Login to your account

Username *
Password *
Remember Me

Ecoc2024

Editorial staff

Editorial staff

In a cross-border extravaganza spanning Slovenia and Italy, Nova Gorica and Gorizia gear up to kick off the countdown to GO! 2025 European Capital of Culture on Thursday, February 8, 2025. The day promises a whirlwind of events and initiatives without boundaries, mirroring the spirit of cultural unity these sister cities aim to foster.

‘Ten years ago it was as if we had challenged geographical latitude by promising that we would be able to navigate extreme latitudes. The question to ask ourselves now is: which latitudes do we want to explore in the next 10 years?’. It was with this message that the director of the Matera Basilicata 2019 Foundation, Rita Orlando, closed her speech at the round table ‘Matera, 10 years of Capital’ organised by the Foundation on 17 October, in Casa Cava in Matera, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the proclamation of the city of the Sassi as European Capital of Culture 2019.

The European Capital of Culture in 2029 for Poland, as is now well known, will be Lublin. The Polish cities shortlisted, however, will become the national capital of culture. In 2026, Bielsko Biala will be the national capital of culture. And so, like the other short-listed cities, it is continuing the work begun in the candidature phase through events and moments of reflection.

The 13th Culture Next conference will be held from 16 to 18 October in Cluj-Napoca (Romania). The 13th Culture Next conference gathers representatives from 50 European cities and the most important cultural networks, together with representatives of the European Commission, local artists, and cultural organisations from Cluj-Napoca.

The evaluation panel report of the second monitoring meeting for Trencin 2026 is online on the EU website and attached to this news item. Below are the conclusions, attached is the full report.

Bradford 2025, here the programme

Venerdì, 13 Settembre 2024

In 2025 the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire will be the UK's National City of Culture. And in the last few hours it has unveiled some key parts of the programme.

Oulu, together with 39 municipalities, will be the European Capital of Culture in 2026. Oulu2026 is now launching an open call, inviting local communities and individuals to contribute to the programme. The call, which runs until the end of August 2025, will see decisions on programme proposals made every four months. The “We Are the Culture” call allows participants to propose their own events or other programmes to be part of the Capital of Culture year. Additionally, applicants can apply for grants to support the execution of their proposed programmes.

Since EcocNews has been online, just after the pandemic, we have been doing a series of interviews with cultural managers and European Capital of Culture experts. In this time we have heard from Bob Scott, Steve Green, Beatriz Garcia, Chris Torch, Rossella Tarantino, Franco Bianchini, Shuji-KogiSylvain Pasqua and Chris Baldwin. Today the interview is with Ariane Bieou.

The 44 proposals of the ‘GO!2025 Small Projects Fund’ presented a few days ago in Gorizia

When the storm is at its fiercest, you need a safe harbor. Bodø has been such a safe harbor for fishermen and travelers for hundreds of years. Now, Bodø will also become a safe harbor for artists and writers who are persecuted in their home countries, for storms can come in many forms—such as conflicts and war.