The European Union and its culture ministers officially designated the UNESCO-listed Matera has European culture capital. Matera was formally named along with the Bulgarian city of Plodviv.
Among the city’s objectives is to involve 80% of the residents in the co-creation and co-production of cultural projects, starting from schools, and to attract as many as 600,000 visitors as of 2019, including 50% from abroad. In addition, an objective is to improve by 2016 railway connections between the southern city of Bari in Puglia and Matera with trains and shuttles every hour, connecting the two cities in 45 minutes.
Networking will be key in 2017 and 2018 with 54 partner cities including 27 in each EU country, 23 in Italy – one per region plus the three former European capitals of culture – and four outside the EU. And 54 weeks of events and projects will be devised to grant visibility to Matera, through a network enabling all realities to circulate between 2019 and 2020.
It is the fourth Italian city after Florence in 1986, Bologna in 2000 and Genoa in 2004 to conquer the one-year title, during which a city organizes a round of cultural events with a strong European focus.
News by Ansa.it
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