
Online newspaper based in Matera
EcocNews is registered at the Court of Matera in the press register n. 2/2021
Editor in chief: Mariateresa Cascino. Founder and editorial director: Serafino Paternoster
via San Francesco, 1 - 75100 Matera (Italy)
There are 39 Capitals of Culture around the world. Once again this year, Steve Green, one of the leading experts on this subject and a former member of the panel assessing the European Capitals of Culture, has published his report for the ninth consecutive year, drawing up a complete map of the cities that will have this title in 2025.
A difficult research, also because other capitals of culture are gradually being added to the capitals such as, for example, the Mediterranean capital of culture and dialogue. A title awarded for 2025 to Alexandria and Tirana, while for 2026 it will be Matera, already European Capital of Culture in 2019, and Tetouan, in Morocco. Tirana's themes are: The programme of the City of Middle Eastern Bridges will consist of cultural exploration, strengthening artistic creativity, digitisation of cultural heritage and sustainable cultural tourism.
To all these are added green capitals, sports capitals, youth capitals, contemporary art capitals, and so on. There seems to be a chase to identify firsts, and/or capitals that can turn cities around for the better.
Going back to Steve Green's interesting survey, one finds several curiosities. Starting with the African Capital of Culture, a title that this year will be held by two very close cities separated only by a river: Kinshasa and Brazzaville.
There is also a reference to Italy in the survey. In 2014, in fact, when Matera won the title of European Capital of Culture for 2019, the president of the evaluation panel being Steve Green himself, the Minister of Culture, Dario Franceschini, decided to create the Italian Capital of Culture by assigning the title to the other five Italian cities on the short list. Since then, the call for entries has been very popular and around 20 cities participate in each edition. In 2025, it is Agrigento that holds this title with the slogan Let culture embrace you.
In truth, the Italian capital of culture, from which Portugal, France and Poland have also taken example, risks inflating the title because it is held every year. And it also creates confusion with the title European Capital of Culture. We will see what happens with 2033, when Italy will again have to name the European Capital of Culture.
The UK's City of Culture programme works much better, both because it is held every four years and because short-listed cities are also funded and thus their projects have a chance of being realised. Bradford is hosting the 2025 edition.
‘Lithuania was the first country to rely on an ECOC to create a National Capital of Culture. Druskininkai is the 2025 holder of the title. The work of the 19th century composer and artist MK Čiurlionis is at the centre of the programme'.
Then there are four East Asian cities of culture: Macao and Huzhou in China, Anseong in South Korea and Kamakura in Japan. Cities of culture also in the Islamic world, Kazakhstan and Russia.
The complete map of the 39 cities of culture here.
Meanwhile, the 40th anniversary of the European Capital of Culture will be celebrated in 2025. A major event is planned in Chemnitz in April. It will be an opportunity to take stock of these 40 years. Chemnitz has commissioned researcher Valentina Montalto with the task of taking stock. Our interview with some anticipations here. But it will also be an opportunity to get new ideas in the light of the new programming that should start in 2034.
Ecocnews will be there and will tell you all about it. Stay Tuned.
Ecocnews Founder, Journalist, repentant jazz guitarist, music critic and film lover.