NEW YORK, N.Y.- Pratt Manhattan Gallery and Van Alen Institute will present Shrinking Cities from December 8, 2006 – January 21, 2007.While international urban discourse focuses exclusively on the growing megalopolises, zones of shrinkage have been forming and are generally ignored. Shrinking Cities, a four year project of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, has investigated the worldwide phenomenon of urban shrinkage by focusing on four urban regions: Detroit (USA), Halle/Leipzig (Germany), Manchester/Liverpool (U.K.), and Ivanovo (Russia).

The project included two phases, during which a network of more than 200 artists, architects, academics, and local initiatives approached the question, “How can we grasp urban decline and what do we do with shrinking cities?” The results have been presented in two exhibitions, several books, digital publications, and numerous public events. Now, the Shrinking Cities exhibition will be shown in New York as the start of an international tour.

Shrinking Cities (www.shrinkingcities.com) is a project of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) in cooperation with the Project Office; Philipp Oswalt, Gallery for Contemporary Art Leipzig; the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation; and the magazine archplus. Chief curator: Philipp Oswalt. Co-curators for the follow-up-show in New York City: William Menking, Professor of Architecture, Pratt Institute, Adi Shamir, Executive Director, Van Alen Institute. Assistant Curator: Anke Hagemann.

Following the New York exhibition, “Shrinking Cities” will be jointly hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit and the Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan from February 3, 2007 - April 1, 2007 and will continue its international tour with exhibitions in Tokyo, Japan; Liverpool, U.K.; Saarbrucken, Frankfurt and Dortmund, Germany; St. Petersburg, Russia; Eisernerz, Austria; and Rousse, Bulgaria. The international tour is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.