Proposal:Culture

Cultural facility or object
Proposal status:	Abandoned (inactive)
Proposed by:	dieterdreist
Tagging:	culture=* Data item
Applies to:
Definition:	intended to tag culture related objects
Statistics:
Draft started:	2010-11-07

Why this tag ?

The idea of this key proposal is to improve semantics of our tagging scheme regarding cultural facilities and objects. Currently those are either in amenity=*, which is generally considered "overcrowded" and offers few semantic hints and in tourism=* which is generally considered unsuitable for things whose main focus are not tourists. Currently we identified the following tags as potential candidates for a new culture key:

• amenity=arts_centre
• tourism=artwork
• tourism=gallery (is still proposed, this proposal suggests culture=museum and museum:genre=arts_gallery instead)
• tourism=museum
• amenity=theatre
• amenity=cinema
• amenity=nightclub

please feel free to add more tags above as long as the proposal is in draft status

Which tag to use ?

The following list is still preliminary and during the discussion there might be a descision to keep some of the old tags (especially the amenities) instead of shifting them to the new key culture.

• culture=arts_centre (see amenity=arts_centre and wikipedia [1] for a description, the tag would keep its meaning)

We need a value to denote places where you can expect many different sorts of arts to be performed. TomChance 19:25, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

I agree but this is not corresponding with the current definition of arts_centre hence I suggest a separate proposal --Dieterdreist 10:22, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

I don't really know if community centres are included in this definition. If not, we need a tag for them very badly. Community centres are typical places where people from all over meet to pursue a common fringe hobby. Community centres are often not aggressively signposted. Therefore they are easy to miss (I speak from experience here) and sorely needed on street maps. --Ipofanes 20:03, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Actually the current definition of arts_centre is "a venue at which a variety of arts are performed or conducted, and may well be involved with the creation of those works, and run occasional courses". The implication that it is non-profit/community is only intimated in the very incomplete discussion and has been added to the page after the feature was originally proposed and agreed. TomChance 09:56, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

• culture=artwork (and subtags as usual)
• culture=cinema
• culture=dance

what is this about? A place to go dancing or a dance academy? Or a place where dance is performed?-- Dieterdreist 18:40, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes, this can be covered by theatre and genre:dance TomChance 09:56, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

What I had in mind: a place where dance is performed, often with dance academies/companies in residence. TomChance 19:25, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Please be more verbose in the value, and have also a look at the already documented subtags for theatre (e.g. ballet and varieté)

• culture=museum and subtags
  • museum:genre=art_gallery for art galleries.
  • museum:genre=local_history for local history (german: Heimatmuseum, swedish Hembygdsmuseum), although this might get tricky for something like this one: Varusschlacht Kalkriese -- HaH 12:17, 8 November 2010 (UTC)
• culture=music

should IMHO either have subtags or be more explicit--Dieterdreist 18:40, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

The problem with this value is that it potentially overlaps substantially with the theatre sub-tags, which I think are seriously problematic and need to be redone because (a) in many languages nobody would describe a concert hall as a theatre; (b) most concert halls are used for many genres of music, so you need something more like key:genre:classical_music=yes/no. I would prefer a tag that started with "this is a place where you can listen to musical performances", with sub-tags to indicate the sort of music you might expect to hear there. TomChance 19:25, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

IMHO we don't need genre:classical_music=yes/no because of the reason you mentioned: most concert halls are used for different kind of music. This tag would be a tag for the concert, not for the place. I agree though that a concert hall shouldn't be tagged as theatre. --Dieterdreist 10:30, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

• culture=nightclub

In my opinion 'nightclub' doesn't belong to culture. It is rather a place to earn money by selling expensive drinks and offering more or less 'erotic' presentation. 'nightclub' should stay in amenity=nightclub as is amenity=bar --EvanE 14:16, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

You obviously go to more exciting nightclubs than me ;) It is a place where people go to listen and dance to music, which is quite obviously a non-important cultural amenity like all of these other values. TomChance 09:56, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Well you are right. I mixed it with the german word "Nachtclub" which has this meaning. BTW what is the english word for "Nachtclub" as described above? The german word for amenity=nightclub is "Disco(thek)" Anyway the focus is more on selling drinks and earning money than on cultural aspects. Thus my conclusion stays the same. Keep it as amenity=nightclub. --EvanE 14:10, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

The same can be said of almost any cultural venue - that they are businesses out to make money. The fact is that people go there for the cultural experience of dancing to music TomChance 19:26, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

[OT] @EvanE: What you mean with Nachtclub is amenity=stripclub in OSM. --SteveVG 18:32, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

[OT] Thanks, I clarified the description in Map_Feature - Amenity --EvanE 14:01, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

• culture=theatre (all (most?) documented subtags for theatre genres, opera houses etc. could remain as they are)
• culture=youth_club youth club

Potential issues

This section will be moved to discussion before voting

Culture for ancient cultures

This key might collide with historic mapping, where a key "culture" might indicate the name of an ancient culture. Fortunately according to tagwatch there is no usage at all of a key "culture", so this is not an actual problem as there would have a new tag to be invented to indicate the culture (anyway until now nobody seemed to be interested in denotating ancient cultures). This could be civilization=*