European Cities of Culture 2000

BERGEN

Bergen is famous for its medieval and early modern wooden city centre with an UNESCO world heritage site. The city takes pride in rich and concentrated cultural life, and the traditional art forms are all well represented by museums, theatres and the internationally known philharmonic orchestra. Bergen is especially known for its vibrant contemporary scene, amongst them the bit 20 ensemble, the national contemporary dance company, carte blanche, and the experimental Bergen international theatre.

Bergen 2000 is a spectacular celebration of culture. As a European City of Culture, it focuses on its rich traditions and the openness of new artistic tendencies in a European context. The City of Culture is more than suitable for establishing contacts and identity for other parts of the country. The County Council wants to promote the city centre as a meeting place, as well as involve the surrounding municipalities. Bergen 2000 has been used as a tool in achieving long-term cultural objectives of permanent worth, relating to new expertise, new audiences and spectators, new network and a more visible cultural life.

The City's Department of Culture aims at promoting diversity, creativity and spiritual values, at the same time ensures preserving Bergen's historical heritage and identity. The focus is on further development and promotion of a high quality art and museum programme, as well as on arranging culture and leisure facilities that are desired and important for the personal development and commitment of the inhabitants. In the year of culture and in the future, the necessity of providing the cultural offer to children and young people has particularly been pointed out.

The Bergen City Council has agreed with the recommendations formulated in "the plan of action for art and artists in Bergen city of culture". It has further decided that the plan of art is to be used in the long term planning of the cultural area of Bergen. Additionally, the plan has been the basic tool in the planning of Bergen as European City of the Year 2000. This event is also a tool for reaching the city economic development goals, city renewal and educational strategies, environmental, etc. The City Council also plans to form a Norwegian arts profile for building up of tourism. In this way, Bergen will continue being a leading city of culture, and a centre of creative arts.

HELSINKI

In the last decades culture has become an important element in urban development campaigns in European cities. Helsinki woke up in the early 90´s when a recession struck the country and urged the city to reposition itself in the global marketplace.

In 1995 Helsinki received its nomination for European City of Culture 2000. It was clear that the main target of this year was not to create a one-year festival. What we are really striving for is the enhanced quality of life for the inhabitants and increased international awareness of the Finnish culture. The idea was to find culturally enriching projects, new talents and ways of operating, and to present them to new audiences.

The final programme consisted of some 450 events. Classical music and art exhibitions were among the more traditional offerings, science fiction and comics, and Finnish specialities like sauna and a church built of snow were also featured. Many of the events were made by the inhabitants themselves. Schools, kindergartens and homes for the elderly also staged Year of Culture events. As a Baltic city Helsinki also wanted to spotlight the arts and culture of its nearest neighbours, Tallinn and St Petersburg. In a conference for university cities around the Baltic Sea the cultural content of European Northern Dimension was explored.

As early as in October 2000 it is too early to say how exactly the Year of Culture achieved its ambitious goals and identify permanent effects. Much research on these topics is to be published the year after. But what we already know is that the events certainly found their audience. By the end of September the attendance was ca. 4,5 million visitors, with Finland having a total population of 5,2 million inhabitants. More tourists also found their way to Helsinki.

As for the competition between the Cities of Culture the question was soon out of the agenda as the cities started to co-operate in ways that have proved beneficial. The fact that three cities in the North – Bergen, Reykjavik and Helsinki three cities in Central Europe – Brussels, Cracow and Prague – and three cities in the Mediterranean region – Avignon, Bologna and Santiago de Compostela – presented the diversity of European culture gave a totally new dimension to the basic idea of the cultural year institution. The networks created between the cities and their cultural institutions, universities and tourist authorities will hopefully be one of the permanent effects of the Year of Culture.