ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role that a cultural event can play in the development of what some studies have called 'creative cities', questioning the heuristic usefulness of this definition for the historical analysis of a model case: the city of Venice and its Film Festival. It focuses on the process and practices that influenced the evolutionary dynamics of the network of organisations and institutions animating the cultural, political and social life of the city, opening the 'black boxes' on which the notion of the creative city rests. To reconstruct this evolution, the chapter uses several sources: the Biennale Archives, which include Festival-related official documents; archival and printed information on urban development; local, national and international press; and interviews with key informants. The audience of the post–World War II Venice Festival was constituted mainly by the richest residents, international tourists and a limited number of journalists of the main specialised magazines.
