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.
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:
France —
Slovakia
★ 2014:
Sweden —
Latvia
★ 2015:
Belgium —
Czech Republic
★ 2016:
Spain —
Poland
★ 2017:
Denmark —
Cyprus
★ 2018:
Netherlands —
Malta
★ 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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