Urban Backstages was a multi-year, on-the-ground research project documenting the conditions in which culture is produced in cities. It aimed to show not only that we need infrastructures for cultural production, but how their material and organisational structures shape the ways cultural producers work, how their work is valued, and their relationships to their urban environments.

Throughout the project – in London, Glasgow, and Marseille – we collected a large quantity of data in different forms, which are available to other researchers via a digital database: a repository of our findings, statistics, network diagrams, illustrations, maps, snippets of conversation, photographs and a film. The database documents architectural, economic, and organisational infrastructures across case studies in London’s Elephant and Castle, Marseille’s Euroméditerranée, and Glasgow’s Barras neighbourhoods, from artist and activist-operated studios to major regeneration projects. It acts as a toolkit for public bodies and arts organisations looking to understand the diversity of models for supporting culture in cities.

The project results in a book and a series of fieldwork journals from each city, digging into the stories and data on the ground. It also travelled to Buenos Aires for a knowledge exchange as part of the city’s architecture biennale, with a workshop and exhibition connecting cases in London to work on the city’s ecosystem of theatres.