40 Years of European Capitals of Culture

Athens was the first European City of Culture in 1985. The initiative was proposed by Melina Mercouri, the Greek Minister of Culture at the time. It sparked an impetus that was perceived throughout Europe: Culture and Europe belong together. Since then, one city held the title every year, and since 1999 it has been known as the »European Capital of Culture«. Since the EU extention in 2004, two cities hold the title during one year. To mark the 40th anniversary of the title, the City of Chemnitz is organising a conference together with Chemnitz 2025 and Nova Gorica / Gorizia 2025. It is a very special honour to have leading responsible parties from the fields of art and cultural policy reflect on developments in different periods – and to use their wealth of expe­rience to explore the future of this programme. The conference will focus on the white paper »40 Rec­ommendations from 40 Years of ECoC: Insights for the European Capitals of Culture from 2034«, which will be presented at the event.