cluj-napoca

Transcription

cluj-napoca

Application form
CLUJ-NAPOCA
CANDIDATE CITY FOR EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE 2021
East of West
Cluj-Napoca embarked on the process leading to the European Capital of Culture application five years ago. It has
been a complex and rewarding process. We are opening towards ourselves and towards Europe.
We invite artists and people across Europe to join us in an urban laboratory where our experiments and smallscale innovations are taken to a next level. The one where cultural vitality provides the grounds for a fulfilling life
for all. Where public sphere is imagined and built through participation. A level where our assets - academic and
artistic excellence, social innovation, a young population, a diverse culture and a vital economy - can be catalysed,
through culture, to be a model for European urban living. Culture is our mean to heal, to connect and to grow. As a
community, as a city, as Europe.
Emil Boc
MAYOR OF CLUJ-NAPOCA CITY
Introduction – General considerations
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Introduction
0.1 Why does your city wish to take part in the competition for the title of
European Capital of Culture?
Table of contents
3
1.
Contribution to the long-term strategy
10
2.
European dimension
21
3.
Cultural and artistic content
31
4.
Capacity to deliver
45
5.
Outreach
53
6.
Management
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Cluj-Napoca has always been considered “the heart of
Transylvania” and, for the last 100 years, has also been one
of the most important cities in Romania. We, its inhabitants,
are multicultural not by choice, but - as in many other parts
in Europe - by destiny. We have managed it, often visionary
and courageous, under the pressures, dramas and tragedies
of history. From the perspective of cohabitation - although
challenged by different, sometimes dramatic regimes and
changes of ideology - the century spanning from 1918 to the
present day is one of permanent and assiduous balancing.
If you get close to the “soul of the city” you immediately
discover that there is a Cluj of the Romanians, a Cluj of the
Hungarians, one of the Germans, one of the Roma, and one
of the Jews; a Cluj of the elders and one of the youth; a Cluj
of the students and one of the workers; a Cluj of the women
and one of the men; a Cluj of the central zone and one of
the outskirts. Each of these communities builds up a tower
of love for the city, ignoring the others, so that our Citadel is
also a juxtaposition - sometimes litigious - of monuments of
belonging.
Soon after 1989 we have discovered that the Romanian
Revolution, though it liberated us from Communism, has not
made us really free. We started seeking freedom, each on our
own, ignoring that what we had to build was a collective
freedom, a free community. We allowed ourselves to be
pushed into a competition for occupying the symbolic places,
into fear of the Other. Instead of a community, we have built a
federation of communities.
We are a candidate city for the European Capital of Culture
title because we want to transform this federation into a
“union” of Cluj-Napoca communities.
Additional information
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Today we feel that our city is awakening, The community
is more and more alive. We do not know if the past will not
return, but we are determined to carry on.
We look at ourselves with pride, but we also scrutinize each
other with fear - we don’t know yet whether we have fully
succeeded.
What has united us, so far, is competing for the European
Capital of Culture title. It is the first challenge that we take
on together and this helped us to get to know each other
better. Winning the title would be our first victory together
which would confirm that we are a Europe in miniature, in the
process of defining and reconstructing its identity.
We acknowledge that our process of identity reconstruction
is European and that the process of European identity
reconstruction is ours, too. Acknowledging that big is small
and small is big creates a place of osmosis, of mutual
learning, of synergy, common experience, common memory. It
creates a common vision of the future.
Examining ourselves in the mirror of the past and of the
present, but thinking of our future incessantly, we have
realized that our common history is based on a genuine art
of living together. We, Cluj-Napoca inhabitants, want to study
this art thoroughly, to define it, to grasp and improve its acts,
so that it might become a model - for us to keep and for
others to follow. For Europe, too.
We want to further this model of coexistence. We woke up
and we do not want to fall back into our suspicion-induced
sleep. And the European Capital of Culture title can be our
pledge.
Ten years ago, a sociological analysis identified mistrust
as the virus that dismantled collective solidarity in ClujNapoca. After 1990, each of the numerous groups built on
vanity, instead of putting together a real community, has
confirmed the diagnosis: our city was dead. A city in which
politeness took the place of genuine human relations and in
which, perhaps, only rascals were capable of working together.
Our indifference has killed this wonderful Transylvanian city.
“Among human beings, if you annul the Other, you annul
yourself”. (Constantin Noica – Romanian philosopher)
In the last decade, our way of thinking has undergone a
significant transformation. Citizens have felt that the city is
falling out of step with history and is isolating itself.
We want to become a community of equals.
Out of respect for difference, we keep on emphasizing
what divided us, but we have found out together that these
differences may engender unexpected harmonies, beneficial
for everybody. We wish to find balance, to avoid uniformity as
a risk of losing identity.
The time has come to be bold together!
Founded as a Roman colony in the 2nd century A.D., ransacked
by the Tatar invasion of the 13th, sieged and conquered in
the 15th, burned to the ground in the 17th and stricken by the
plague one hundred years later, our city was constantly reborn
and remodelled due to very diverse populations. They each
added their own bricks to the visible and invisible walls of
the city.
