective placemaking.
At a number of points in the development of the programme opposition was encountered from
different stakeholder groups. For example, cultural organisations complained that the programme
was deflecting resources away from regular cultural programming and cultural institutions in the
city. These complaints became louder when the city’s ECOC bid failed in 2013 (Richards, 2014).
Another problem was the failure to implement significant areas of supporting policy, in particular in
relation to accommodation. The city has a relative shortage of hotel accommodation, and no extra
capacity was secured for 2016. This led to many visitors staying elsewhere in order to visit events in
Den Bosch, with a lower economic impact as a result. This also means that the city will not benefit in
future from an accommodation-led boost in visitation that often results from increased
accommodation capacity (Richards and Palmer, 2010).

However, the Den Bosch case does offer a number of practical implications for other cities
(particularly smaller cities) engaged in similar placemaking initiatives. The key success factors for
Den Bosch can be briefly summarised as:

Vision – the Den Bosch case has already been evolving for more than 10 years. A long-term, strategic
vision is needed to ensure that the event programme gains meaning for all the potential
stakeholders. In developing the required vision, the political will and persistence of the Mayor was
particularly important.

Relationships – the case underlines the importance of relationships, in particular the relationships
between a few key stakeholders in the city. Den Bosch also managed to lever relationships outside
the city through a creative use of networks.

Turning challenges into advantages – at different moments in the process obstacles have emerged,
but usually confronting these enables the city to find new and innovative solutions, such as the
Bosch Cities network being used to solve the problem of having no artworks by Bosch.

Strength of the story – The Bosch story is founded on universal values with local consequences. In
many key moments in the process there was a need to convince both internal and external
stakeholders of the need for investment or commitment. Working from a local story (Bosch as a
painter who lived and died in Den Bosch) to universal values (such as the seven sins) created a basis
for shared understandings that enabled the city to appeal to a wider (global) audience.

Legitimacy – in the presence of competing claims to narratives, images and resources, it is important
to establish a legitimate claim to the event. Den Bosch was able to establish legitimacy because it
used an event linked to the city (the death of Bosch). Without this, others may have been able to

14
launch competing claims (such as the Booijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, which
staged a major Bosch exhibition in 2001 on the basis of works they own).

Although the mix of circumstances and actors present in the Bosch case is unique, these principles
can arguably be utilised by other cities as well.

Conclusions

The role of events in placemaking has often been analysed in terms of physical regeneration or
image change. But this is a limited view that neglects the interplay between the different elements
brought together in the practice of placemaking. The case study presented here illustrates the
importance of developing the materials, meaning and creativity of the placemaking practice as a
whole in order to maximise placemaking outcomes.

Bringing the different elements of the placemaking system together is a complex process that
requires careful management and inspiring leadership, as has been demonstrated in other event
programmes (Richards and Roatriu, 2015). In the case of Den Bosch the presence of skilled and
experienced administrators and the key figure of the Mayor, were both decisive success factors. The
city was able to use the experience it had gained in previous (albeit less successful) event
programmes to effectively identify the resources and skills that needed to be mobilised by the city.
The Mayor, who has been in post for 20 years, provided a stable figurehead who was able to bring
stakeholders together at crucial moments in the process. The key figures involved in the programme
also clearly understood the need for a holistic approach in achieving placemaking goals. This enabled
them to overcome divisions in stakeholder interests by giving the programme multiple meanings for
different stakeholder groups. This required creative skills in areas such as storytelling and
Imagineering that go beyond the usual requirements of event management or design (Richards et al,
2014). Essentially, rather than developing the usual type of ‘experiencescape’ (O'Dell and Billing,
2005) found in the postmodern city, Den Bosch has developed a ‘meaningscape’ that acts as an
inspiration for the creation of new events and spaces in the city. As well as generating experiences
for visitors, this meaningscape also integrates essential elements of production, implicating a range
of different stakeholders including businesses, cultural organisations and local residents.

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 Table 1: The relationship between place and placemaking practice

Elements of place (Soja, 1996) Placemaking as Practice (Shove

et al., 2012; Richards, 2015)
Physical space Materials – buildings, urban
form, design, public space, etc.
Imagined/symbolic space Meaning – symbols, icons,
identity, narrative, storytelling
Lived experience Creativity – patterns of daily
life, routines, tempo

20

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