ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the strategies that are shaping the recovery of the Arts Centre of Christchurch (ACC) through the lens of gentrification. The current Arts Centre development plan identifies creative businesses and upmarket hospitality businesses as the desired tenants for the site and does not foresee clauses for former tenants to return to Arts Centre. The Court Theatre was the first tenant to relocate to the Arts Centre in 1975, followed by the Free Theatre of Christchurch in 1982. It utilises theories of gentrification and links them to the emerging paradigm of crisis-driven urbanisation. The chapter argues that the decisions of the Trust following the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 are framing a market-led recovery of the Arts Centre that move beyond its original community focus. Gentrification is a global urban strategy that is densely connected into the circuits of global capital and cultural circulation under the leading edge of neoliberal urbanism.