Today, alongside the Romanian majority, the Hungarian
ethnics represent 15,8% of the city’s population, but there
are also significant Roma, German and Jewish communities. In
the city centre, within a one kilometre radius, there soar the
churches and cathedrals spires of six Christian denominations
(Orthodox, Greek-Catholic, Roman-Catholic, Reformed,
Unitarian and Lutheran), plus a synagogue. This is unique in
Europe.
We want to show foreigners, friends and all those interested,
what the struggle of a community that wants to rediscover
itself means.
In the past, Cluj-Napoca was known as the treasure-city of
Transylvania. Today we all believe that, in fact, it is the people
who are the great treasure.
We want to tell Europe our story, from which we all can learn,
because it is a story about the European construction. About
people who are rebuilding the city from their souls, tearing
down the walls that separate them.
We are a community which is about to put aside the moments
when we would turn our backs one to the other. We no longer
want to speak the language of mistrust, but the language of
culture.
We need a common foundation, stronger than the hardships
of history, a foundation on which we can build long-lasting
trust and enhance the mechanism of unity in diversity, as well
as the art of living together. This is the reason why we want
to be a European Capital of Culture.
We need a common experience upon which we’d build our
common story, our common grand narrative. This can be
nothing else but our own identity project. In the mirror of the
title we see, recognize and acknowledge our own selves in
relation with the Other.
This experience shall enable us to construct a common
collective memory, without which there can be no identity.
The title will help us build it. We need a history of the city as
a whole. It is only cultural Cluj than can ensure this integrity.
As a university city, Cluj-Napoca has, due to the youth and
openness to the world of the tens of thousands of young
people studying here, an extra chance of maintaining a wellbalanced, optimistic atmosphere. It is through them that the
city is always young and has bold plans and projects for the
future.
But the status of being a secular university city alone does
not resolve our problem of integrating tens of thousands of
Romanian and foreign students who study and live in our
community. Despite their love for Cluj-Napoca, many young
people are obliged to look elsewhere for their future. That is
why we need this title even more - to discuss openly and to
find, through culture, solutions to keep them home and bring
them back home.
Our city is awakening and we want to stay awake. We
want our attachment to Cluj-Napoca to be not an illusion, but
a reality to which we all contributed.
Thus our bid is an invitation addressed to the citizens of
Europe to take part and get involved in the complex process
of mutual discovery and recognition, within this “home under
perpetual construction”, within the urban laboratory called
Cluj-Napoca.
"I see Cluj as a huge crowd of people travelling towards
Cluj. An endless journey, for this city is like a spherical
mirror. I don’t think anyone actually got here. I know
people whose families have lived here for generations
and who are still in search for Cluj. They are still happily
wandering through the always misleading hypostases of
the city, each the slave of a different illusion."(Ion Mureșan,
the City from the Mirror, in the anthology Cluj in words,
2008).
Our diversity is an infinite source of positive energy. These
communities - separated by language, religion, wealth or
education - are learning, through the agency of culture, how
to communicate and understand one another.
We think the time has come to tell Europe our story, so that,
together, we might find new solutions. For us, for Europe and
together with Europe.
Culture is the most powerful story we can tell together.
Although differently understood, culture is the value that we
all recognize because it addresses the Human; that is why
it has been assimilated naturally, as one of the long-term
strategic priorities of the city.
With its international resonance and network of activities,
the title of European Capital of Culture is not a mere chance,
but a rare opportunity to activate our cultural potential and
mobilize the entire community. For the first time in recent
history, all political parties in the city have joined hands
in a common project. This one. For the first time, due to
this candidature, the representatives of different religious
denominations might pray together. More than 300 cultural
operators have contributed to the elaboration of the longterm strategy of the municipality.
The concept of our application, East of West, speaks
about this rediscovery of self and the awakening of a new
consciousness. About the bridges that you can build towards
the others. History sends us a paradoxical message: the name
of Cluj comes from the Latin [Castrum] clus, which means
“closed space”, but the historical symbol of the city is a raised
fortress gate.
We desire to be a European Capital of Culture to open
ourselves not only outwards, by welcoming the foreigners
who visit us, but also inwards, towards ourselves, to be able
to tell Europe what we have learned about one another, for
Europe to see itself reflected in our diversity.
This is our vision.
0.2 Does your city plan to involve its surrounding area? Explain this choice.
Our bid is a city application, but a networked one, because
the spirit of Cluj-Napoca cannot be separated from the
Cluj County and the Transylvanian way of living. Just as our
emotional liaisons, the cultural programme we’ve conceived
for 2021 cannot be stopped at the city exit signs. So our
bid also includes projects to be implemented within a 60
kilometers radius outside Cluj-Napoca.
The cultural tiles of the city organically overlap with the ones
of this metropolitan area, covering a 450.000 base population.
Zooming out to the county level, we reach a total of 691.000
inhabitants and we rely on them to keep our cultural flow in
motion.
For this goal we can also rely on the Cluj County Council,
which is a founding member of the Association that has
prepared this application. The Cluj County Council provides
the necessary logistical and financial support for running the
programme in all the towns, villages and venues involved in
this partnership.
