Councillors approve Jūrmala’s application for the “European Capital of Culture 2027” competition

At a meeting of the Jūrmala City Council on 27 May, councillors approved Jūrmala’s application for the “European Capital of Culture 2027” competition. The application, its artistic concept and programme were created jointly, involving Jūrmala residents, cultural experts and cooperation partners from neighbouring municipalities in Kurzeme.

Thank you to all the residents who took part and shared their opinions and ideas!

Why is Jūrmala taking part?

Jūrmala is entering the “European Capital of Culture” competition because it is a unique opportunity to promote Jūrmala internationally, especially at the European level. Winning the title would provide a strong impetus and support for the city’s economic and business development, as well as foster and strengthen residents’ sense of belonging to their city.

Considerable work has gone into assessing the city’s cultural life when preparing the competition application, identifying residents’ wishes and needs. This will serve as the basis and strategy for developing Jūrmala’s cultural life, regardless of the competition results.

The creation of the “Jūrmala 2027” programme

The cultural programme was created by people from Jūrmala and its partner municipalities through remote meetings in working groups, discussions and creative sessions, participation in a survey, and the submission of ideas for cultural activities to the online “Idea Repository”. More than 500 participants were involved in preparing the application – cultural workers, young people, entrepreneurs, ethnic minorities, socially active residents, and specialists in urban environment, nature, health and other fields. Nearly 300 ideas were received for various activities and events, as well as for the creation of environmental and infrastructure facilities.

A broad cultural programme has been created together with residents, structured around three thematic areas: health – activities dedicated to physical and mental health; co-creation – events developed through local and international cooperation to achieve cultural and economic objectives; and the environment – activities focused on climate change and sustainable development.

The programme includes events of various scales – from neighbourhood projects to international masterpieces of professional art, from activities to be enjoyed individually to a mass dance involving tens of thousands of dancers on the seashore from Jūrmala all the way to Cape Kolka, and from knitting gloves to art created by artificial intelligence.

Cooperation partners – the municipalities of Kurzeme

Cooperation plays an important role in cultural development, which is why Jūrmala’s partners on the road to the European Capital of Culture title are seven municipalities in Kurzeme – Tukums, Engure, Jaunpils, Kandava, Talsi, Roja and Dundaga. What unites them are shared historical roots – fishing villages and one of Latvia’s oldest railway lines; nature tourism – the Jūrtaka Coastal Hiking Route, a section of the Forest Trail, the “EuroVelo” route and the beach. The municipalities are home to two distinctive ethnic minorities – Livonians and Roma. Everyone shares a love of cultural heritage, honoured by 337 amateur collectives and 14 music and art schools. We share experience in cooperation, efforts to mitigate climate change, and the desire to live in a clean, healthy environment, preserving it and passing it on to future generations.

Cooperation with neighbouring municipalities will help create new places and develop existing ones where people can meet, create and co-create. Together, both local events and large-scale celebrations will be organised, involving many people in events taking place simultaneously at different venues.

Creative leitmotif: “ARTeries” – “culture is the pulse of life”

The creative concept of Jūrmala’s application is based on the idea – a play on words – of “ARTeries”, representing the flow of life, people, creative ideas and countless other currents. Jūrmala is traversed by five ARTeries that exist in nature: the Lielupe River, the railway, the highway, the cycle path and the seashore, connecting Jūrmala with the capital Riga, as well as with neighbouring and more distant regions of Latvia, and Latvia with Europe and Europe with the world. They are also ARTeries of history, culture, art, nature, communication and a wide variety of social groups, flowing and sustaining life in all its manifestations. All programme venues in Jūrmala and the partner municipalities are, in turn, called pulse points.

“ARTeries sustain life in all its manifestations, and it is important that they do not stagnate or become content with what already exists. As the ARTeries pulsate, so do we exist, function and grow – not only in a physiological sense, but also in terms of consciousness, thought, creative expression and spiritual development,” says Agnese Miltiņa, Head of the Culture Department, describing the creative concept.

By becoming the European Capital of Culture, Jūrmala wants to demonstrate to Europe that culture itself is an artery of health and life and, by implementing a meaningful and sustainable European Capital of Culture programme, prove that cooperation is an expression of culture capable of bringing people together.

The application for the title of European Capital of Culture must be submitted to the Ministry of Culture by 4 June this year. The winner of the title will be announced in 2022. In 2027, one city in Latvia and one city in Portugal will become European Capitals of Culture.

Author:

jurmala.lv