During the years leading up to 2014 we are going to work together on a fantastic Capital of Culture programme and in many ways we will make Umeå more visible as the coming European Capital of Culture. The citizens of Umeå have the opportunity to develop ideas about the cultural city of the future since Umeå will be the European Capital of Culture 2014.In cities that have been successful in their ambition to be the European Capital of Culture there has been wide grassroots commitment and a demonstration of strength from many different partners that has contributed to cultural developments in a very broad sense.
Our goal is that all the creative potential in Umeå will be made the most of. Success in the task requires a broad acceptance and great commitment from the citizens of Umeå, associations and clubs, and the business community and co-creative partners.
Therefore, a very important feature in the work is to invite the inhabitants of Umeå and representatives for cultural activities, independent groups and associations, and the business community to enter into dialogues.
Hundreds of co-creators
The planning for Umeå 2014 has been carried out in a spirit of openness, dialogue and co-creation. In conjunction with the application, many public meetings and seminars were held in Umeå, where different aspects of the European Capital of Culture effort were discussed. Afterwards there were more than 200 people involved in the drawing up of the contents of the programme. The programme ideas were then presented in public meetings and people had the opportunity to improve on the ideas.
Build on what we have and who we are
In the continued work we will build on our application, our existing cultural infrastructure and will gradually strengthen our cultural institutions, festivals and independent partners to achieve top quality during the implementation of the European Capital of Culture year. Our objective is to create a sustainable network that will ensure continual growth. Open Source methodology – co-creation – is a means of sharing, evolving and mutually shaping new ideas. It can be used as a tool for developing our activities which are not steered by any other factors than the commitment of the citizens and a desire for development.
We will build the program on the active co-creation from Umeå´s citizens, cultural workers and cultural institutions, media contacts, associations and clubs, sports organizations, the business community and all our collaborative partners in the northern region, in Europe and elsewhere in the world.
Our way forward has begun and we are well aware of the complex process that this work entail.