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Cluj County
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0.3 Explain briefly the overall cultural profile of your city.
It is in close relation to this artistic hub that the city earned
its nomination as one of the “Twelve Art Cities of the Future.
21st-Century Avant-Gardes” (Phaidon, 2013).
In Romania and in South-Eastern Europe, Cluj-Napoca is a prominent city, with a multifaceted cultural profile.
Established as a Roman settlement, later as a fortress of
German influences, the city developed into a flourishing
town during the Middle Ages and was reshaped in baroque
style during the 18th century. It has the vocation of a
Central-European cultural space, with many of its present
cultural landmarks being built during the Austro-Hungarian
Empire. Before the 1918 Union our city has been known
as the Transylvanian city least accessible for Romanians.
Despite their significant number, Romanians were accepted
intra muros (within the walls) only starting with the 19th
century when their rights were still limited and there were
few chances of emancipation. During the interwar period,
Romanians added new landmarks to the city, thus securing
its cosmopolite structure and trying to reduce ethnic or any
other type of differences. Modernism and social-realism add a
specific touch to an urban landscape that is mainly eclectic at
its centre and post-industrial at its peripheries. As any major European city, Cluj-Napoca is defined by several
layers of civilization, but the failure to recognize its own
history as a whole is a local specialty. In a city whose culture,
traditions, daily rituals and everyday language are shaped
by Romanians, Hungarians, Germans, Jews and Roma, as well
as by different religions, the public discourse has constantly
minimised from ideological reasons, the contribution that
one or another of these cultures have had to its history.
To understand the cultural identity of our city, we first need a
little history. The name Napoca appears on a milestone from
108 A.D., after the conquest of Dacia by the Romans. In 180,
the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius raised Napoca to
the rank of colonia. It was a prosperous place for the next 100
years until the Roman withdrawal.
In the ninth and tenth centuries, the Hungarians defeated
and added to their kingdom the principalities formed in this
region. The former Roman colonia was re-born with the arrival
of German settlers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries documented for the first time under the name of Castrum Clus
(“closed space”) - and received the status of a free royal city in
the beginning of the fourteenth century.
Leading international galleries and museums – including
Centre Pompidou and MOMA San Francisco – feature artists
that belong to the so called “Cluj School of Painting”: Adrian
Ghenie – the world’s bestselling artist under 40 years old in
2014, Ciprian Mureșan, Victor Man, Șerban Savu, a.o
Cluj-Napoca has a Gothic Catholic church from the fourteenth
century and is the only city in Romania where a Christian
denomination recognized worldwide was founded Unitarianism (16th century). Cluj-Napoca welcomed the Jews
in early seventeenth century, allowing them to practise their
religion and commercial activities.
Public schooling has existed here for over 600 years. The first
higher education institution was founded by the Jesuits at
the end of the sixteenth century. The first Romanian school
dates back to 1853 and a “multicultural” university - as
they say today – with courses in Romanian, Hungarian and
German has been functioning here since 1872. In the early
twentieth century, the pioneer of Cluj film production, Jenö
Jánovics, starred or helped making over 60 fiction films, 32
of which were directed by him. In 1919, the King Ferdinand I
University is established and during the interwar period here
studied or taught personalities who have made outstanding
contributions to the advancement of science and in Europe:
Emil Racoviță, Lucian Blaga, Constantin Daicoviciu, Hermann
Oberth, Petre Sergescu and others.
In the twentieth century, the city goes through historical and
cultural experiences specific to the whole Central and Eastern
Europe, including here artistic trends of the era, but also the
tragedies of war, then the communist regime and then the
transition to democracy.
Turning to the present, Cluj-Napoca is the second university
centre in Romania: we have 11 universities and an estimate
of 80.000 students. It is to this university tradition and multiethnic background that we owe such a rich and dynamic
cultural life. With respect to cultural vitality, we are second
only to Bucharest – which is six times larger in terms of
population.
The cultural scene, as everywhere in Eastern Europe, is
defined by two distinct worlds: the public sector and the
independent scene. Public institutions are mostly focused
on traditional culture. They face problems related to old or
obsolete infrastructure and rigid management models. The
independent sector, on the other hand, although very active,
lacks stable support and is constantly set on a survival mode.
Each year around 2.000 students graduate in Cluj-Napoca
from art universities – the University of Art and Design, the
Gheorghe Dima Music Academy or art departments – Faculty
of Theatre and Television, Faculty of Letters, Faculty of Art
History of Babeș-Bolyai University and the Faculty of Film and
Media of the Sapientia University.
But culture is one of the most precarious fields, due to low
salaries, consent to work overtime and temporary contracts
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outnumbering employment contracts. Too often in ClujNapoca the artist is expected to work without a fee.
With a theatrical tradition dating back to 1792, the city hosts
four performing arts institutions of national interest: The
National Theatre and the National Opera, The Hungarian
Theatre and the Hungarian Opera. The four institutions
operate in two buildings, one dedicated to the Romanian
language theatre and opera, and the other to the Hungarian
language drama works. This reality reflects on the one hand
that the two main local cultures are alive and productive and,
on the other hand, that they have developed distinct artistic
practices.
