EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE

The 'European Capital of Culture' is a city designated by the European Union for a period of one year during which it is given a chance to showcase its cultural life and cultural development. A number of European cities have used the City of Culture year to transform their cultural base and, in doing so, the way in which they are viewed internationally.

Contents
History
European Cities/Capitals of Culture
Past European Capitals of Culture
Current European Capitals of Culture
Future European Capitals of Culture
References
See also
External links
Current Official Sites
Capital/Cities of Culture Sites
Others

History


Conceived as a means of bringing citizens of European Union (at that time the European Community) closer together, the 'European City of Culture' was launched on June 13, 1985 by the Council of Ministers on the initiative of the Greek Minister of Culture Melina Mercouri. Since then, the initiative has been more and more successful amongst European citizens and has had a growing cultural and socio-economic impact on the numerous visitors it has attracted.
The European Cities of Culture were designated on an intergovernmental basis until 2004; the Member States unanimously selected the cities most likely to welcome the event and the European Commission granted a subsidy to the selected city each year. As of 2005, the EU's institutions will take part in the selection procedure of the cities that will host the event.
In 1990, the Ministers of Culture launched the "European Cultural Month". This event is similar to the European City of Culture but goes on for a shorter period and is addressed to Central and Eastern European countries in particular. The European Commission grants a subsidy for the European Cultural Month each year.
As early as 1991, the organisers of the different European Cities of Culture created the Network of European Cultural Capitals and Months — enabling the exchange and dissemination of information, also to the organisers of future events. This network also carried out in 1994 a study on the impact of the European City of Culture since its creation. ECCM is a non profit organisation based in Luxembourg and acting in close collaboration to the European Institutions. Since 2006 it will present in every Cultural Capital and in former ones a travelling exhibition "A Journey to the World: Cultural Capitals". The exhibition is inaugurated for the first time in Patras, Greece on the 27th of March 2006.
Individual cities have looked to evaluate their own experience in different ways; it is not easy to track long term evaluations of city experiences in every case. Charles Landry of the UK-based cultural consultancy Comedia has recently published an interesting evaluation of the Helsinki Year of Culture in 2000. From 2002-2005, Beatriz Garcia led a research project investigating the long term legacy of Glasgow 1990, based at the Centre for Cultural Policy Research, University of Glasgow.
In 1999, the European City of Culture was renamed the 'European Capital of Culture', and was financed through the Culture 2000 programme. Cork City, in Ireland, was the first city in Europe to hold the prestigious Capital of Culture title. The European Parliament and Council Decision of May 25, 1999 integrates this event into the Community framework and introduces a new selection procedure for the Capitals for the 2005–2019 period. This was done to avoid overly fierce competition to win the accolade; each EU member nation will be given the opportunity to "host" the capital in turn. Starting in 2005, two cities will now share this status each year.
In 2004, the European Commission asked Robert Palmer, director of Palmer-Rae Associates, to evaluate the programme of European Capitals of Culture 1994-2004, following an earlier evaluation study examining European Capitals of Culture 1985-1993. The latest study comprehensively deals with cultural, economic, visitor, social and European perspectives of the European Capital of Culture action. It comprises two volumes: one of summary findings, analyses and conclusions; a second of individual case studies. Both volumes can be freely downloaded.
Based on Palmer's findings, the European Commission has made recommendations for changing the procedures for selecting and monitoring European Capitals of Culture and for placing increased emphasis on the cultural and European components of the action.
It is likely that the Parliament will agree to such changes, and continue the action of European capitals of Culture until at least 2019, with the designation of two European Capitals of Culture each year. Details are provided on the website of the European Commission Education and Culture: Culture in European Union
On 11 March 2006, the German city of Essen (representing the Ruhrgebiet region), the Hungarian city of Pécs and the Turkish city of Istanbul were selected as European Capitals of Culture for 2010 by the EU council.

