Documentation Centre on European Capitals of Culture

About us

The Documentation Centre on European Capitals of Culture was founded in Athens in October 2007 on the initiative of the former Mayor of Athens, Mr. Nikitas Kaklamanis, following proposal of his Cultural Advisor, Mr. Rodolfo Maslias, official of the European Parliament and former Secretary General of the Network of Capitals of Culture (ECCM).

The Centre seats at the Cultural Organization of the City of Athens and directly depends on it. The offices are located at 50, Akadimias Str. and at 68, Solonos Str. in the heart of Athens.

The Mission of the Centre is the enforcement of the idea of the European Capitals of Culture both inside and outside Europe by promoting it to the wider public, the media and experts.

Detailed tasks:

- The documentation, classification, preservation and spreading of the know-how related to the nomination and organization of a European Capital of Culture

- The strengthening of co-operation and exchange of best practices among cities having hosted in the past or being interested in hosting in the future the Institution

- The consultancy services towards cities interested in submitting their candidature as well as towards cultural centers, networks and institutions, scientists, students and enterprises taking action within the cultural field

- The creation of an archive supporting and promoting all academic research related

The Centre makes the collected material available to individuals and organizations/institutions with interest in this matter – either in situ (Athens) or through (e-)mailing.

The Centre also aims in setting up a joint documentation on the “European Capitals of Culture” in the form of an exhibition which is intended to open to the public in 2010 on the occasion of the 25^th anniversary of the initiative, starting with Athens as the first European Capital of Culture in 1985. This exhibition will have a thematic (not comparative) structure and will be based on the concept elaborated in 2006 by Mr. Joerg-Ingo Weber on behalf of the ECCM-Network.

The Initiative

In Athens was born the idea of the most successful European Cultural Policy. To have every year a European Capital of Culture. Athens was the first of these European Capitals in 1985 and it was the only cultural event that gathered all the Head of State of the United Europe.

The former Mayor of Athens, Nikitas Kaklamanis took in 2007 the initiative to create in Athens the Documentation Center on European Capitals of Culture. “As Mayor of Athens I felt that the birthplace of Democracy and the center of the first culture on the European Continent had to become one of the most important cultural cities in the world. I explained my strategy on culture with a book entitled «Athens, Eternal Cultural Capital». This is why a Center promoting the European Capitals of Culture was logically the most suitable initiative”.

European Capitals of Culture, a European policy

Melina Mercouri, as Greek Minister of Culture, had stated that “Europe needs a Soul. Only Culture could be that Soul”. The European Capitals of Culture started with Athens in 1985. Until 2002, the Member-States would also organise Cultural Months enabling cultural contacts in the whole European Continent.
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Adopting and adapting the European idea

Several international organisations, private or public networks, regions and countries adopted the idea of a rotation of a cultural capital. They apply their own selection rules and conditions and have no relation to the European Institutions.
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Structure, services and location

The Documentation Centre is a structure of the Cultural Organization of the City of Athens. During the phase of its preparation it is established at Solonos Street in the Centre of Athens, where a team is collecting and sorting the material received by the cities and organizations at the request of the Mayor of Athens to his homologues.
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The aims of the Documentation Centre

Written by Rodolfo Maslias

Saving a cultural heritage

The 25 years of European Capitals of Culture offered in some 60 cities a huge amount of cultural events in all fields, hundreds of infrastructures, thousands of editions, articles, studies, press releases, reports, posters, advertising objects, as well as an enormous international experience and know-how concerning managing approaches, fundraising, communication and promotion, sustainability policy, volunteering incentives, urban interventions, successful and less successful pursuing of extremely differentiated objectives related to the specific traditions and need of every city.

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Documentation Centre on European Capitals of Culture Press Release	[ ]	34 Kb