Representative of the cultural profile of the city are also
institutions such as the Transylvania State Philharmonic, the
Puck Puppet Theatre, the Art Museum, the National History
Museum of Transylvania and the Transylvanian Museum of
Ethnography - including a spectacular open air ethnographic
park besides its indoor collection.
National History Museum of Transylvania has been closed
to the public for the last six years due to litigations. The Art
Museum is currently confronted with space problems - the
building was retroceded to its former owners. Retrocession
of buildings abusively taken into state ownership during the
communist regime has been a long and painful process here
in our city and in Romania, as elsewhere in Europe’s former
communist countries. As a result, there are a lot of heritage
buildings left in decay due to unclear legal status.
Romania’s first and biggest reconversion project of an
industrial space into an arts centre, Fabrica de Pensule
(Paintbrush Factory), was born in Cluj-Napoca in 2009, as
a collective independent initiative of more than 60 artists
and organisations. The space hosts seven galleries, two
performing arts spaces, a library and about 30 artist studios
- all focused on contemporary art and socially engaged
practices.
Cluj-Napoca is an eventful city, with a fast growing number
of artistic events. In 2014 there were more than 1.500
cultural events in the city. To complete a rich cultural
agenda, over 100 festivals bring annually events of theatre,
literature, dance, music, visual arts, both traditional and
contemporary. Transilvania International Film Festival
(TIFF) is one of the most prominent film award and festivals
in Eastern Europe, its presence in the city for the last 14
years shaping both audience preferences and professional
choices. TIFF joined the elite club of festivals accredited by
the International Federation of Film Producers’ Associations
(FIAPF), endorsement which places it among the 40 most
important festivals in the world. Comedy Cluj Film Festival
was born seven years ago and nowadays it is considered one
of the most representative comedy film festivals in Europe.
Thereby, Cluj-Napoca has now the largest film audience in the
country and it is steadily developing into a hotspot for film
production. A regional film fund is about to be born aiming
to transform Cluj in a major production centre in Eastern
Europe, attracting foreign and Romanian producers and
developing local resources and professionals.The city has a
good cinematographic infrastructure compared to the rest of
the country – four refurbished cinema halls and two multiplex
spaces with a total of 24 cinema halls. Yet four other old
cinema halls are currently either too run down or converted
to non-artistic use.
The public space, closed for cultural events before 2006,
has become in the last five years the stage for hundreds of
concerts, festivals, artistic interventions. The Cluj-Napoca
Days, the Hungarian Cultural Days, the Visible City, Colours of
Cluj, Photo Romania Festival and the Urban Stage are just a
few of them.
In a place that is predominantly young and active, music
festivals – Jazz in the Park, Untold Festival, Electric Castle,
Mioritmic, Delahoya, Transilvania Jazz Festival - took over the
city and gave back vitality to the streets that used to be so
quiet during summer holidays. Electric Castle, an electronic
music festival organised in a castle from Bonţida village, 40
kilometres from the city, has become in just three years one
of biggest festivals in the country, attracting an audience
of 97.000 people. Born in 2015 as a flagship project of the
European Youth Capital, Untold Festival reached an audience
of 240.000 people, including 15% foreign visitors.
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New festivals and open air events have boomed in the recent
years, some of them failing to make it to their second edition.
In a city that lacked a cultural policy for years, the enthusiasm
for open spaces and large audiences has reached a peak that
may endanger the balance between offer and demand, high
artistic quality and entertainment, support for new artistic
production and showcase. Furthermore, financial support,
from both public and corporate sources, slides towards the
“visible” events, to the detriment of those initiatives that
are critical, experimental, niche oriented or that focus on
education and disadvantaged publics.
The most prominent 45 cultural institutions and
organisations in the city address annually an audience of 1.3
million people and mobilise about 18 m euros (2014) for
cultural activities in the city.
Cultural industries are growing fast, especially in software
and computer games, augmented reality, mapping and GIS
(Geographic Information System). While IT attracts capital and
employs a large number of young people (mainly graduates
of the Cluj-Napoca universities), the other high performing
segments of the creative sector - design, photo-video,
publishing and translations, architecture and fashion – are
less able to sustain long-term employment and to offer
attractive salaries. Large numbers of humanities’ graduates
have difficulties in finding a job, most of the art students
get employed in service-based jobs and only a few of them
persist in or have the chance to continue an artistic career.
The city has a European vocation, with high mobility rates
and good international cooperation. 38% of the cultural
activities have an international dimension and 45% have a
national outreach. However, the European connections mainly
translate into short-time exchanges: 37% of the events
involve international artists, but only 5% showcase local
artists and initiatives abroad, and no more than 4% take the
form of co-productions.
A major contribution to increasing international presence in
Cluj-Napoca comes from the seven foreign cultural centres
and 17 foreign language libraries and language course
centres active in the city. The countries with which the Cluj
art scene has the most collaborations are Germany, France,
Hungary, the UK and the US. The European cities we mostly
connect to culturally are Budapest, Berlin and Paris.
enjoy just sitting on a wooden bench in front of our block of
flats, like our grandparents in the evenings, just staring at
people passing by on their village alley.
