The World's New Culture Meccas

The influx of talent has fueled a fierce competition for real estate--along the river, property values have doubled in the last five years--and the city's government is actively regenerating run-down areas. In the south, a London architecture firm, the Richard Rogers Partnership, is designing a new courthouse that will be the first glimpse of Antwerp for travelers arriving by a new high-speed rail network. By the train station, a new design center opens next month to support start-ups--mostly by graduates of the city's industrial-design and graphic-design schools. Already, more than a quarter of the work-shops are rented, and the center hasn't even opened yet.

RAFA is also continuing to expand. Next month its fashion department will move into a stunning new building in central Antwerp called the ModeNatie (or "fashion warehouse"), which will also house a fashion museum and a classy brasserie. As if artists didn't have reason enough to move to Antwerp.

Michelle Chan

Newcastle Gateshead, United Kingdom: From Coal to Culture

It all started with the giant angel statue. In 1998 British artist Antony Gormley bestowed on Gates-head--twinned with Newcastle across the River Tyne in northern England--a 20-meter-tall sculpture with the wingspan of a Boeing 767. The largest statue in the country, the Angel of the North drew national attention to this faded coal-mining and shipbuilding capital. "The Angel was about making Gateshead a name," said architect and Gateshead director of property services John Devlin, who oversaw the [Pound sterling]800,000 initiative (three quarters of the money came from lottery funds), "and because we delivered, money was switched on for other projects."

Fantastical as it may sound, the Angel has kicked off a flurry of activity that locals hope will transform this impoverished region into a European arts center--and jump-start its economy. The Angel was followed by the sweeping Gateshead Millennium Bridge, the state-of-the-art BALTIC art gallery and the Sage Gateshead music center, slated to open next year.