Easier Together - Partnerships for the ’Veszprém 2023 European Capital of Culture’ Bid
An important pillar of Veszprém’s European Capital of Culture 2023 bid is a range of cooperation and partnership schemes. Both for the ECOC year and the run-up period, there are a lot of planned programmes and projects which will be realised in collaboration with institutions and organisations from other cities.
Among our partners there are former and future ECOC title holders as well as aspiring towns. We have got partners who help us with preparation, by thinking together, and there are others with whom we are planning joint work and projects.
Partner cities of primary importance for Veszprém are two cities from the UK: Leeds and Milton Keynes. Based on the EU’s decision, it was originally one Hungarian and one British city that would have been awarded the European Capital of Culture title for 2023. Veszprém forged close ties with these two of the British candidate cities; good relations persist even after the EU disqualified the United Kingdom from the bid process with retrospective effect.
The Veszprém Art Council is currently working together with artists and cultural organisations from Leeds and Milton Keynes. We are planning to invite musicians to the 2023 Veszprém Street Music Festival from all ECOC competing cities as well as from previous title holders Glasgow and Liverpool.
Many elements of the Leeds bid may live on within the framework of collaboration with Veszprém. The Incubating The Future project is tightly linked to Veszprém’s programme targeted to young people with a focus on talent discovery and business enterprise support. Yet this is only the beginning. We hope to involve East Leeds Chapel FM community radio station and the Leeds-based Northern Ballet as key actors in a number of our projects – those that are centred on artistic dance or music talent discovery.
Good relations Between Veszprém and Milton Keynes are also reinforced and tightened by many projects. Among others, there is the Reinventing the Game programme, which connects the cities through culture and sports In addition, the Creative Urban Livin Festival launched in Milton Keynes this year will be a distinguished partner for Veszprém in projects aimed at rethinking city life and the use of urban spaces.