Besides culture, creativity and university, the other main
factor for the profile of Cluj-Napoca is participation.
Grassroots movements are visible all over the city, improving
the life of the vulnerable, piloting models of sustainable
living and helping the shaping of urban policies. The largest
civil movement in Romania this decade is the Save Roșia
Montană campaign (eco/civil-movement against cyanide
exploitation of gold resources), which was started and
coordinated from Cluj-Napoca, mobilising during the recent
years hundreds of thousands of people in actions aimed at
protecting the environment.
We have to ask ourselves: where do West and East meet in
Europe? When does a territorial border influence a mental
bias? How does a Western European perceive an Eastern
European and vice versa? Is it mainly a matter of post-war
separation, an Iron Curtain poverty division, or is it something
more, caused by deeper roots, such as our persistent collisions
and contacts with the Orient?
More than 2.000 NGOs are active in Cluj-Napoca. Remarkable
initiatives such as The Community Foundation, The
Association for Community Relations, Youth Bank, TEDx or
Critical Mass highly contribute to shaping Cluj-Napoca as an
active, free spirited and self-determined community. Moreover,
Cluj-Napoca is currently piloting participatory budgeting, a
premiere in Romania and still a pioneering process in Europe.
Yet, this is far from being a society that agrees on its core
values and priorities. Large segments of society remain
almost disconnected: the business and cultural sectors have
little or no links, public institutions and private initiatives
rarely work together, academic research is only loosely tied to
local topics.
The dominant perception of culture in Cluj-Napoca is still
that of a sector of the elites, having little or no relation to
the everyday life. The new paradigm of culture as a factor of
social transformation and urban renewal is still a pioneering
act.
0.4 Explain the concept of the programme which would be launched if the city is
designated as European Capital of Culture.
Cluj-Napoca is a dual city, like Janus Bifrons – the two-faced
god; one looking forward and the other looking backwards.
The god of open gates, of rites of passage and transit
phenomena may be seen as a symbol of Cluj-Napoca - a city
placed at the crossroads of East and West, both geographically
and culturally/mentally. Those who come from the East first
notice the atmosphere of an “imperial” city – specific to all the
cities that have been under the Habsburg sovereignty. Those
who come from the West acknowledge the western patina of
the city, but also the common growth and reshaping brought
by the one hundred years of Romanian administration passing
through three distinctive époques: the interwar exuberance,
the working class “boost” during the communist period and after 1989 - the connection with the third millennium defined
by a double attitude: nostalgia for the past with “retro”
gestures reaching back to Old Europe, and a decisive, daring
bet on the new.
In Romania, Cluj-Napoca is probably the most Westernlike city, in terms of openness, cultural vitality and citizen
behaviour. But still we’re Easterners. For instance, we still
know better than the mechanic how to fix a car and we still
The concept of our bid, East of West, says that we are as
much a cosmopolitan and Western city in the East as we are a
mid-size provincial Eastern city in the West.
By calling our concept East of West, and not West of East - as
many would have expected -, we challenge the clichés about
this region, but with humour. We’re not interested in shaping
new ideologies.
East of West is our mission to make the Eastern ways
better known and understood. That means researching and
showcasing East-European culture, our specific models
of living, our unique resilience and capacity to deal with
unpredictable times and environments.
Sociologist Paul Watzlawick analysed with humor (in his
best-seller The Situation is Hopeless but not Serious. The
Pursuit of Unhappiness) the “densest area in the world of
absurd attitudes: the former Habsburg Empire”, composed
of a plethora of cultures so different that no common sense
solution to a problem could ever be hoped for. Inhabitants
of this paradoxical area know that life is hopeless, but not
serious, therefore they seem to be unable to tackle the
simplest possible issues while they still solve the impossible
ones with stunning ease, the absurd being their everyday
bread.
East of West also voices our programme’s goal to create a
frame for dialogue with EU’s Eastern neighbours (Ukraine and
Moldova) and with the Balkan countries which hope for a new
EU enlargement. We also plan to further the opportunity of
sharing the title year with a city from Greece by contributing
to the wider, ongoing European dialogue on re-articulating
European identity.
East of West means that, living on this symbolic frontier,
we need to redefine our collective identity through the
empowering confluence of our cultural differences.
As a model for any unlikely dialogue, we can create spaces
of contact between the Janus-faced realities of our city:
Romanians and Hungarians, Orthodox and Catholic believers,
students and workers, the centre and the outskirts, pragmatic
businessmen and idealistic art makers.
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These cultural spaces of reconnection can develop into spaces
of cross-contamination and co-creation, which ultimately
can render obsolete (some of) our false and power-laden
dichotomies since cultures don’t oppose each other. Cultures
complement each other. And most importantly: cultural
empowerment connects to social empowerment, which is the
main driver of change.
This is how cultural processes can catalyze social
transformation. This is how East and West can be taught to
listen to each other again. And ultimately to reconcile.
