Guimarães (Portugal), the European Capital of Culture for 2012

Lent, the old part of Maribor (Slovenia). Maribor is the European Capital of Culture for 2012 along with Guimarães.

The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by the European Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension.

Preparing a European Capital of Culture can be an opportunity for the city to generate considerable cultural, social and economic benefits and it can help foster urban regeneration, change the city's image and raise its visibility and profile on an international scale.

In 1985, former actress Melina Mercouri, then Greece’s Minister of Culture, and her French counterpart Jack Lang came up with the idea of designating an annual Capital of Culture to bring Europeans closer together by highlighting the richness and diversity of European cultures and raising awareness of their common history and values.

The Commission of the European Union manages the title and each year the Council of Ministers of the European Union formally designates European Capitals of Culture: more than 40 cities have been designated so far.

An international panel of cultural experts is in charge of assessing the proposals of cities for the title according to criteria specified by the European Union.

A 2004 study conducted for the European Commission demonstrated that the choice of European Capital of Culture served as a catalyst for the cultural development and the transformation of the city.^[1] Consequently, the beneficial socio-economic development and impact for the chosen city are now also considered in determining the chosen cities.

History[link]

The European Capital of Culture programme was initially called the European City of Culture and was conceived in 1983, by Melina Mercouri, then serving as Greek Minister of Culture. Mercouri believed that at the time, culture was not given the same attention as politics and economics and a project for promoting European cultures within the member states should be pursued. The European City of Culture programme was launched in the summer of 1985 with Athens being the first title-holder. During the German Presidency of 1999, the European City of Culture programme was renamed the European Capital of Culture.

List of European Cities/Capitals of Culture[link]

EU Capitals of Culture

Athens (1985)   Berlin (1988)   Paris (1989)   Madrid (1992)   Lisbon (1994)   Stockholm (1998)   Prague (2000)   Rotterdam (2001)   Sibiu (2007)   Istanbul (2010)

Past years[link]

• 1985: Athens
• 1986: Florence
• 1987: Amsterdam
• 1988: Berlin
• 1989: Paris
• 1990: Glasgow
• 1991: Dublin
• 1992: Madrid
• 1993: Antwerp
• 1994: Lisbon
• 1995: Luxembourg
• 1996: Copenhagen
• 1997: Thessaloniki
• 1998: Stockholm
• 1999: Weimar
• 2000: Avignon, Bergen, Bologna, Brussels, Helsinki, Kraków, Prague, Reykjavík, Santiago de Compostela
• 2001: Rotterdam, Porto
• 2002: Bruges, Salamanca
• 2003: Graz
• 2004: Genoa, Lille
• 2005: Cork
• 2006: Patras
• 2007: Sibiu, Luxembourg, Greater Region
• 2008: Liverpool, Stavanger
• 2009: Vilnius Linz
• 2010: Essen (representing the Ruhr), Istanbul, Pécs
• 2011: Turku, Tallinn

* According to the official EU website.^[2] The cities and countries from 2020–2029 are not yet finalised.

Present year[link]

• 2012
  • Guimarães (Guimarães 2012)
  • Maribor (Maribor 2012)

Future years[link]

• 2013: Marseille, Košice
• 2014: Umeå, Riga, Sarajevo ^[3]
• 2015: Mons, Plzeň
• 2016: San Sebastián, Wrocław^[4]

The Member States entitled to host the event between 2017 and 2020 are the following ones (a competition will be organised in the coming years within these countries to designate the cities to the title) :

• 2017:  Denmark (Aarhus, Sønderborg),  Cyprus (Paphos, Nicosia).
• 2018:  Netherlands (Utrecht, Eindhoven, The Hague, Leeuwarden, Maastricht),  Malta (Valletta)
• 2019:  Italy,  Bulgaria
• 2020:  Ireland,  Romania (Timisoara, Iasi, Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest),  Croatia (Dubrovnik)

The scheme of designating the European Capital of Culture beyond 2019 has not been decided yet.

References[link]

1. ^ Palmer, Robert. "Study on the European Cities and Capitals of Culture and the European Cultural Months (1995-2004)". European Commission. http://ec.europa.eu/culture/key-documents/european-capitals-of-culture_en.htm. Retrieved 24 January 2010. 
2. ^ Official EU website
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ [http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/educ/130124.pdf San Sebastián and Wroclaw are the European Capitals of Culture for 2016!]

3. European Cultural Capital Report 3 (2011) A report by Robert Palmer, Greg Richards and Diane Dodd. Association for Tourism and Leisure Education (ATLAS)

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Capital of Culture or City of Culture may refer to:

• The European Capital of Culture, formerly European City of Culture, a title awarded to two European cities for a year, allowing them to showcase their cultural life and development.
• The American Capital of Culture, a similar award awarded to an American city each year by the NGO "American Capital of Culture Organization".
• The Arab Capital of Culture, an award given under the sponsoring of the Arab League and the supervision of the UNESCO.
• The UK City of Culture, a designation to be given for the first time in 2013
• City of Culture of Galicia
• The Pool (play), subtitled City of Culture?

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

European capital may refer to:

• the capitals of the European countries, see List of capitals by continent
• the Capital of the European Union

• A private equity company by the same name, affiliated to American Capital Strategies

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.