Creative cities, counter-finance and the aesthetics of exchange: Copenhagen’s artmoney project

Headquartered in Copenhagen, artmoney is an alternative currency based on the exchange of original art. Its makers and users aim to alleviate artistic poverty and bring people together in meaningful and affective, rather than impersonal, money transactions. While artmoney provides a means of stimulating trade outside of the conventional money economy, nurtures urban creativity, and has become a nascent global currency, this article asks: what is the meaning and value of artmoney in the creative city? What alternative does it present to the creative city discourse and what contradictions does it present?

► Explores critique of the creative city through vernacular artistic labour.
► Examine ‘artmoney’ as an alternative or complementary currency.
► Discusses intimate and non-conventional forms of communication and currency exchange.
► Explores the ambivalent consequences of artmoney economizing.