Creativity in a shrinking society: A case study of the Water and Land Niigata Art Festival

This paper examines the social roles of creativity in a Shrinking Society (a society with a decreasing population, a falling birth rate, and ageing members). This was accomplished by studying an Art Project in Niigata using field research and interviews with the Project's participants, including the artists, curators, and local residents. Art Projects are cultural movements that commenced in the 1990s. One characteristic of Art Projects is that they not only use cultural facilities to display works of art, but also develop creative activities centred on contemporary art, featuring civic participation and cooperation, while utilizing social spaces, such as closed schools and abandoned residences. Another feature of Art Projects is that they have strong connections with community revitalization in a Shrinking Society. In 2005, New Niigata city was established by the mergence of 15 towns, with the intention of heightening the autonomy and sustainability of the local community within a shrinking society. In 2009, a new Art Project, the ‘Water and Land Niigata Art Festival’ was initiated. The Art Project's central focus was on providing an identity for the new city and to revitalise communities, through civic participation and cooperation. This case study shows that Art Projects can foster new citizen-led cultural and societal engagement. In this process, each citizen's creativity plays a significant role, not just the creativity of the “Creative Class”, such as artists. However, since specific community revitalisation goals, such as ‘the establishment of a new city identity’, may risk limiting the possibilities of their creativities, an approach that guarantees freedom to include diverse viewpoints that work alongside the creative engagement also requires close and continuous attention. This case study of an Art Project in Japan provides insights into the effectiveness of creativity, along with the culture, created for community revitalisation in a shrinking society.