Cultural events as a source of creativity and of attractiveness a territory

The aim of this paper consists in the presentation of a conceptualand methodological framework to analyze the territorial impacts of a culturalevent. At the territorial level, various strategies can be implementedto foster the territorial visibility/image, and to reinforce the economic, socialand urban attractiveness. In these strategies, cultural events can be consideredas levers of attractiveness. Beyond the short term impacts (morespecifically, the touristic attractiveness), almost easily measurable, the culturalaction can also produce sustainable impacts in a multi-dimensionalvision including economic and social logics, plus the issue of the citizen'sparticipation.The main research question is to determine in which measure the culturalstrategy can foster a territorial dynamic of sustainable attractiveness.The methodology is built around a unique case study: the «Picasso-Aix2009» cultural season, which was the occasion to analyze the impacts ofthis event on the territorial attractiveness and creativity at a local level.