Culture & Art Capitals

A cultural capital is a city where art is an activity, not an inventory. The test is whether something is being made, argued about or performed this week.

The institution is secondary. Berlin's culture is organised around occupied buildings because reunification left the city with two of everything and a great deal of empty space. Melbourne rezoned its delivery lanes for small bars in the 1980s and produced the densest street-level culture in Australia. Galway's sessions start when enough players arrive.

Money leaves a shape. Glasgow built a fifth of the world's ships and spent the profits on collections; Basel's Kunstmuseum has held a public collection since 1661, and an art fair founded by three gallerists in 1970 made a city of 175,000 the centre of the market each June.

Say what is contested. Where a collection was assembled by looting, purchase under duress or colonial administration, the portrait says so.

Not a synonym for museums. A city with great holdings and no living practice belongs under another type.

Find out what is on this week, not what is in the vitrine.