European Cities/Capitals of Culture


Past European Capitals of Culture


★ 1985: Athens (Greece)

★ 1986: Florence (Italy)

★ 1987: Amsterdam (Netherlands)

★ 1988: West Berlin (West Germany)

★ 1989: Paris (France)

★ 1990: Glasgow (Scotland)

★ 1991: Dublin (Ireland)

★ 1992: Madrid (Spain)

★ 1993: Antwerp (Belgium)

★ 1994: Lisbon (Portugal)

★ 1995: Luxembourg (Luxembourg)

★ 1996: Copenhagen (Denmark)

★ 1997: Thessaloniki (Greece)

★ 1998: Stockholm (Sweden)

★ 1999: Weimar (Germany)

★ 2000: Reykjavík (Iceland), Bergen (Norway), Helsinki (Finland), Brussels (Belgium), Prague (Czech Republic), Krakow (Poland), Santiago de Compostela (Spain), Avignon (France), Bologna (Italy)

★ 2001: Rotterdam (Netherlands), Porto (Portugal)

★ 2002: Bruges (Belgium), Salamanca (Spain)

★ 2003: Graz (Austria)

★ 2004: Genoa (Italy), Lille (France)

★ 2005: Cork (Ireland)

★ 2006: Patras (Greece)
Current European Capitals of Culture


★ 2007: Luxembourg and greater region (Luxembourg), Sibiu (Romania)
Future European Capitals of Culture

According to the official EU website[1]
Note: Between 2007 and 2018 multiple cities are named European Capital of Culture. In some future years, cities have not yet been selected, but the country from which that city will be chosen has already been determined (based on a rotation system), as listed below.
Banner promoting Liverpool as European Capital of Culture in 2008


★ 2008: Stavanger (Norway) - Liverpool (United Kingdom)

★ 2009: Linz (Austria) — Vilnius (Lithuania)

★ 2010: Istanbul (Turkey) — Pécs (Hungary) — Essen (Germany)

★ 2011: Turku (Finland) — Tallinn (Estonia)

★ 2012: Guimarães (Portugal) — Maribor (Slovenia)

★ 2013: FranceSlovakia

★ 2014: SwedenLatvia

★ 2015: BelgiumCzech Republic

★ 2016: SpainPoland

★ 2017: DenmarkCyprus

★ 2018: NetherlandsMalta

★ 2019: Italy

References


1. Official EU website


★ García, B. (2005) “''De-constructing the City of Culture: The long term cultural legacies of Glasgow 1990''” in: ''Review Issue of Urban Studies'' (vol 42, n5/6) (pp. 1-28)

★ García, B. (2004) “''Cultural Policy in European Cities: Lessons from Experience, Prospects for the Future''” in: ''Special edition on Cultural Policy and Regeneration, Local Economy'' (vol 19, n4) (pp. 312-326)

★ García, B. (2004) “''Urban Regeneration, Arts Programming and Major events: Glasgow 1990, Sydney 2000 and Barcelona 2004''” in: Gibson, L. & Stevenson, D. (Eds) ''Special Issue of the International Journal of Cultural Policy: Urban Space and the Uses of Culture'' (vol 10, n 1) (pp. 103-118)

See also



American Capital of Culture – a similar initiative among the American countries

Arab Cultural Capital – a similar initiative among Arab countries

Europalia

External links


Current Official Sites


European Cultural Capital, 2007

Sibiu, European Cultural Capital, 2007

European Cultural Capitals and Months
Capital/Cities of Culture Sites


Genoa 2004

Cork 2005

Patras 2006

Luxemburg 2007

Sibiu 2007

Stavanger 2008

Liverpool 2008

Vilnius 2009

Linz 2009

Istanbul 2010

Essen 2010

Pecs 2010

Turku 2011

Tallinn 2011

Maribor 2012
Others


Impacts 08: The Liverpool Model, European Capital of Culture Research Programme, University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University

Culture in European Union

Kultur 2010 - Information Portal (in German) about the Cultural Capitals of Europe

Saint-Étienne 2013

Cordoba 2016 Spanish candidate for European Capital of Culture

Łódź 2016 - official page of candidate for European Capital of Culture

Lublin 2016 - official page of candidate for European Capital of Culture

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