More than an interesting event

Together in a meeting of European Capitals Of Culture (ECOC), held in Essen 24./26.04.07, the cultural capitals to be, Liverpool and Stavanger (2008), Linz and Vilnius (2009), Ruhr, Pécs, Istanbul (2010), Turku and Tallinn (2011 ) want to let you know:

Although the cultural cites gathered together here are very different, a few are regions, others are cities, some are big, others small, they come from different cultural political backgrounds with different traditions, all of them find this network of importance for their work. This is about mutual learning about not making the mistake 4 times in a row, this is about supporting each other, about starting collaborative projects. Of course they are different, but share similar problems to be solved, share similar constraints to overcome. That's why it is a useful effective gathering. We share a few basic ideas:

1. Cultural capital is not only about a nice, interesting, vibrant year. It is about rethinking the role of culture in the urban society, it is about repositioning the city , re-inventing the city in a cultural perspective, putting the city on the mental map of a lot of people from Europe. This idea is always in our minds producing projects, selecting projects, setting up a choreography for the year.

2. Basic is that cultural capitals have a sustainable effect, that it influences the future of the cities far beyond the cultural year. It is about rewriting the cultural policy for the city , it is about trying to create an atmosphere, a climate that goes far beyond, the programming of a cultural year .There are no recipes for this, this is easier said than done, but precisely here is the urgency of a cultural capital.

3. All cities involved have to deal with the fact, that the cultural capital is important for the citizens and for Europe and the Europeans. It is local and global, it is "glocal". That is the challenge, difficult, almost a contradiction, to find a balance between local and European (and all in between) is what is about. In this respect we can learn a lot from each other.

4. There is no doubt in our minds that there is a need for a reconstruction of economic life, changes through globalisation and digitalisation are heavy on their way. One of the perspectives for Europe is to stimulate and the creative industries as much as possible, not even only the creative industries but beyond that the creative economy. A valid observation is that all the cities in one another way are having projects in this field, are pioneering. Also in this field we can learn a lot from each other..

Ruhr 2010. Cultural Capital of Europe : more here

Network of European Cultural Capitals and Months (ECCM). More here