English

Noun

cultureshed ‎(plural culturesheds)

1. (neologism) A region felt to have close cultural affinities and relations
   • 1997, Carma Wadley, "Switzerland's Bernina Express," Deseret News, 27 July 1997

     The tunnel, the highest in the Alps at 5,971 feet, marks both a watershed and cultureshed. On the north, all the water flows to the North Sea; on the south, the water goes to the Black Sea. […] And here the German and Romansch languages give way to Italian.

   • 2000, Marilyn Sifford, "Issue-Oriented Future Search: Creating a Frame," Future Searching No. 19, Summer/Fall 2000.

     The planning committee spent a great deal of time exploring the idea of a regional “cultureshed.” Cultural heritage does not usually begin and end at city, county, or state borders. As a watershed is based on the natural flow of rivers and streams, the concept of a “cultureshed” encourages us to rise above institutional and geographic boundaries to take an eagle’s eye view of the region and its history.

   • 2005, Amy Godine, "Wandering Home, Author: Bill McKibben" (review), Adirondack Explorer March 2005

     McKibben makes the great lake a hinge that binds the long lands on either side of it into a “cultureshed” bounded not by the cartography of politics but by his own deep knowledge of it. He’s not implying there’s some commonality of civic style or taste; .... What frames his vision of this stitched-together territory — “Adimont? The Verondacks?” — is the spirit of innovation and respect some people are bringing to its use.

   • 2013, John Lorinc, "The City as Cultureshed," in A. Wilcox, C. Palassio, J. Dovercourt, The State of the Arts: Living With Culture in Toronto, Coach House Books, 2013.

     That's why we should begin to think of cities as "culturesheds" - deeply interconnected social, physical and economic systems that may be more or less attuned to the circulation of artistic ideas.

   • 2013, Alison L. Bain, Creative Margins: Cultural Production in Canadian Suburbs (page 212)

     This book has dismantled these mischaracterizations of Canadian suburbia as acultural and uncreative. Through a preliminary exploration of the culturesheds of Toronto and Vancouver, this book has shown how detrimental it can be […]

   • 2014, Donna Neuwirth and Jay Salinas, "Making and Remaking Land-Oriented Definitions of Place,"Voice of the River Valley, October 2014

     In the late ’90s, […] Jay Salinas, Wormfarm co-founder, coined the term “cultureshed” defined as: 1. A geographic region irrigated by streams of local talent and fed by deep pools of human and natural history. 2. An area nourished by what is cultivated locally. 3. The efforts of writers, performers, artists, scholars, farmers and chefs who contribute to a vital and diverse local culture.