East of West is about the citizens of Cluj.
Cluj-Napoca boasts one of the most powerful socially
committed art and culture scenes in Romania. This will be
the backbone of our European Capital of Culture programme:
citizens belonging to different cultures will connect to create
new forms of cultural expression.
East of West fosters excellence.
Our concept encourages research inside existing artistic or
cultural currents. For instance, the programme will build upon
“Şcoala de pictură de la Cluj” – The Cluj School of Painting,
one of the internationally acclaimed artistic phenomena that
emerged from our city in the past decade.
East of West is interdisciplinary.
By connecting a wide range of different practices, the
concept encourages critical thinking, reform and innovation –
fostering emerging forms of multi- and interdisciplinary art.
East of West is inclusive.
Our concept is relevant not only to the art world, but also
to society itself. It enables the programme to actively seek
connection of disadvantaged or marginalized people to the
cultural phenomena.
East of West is collaborative.
Co-producing with our national and European partners will
create quality events to articulate European identity, but
also problematize different modes of cultural production.
The Interferences International Festival run by the
Hungarian Theatre is a world-renowned example for our city’s
participation in the European scene.
East of West is scalable.
Our concept is flexible enough to work at all levels, starting
from the level of the individual all the way up through micro
community, city and regional levels, enabling us to challenge
and enrich our cultures.
East of West is European.
Europe, just like us, needs new models of civic engagement,
cohabitation and collaboration. By co-producing our
programme with Europe we ensure that questioning
European identity comes through as an overarching theme of
our concept.
1.
Strategic Priorities
Increasing access to culture/audience
development
2.
Strengthening the cultural sector
3.
Encouraging new artistic production
4.
Increasing European and international
cooperation in the sector
Increasing cooperation between culture
and other sectors
5.
1.
1.1 Describe the cultural strategy that is in place in your city at the time of the
application, as well as the city’s plans to strengthen the capacity of the cultural
and creative sectors, including through the development of long term links
between these sectors and the economic and social sectors in your city. What
are the plans for sustaining the cultural activities beyond the year of the title?
The current Development Strategy of Cluj-Napoca was
elaborated in 2013 for the 2014-2020 period, to match with
the European Union Programming timeframe. Its vision is
formulated for the 2027 horizon, ensuring the continuity of its
main directions.
Unlike most of today’s cities that build their strategies based
on the work of a small expert group, in Cluj-Napoca the
new strategy was the coordinated effort of over 300 local
experts. This is because the city acknowledges the vast and
local expertise, in its universities, companies and third sector
initiatives.
Furthermore, mobilizing culture for urban and social
transformation is one of the strategic directions that the city
prioritizes in its long term policy document.
Of the 25 chapters of the strategy two are dedicated to
culture and creativity: The Cultural Strategy and the Strategy
for Creative Industries.
In line with the strategic choices of Europe’s dynamic cities,
the key concept brought forward by the Cultural Strategy as
an overarching priority is that culture has the potential to be
one of the city’s main catalysts for development, in terms
of social, urban and economic progress. This is the base for
a strong connection between the cultural sector and other
areas such as urban planning/architecture, social inclusion,
education and youth, participation and local economic
development.
The general strategy is built on three pillars: Innovation,
University and Participation, which are the key strategic
factors for the city’s development. Defining its profile
through these key strategic factors, the city’s aspirations are
comparable to mid-size European cities like Graz, Linz, Karlovy
Vary, or Szeged, that are similar by being dynamic cities, with
Nine strategic priorities have been identified, strengthening
strong universities, cultural and creative sectors and civil
the cultural sector being among the highest ranking priorities
society.
in the Cultural Strategy. Since the European Capital of Culture
title is aimed for the year 2021, the end term of the current
Culture is seen as a transversal value, this being
strategy, the ECoC is a stepping stone between the city’s
acknowledged in the very Vision of the city: “By its dynamic current cultural status and the vision aimed at in the long run.
and vibrant cultural life supportive of experimentation
Operational Programmes provided by the Cultural Strategy
and participation, Cluj-Napoca will become a European
are process-based, incremental frameworks (eg Percent-forcultural landmark. Culture will be a transversal factor in
Art, City Card, Cultural Voucher), thus guaranteeing the
community organizing, becoming the motor of social
continuous support of the municipality for the cultural sector
transformation and urban regeneration.”
beyond the ECoC year.
6.
Developing cultural infrastructure and
ensuring protection of heritage
7.
Ensuring professional development of
cultural workers
8.
Developing a culture of public space use
9.
