The University Network of European Capitals of Culture (UNeECC) and Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe (UNICA) have joined forces to collaborate and inspire its members to create a webinar series called UniverCities and Culture. The main aim is to explore and discuss interesting topics, research results, co-created projects, between universities, local authorities, cultural institutions for the benefit of society at large. The first webinar on 17 November 2021 spotlighted the theme of digitalization, culture and art. Around 50 participants took part on Zoom. Both organizations rated it as a particularly valuable and exciting event and we hope to co-organize a new webinar in spring next year.
Those who missed it, or those who would like to relive the webinar, please click here to watch the Youtube video: https://youtu.be/rpPELdaVEL8?t=25
In this article you can read about the conferences organized by UNeECC in ECoC cities between 2007 and 2019.
The ECOC is a prestigious designation that encourages local communities and visitors to actively participate in and to experience newly commissioned artistic work that is at once local and European in its celebration of what is unique to the cultural life of individual cities. The European Union founded the initiative in part to help generate a collectively binding cultural understanding and artistic set of networks and practices across the European Union. The designation comes with significant funding and investment that can act as an incentive for regional development and urban infrastructural transformation.
The announcement that Galway was to be awarded the designation of European Capital of Culture for 2020 (together with Rijeka in Croatia) was greeted with excitement and enthusiasm in the city – and especially in its university, National University of Ireland, Galway. The University Network of European Capitals of Culture has supplied the opportunity to reflect upon the relationship between Capitals of Culture and universities – and it has also deepened that relationship, providing a forum to consider how Capitals of Culture can transform cities and the people living in them.