Improving city cultural communication
11
Measures/Operational Programmes
Integrated plan for audience development and cultural education
Access to Culture – City Card, Cultural Voucher
Activating cultural spaces in the periphery Grant Programme
Raising the local budget allocation for culture and youth projects from 0,6% of the city budget in 2013 to 3% in 2020
Percent-for-Art/Fund for Public Art
City Cultural Calendar
Statistic Observatory - Research on culture and cultural participation
Grant Programme, Artist-in-Residence scheme, Mobility Grants
Programme for Excellence in Contemporary Arts - Research, Archive, European Centre for Contemporary Arts
Artist-in-Residence scheme, Mobility Grants
Fund for International Co-Production
Platform for Cross-Sector Cooperation, Platform for cooperation with the economic sector - Networking Sessions,
Conference, Award
Cooperation projects: City Card, Cultural Voucher, Percent-for-Art, InJoy Fund
Cultural Infrastructure Management – access to city-owned venues, rehabilitation and opening of new spaces for
culture (Firemen Tower)
Cultural Infrastructure Development - European Centre for Contemporary Arts, Transylvania Cultural Centre
Rehabilitation and protection of material and immaterial heritage
Training sessions and support in developing institutional strategies / Integrated plan for access to culture and
audience development
Grant Programme, Artist-in-Residence Scheme, Mobility Grants for local artists/cultural workers to participate in
international events
Guide for Organisers of Events in Public Space
Percent-for-Art/Fund for Public Art
Integrated City Communication System
It is noteworthy that some of the measures are already being
implemented. The first version of the City Calendar (an
online system which aims to become a complete agenda of
cultural events in the city and a planning tool for venues and
public spaces) was launched in 2015 - on the occasion of the
Cluj-Napoca 2015 European Youth Capital. A new Integrated
City Communication System (display panels, totems, digital
urban screens, signs) has been adopted following a public
space design competition - and is currently in implementation.
And, most importantly during the last two years the annual
city budget for culture was increased by 1.54 m euros (from
1.26 m euros in 2013 to 2.8 m euros in 2015).
The Strategy for the Creative Industries is based on the
concept of Smarter City, envisioning the future welfare of
the city in close relation to with the creativity not only of its
business and creative class but also of its citizens. This goes
one step further than the Smart City concept: it aims for
the co-created city. The strategy is thus rethinking creativity
and innovation – key concepts of creative industries – in
terms of urbanity and the social realm, providing measures
to transform the city into a living urban laboratory. The
experimental and social creativity drive of the projects
included in the Explore and Activate programme lines of the
ECoC bid are serving the goal of Cluj-Napoca to become an
urban laboratory.
Two other distinct chapters of the City Strategy – one
dedicated to Cinema industry and the other to Information
and Communications Technology (ICT) - are setting
milestones for the development of Cluj-Napoca as a hub for
creative industries through:
1. Regional Fund for film production within the Regional
Centre for Excellence in Creative Industries (CREIC)
2. Cluj Innovation City - a project targeting the eco-social
development, based on research and innovation in four
directions: biotechnology, IT, health, sustainable energy and
environment.
To sum up, through its long term strategy, the city of ClujNapoca has committed itself to making better use of culture
and creativity to improve welfare and cooperation among
its citizens and raise its international profile. To this view a
stronger cultural sector, a vibrant cultural life and cultural
participation are directly supported by the set-up policies.
The European Capital of Culture is seen as a catalyst for these
processes and all the projects within the bid are channels for
the city’s long term vision.
12
1.2 How is the European Capital of Culture action included in this strategy?
Becoming a European Capital of Culture is one of the ways
in which we plan to achieve (part of) the city’s long-term
vision: “Cluj-Napoca will be defined as a European city,
the historic centre of Transylvania, a community with
a unique intercultural character. Cluj-Napoca will be a
network of interconnected communities, a laboratory for
social creativity, a city with young spirit, equally friendly
and responsible.” It is to this vision that the East of West
concept of our ECoC bid is contributing.
By defining a long-term vision (2027), although the current
strategy is designed for the 2014-2020 period, continuity of
the principles that the current cultural policies and the ECoC
bid provide is guaranteed for the next strategy period 20212027.
The European Capital of Culture action is listed in the
strategy as one of the strategic projects, being one of the
few initiatives that foster the interest and energy of almost
all sectors in the city’s life. It is also one of the transversal
themes of the Cultural strategy, signifying that the projects
in the ECoC Programme are in synergy with the measures of
the strategy.
The City Development Strategy 2014-2020 includes a special
chapter dedicated to the European Capital of Culture action
that:
nominates the ECoC action as a priority project of the city
for the 2014-2027 period;
names the ECoC programme’s objectives and specifies
that these objectives are tightly connected to the
directions that the city is committed to by the actual
strategy;
acknowledges the collective effort in developing the
actions proposed in the bid, thus recommending that
its flagship projects be included in the city portfolio of
priority projects;
names the key sectors that the ECoC programme foresees
participation from and impact on, besides Culture and
Creative Industries: youth, education, participation,
tourism, research and innovation, economy, architecture
and urbanism, city marketing, social inclusion,
philanthropy, IT and international relations.
The dedicated chapter also provides that connection
between the current Cultural Strategy and the Cultural
Strategy for 2021-2027 especially with regard to the key
components of the ECoC bid is maintained. To this view, the
document establishes a monitoring mechanism based on
a Statistical Observatory allowing a longitudinal analysis
of data related to cultural participation and development of
the cultural sector and creative industries in Cluj-Napoca. It
also foresees that a group of experts will meet annually to
monitor the progress in implementing the strategy and to
decide on updating its measures in relation to developments
in the cultural, economic and social areas, including such
events as winning the European Capital of Culture title or
adhering to other European and international programmes
such as European Green Capital, Intercultural City, Special
Olympics.
The project is seen as a potential turning point, generating
the necessary critical mass for the city to take a distinct turn
13
into the desired development direction. ECoC is the ONE city
project that has the potential to mobilize citizens, culture,
business, academia and politics alike, to make them thrive
and co-create, to sparkle new connections and synergies both
towards ourselves as a community and towards Europe.
1.3 If your city is awarded the title of European Capital of Culture, what do you
think would be the long-term cultural, social and economic impact on the city
(including in terms of urban development)?
Culturally, we will see an increase in cultural education
and in the quality of the cultural output. New curatorial
programmes and new productions, such as art in public
spaces, will strengthen the citizen-city relationship. Tens
of thousands of our people will be getting in touch, for the
first time in their lives, with performers and performances
they would never imagine existing. Cluj-Napoca will become
a melting-pot for culture and art. The ECoC project is not
only for its inhabitants, but also for the whole region of
Transylvania and Romania.
Due to the ECoC title, our city will have its own European
Centre for Contemporary Arts, expanding the path opened
by the Cluj School of Painting. The research and exhibition
programme of the centre as well as the performing arts
programme, based on co-production and European mobility
of artworks and artists, directly contribute to enriching the
European contemporary art space. They also help raise the
profile of the Eastern European cultural scene.
The relationship between our city and Europe will be defined
by a higher quality international exchange (guest exhibitions,
artists-in-residence, co-productions) and cultural diplomacy.
Regarding our citizens, we expect better understanding and
assuming of European values, improved language skills
and increasing memberships in wide European cultural or
voluntary networks.
Socially, the core mechanism of the Cluj-Napoca bid is social
empowerment through cultural empowerment. Our
vision speaks of creating a new type of sociality, based on the
inclusion of the underprivileged, people with special needs
and minorities. We stimulate our ethnic groups to create
common projects, by proposing an Intercultural Platform.
Our program will trigger inclusion processes that will lead
to sustainable solutions for some of the problems of the
Roma community: adult and children education programmes,
training, civic involvement. These processes will increase
mutual trust between stakeholders: the Roma communities,
authorities, the educational system, the business environment,
NGOs.
With the help of the Com’on Cluj-Napoca, InJoy Fund
for community projects and Open Academy of Change
we create opportunities for micro communities to take the
initiative to transform their neighbourhoods into better living
places. Furthermore, our Volunteer Programme involves
thousands of local and European citizens to experience and
co-create our European urban laboratory.
Implementing the complex and highly networked ECoC
programme, the European profile of the city will rise, gaining
acknowledgement for its culture and vitality and attracting
more visitors. The ECoC year will also help us to better
articulate our European citizenship. One of the major stakes
of our bid is creating new models of European identity and
citizenship.
In terms of urban and economic development, the ECoC
programme helps the city to maximise its use of creativity
and innovation. The regeneration planned for along the
river Someș will be one of the most important changes in
terms of urban development: by turning the face of the city
towards the water significant opportunities are generated for
improved transport, green areas, sport and leisure facilities.
Cluj Media City, our creative industries project, supports
start-up initiatives in design, new media and film production.
It also supports interdisciplinary projects leading to
innovation and development of new services, which the IT
sector needs in order to shift from an outsourcing sector to a
sustainable industry.
The new or rehabilitated hard infrastructure will facilitate the
cultural programming of the city. This also means a special
focus on the soft infrastructure – networks of creativity,
innovation and knowledge. Hosting international events
(exhibitions, concerts, conferences, festivals, shows etc.)
will also increase the overall economic impact of the ECoC
programme. Last but not least, tourism and tourist services
will increase.
14
1.4 Describe your plans for monitoring and evaluating the impact of the title on
your city and for disseminating the results of the evaluation.
“Non scholae sed vitae discimus”.
We learn for life, not for school – says a famous quote, and
the same holds for our European Capital of Culture bid: it
needs to encompass citizenship and urbanity in their fullest
sense.
Our Cluj-Napoca ECoC project is a process of social
empowerment through cultural empowerment. To structure
our approach, we developed a theory of change called WEAST
(that implies five phases to produce community change, which
are also our five programme lines) and an Open Academy of
Change as the network of knowledge and interaction needed
for this to happen.
If we could compare the Open Academy to a school – and
more, it is also an open laboratory rooted in the very life of
the city where new models of citizenship and participation
are developed – these processes would constitute our
learning. But then - following the distinction made by the
Latin quote – everything we do we do for life, not for school,
and we are facing the question: where does school stop and
life start – that is, where do we draw the line between the
ECoC process and the overall city life? Are accountability and
responsibility the limits of our action? How do we tell the
impact of our action in the context of all the other up and
running development processes of the city? Then, how do
we define and measure success and failure? These were key
questions we kept in mind when designing the evaluation
and monitoring system to assess our contribution to the
development of Cluj-Napoca.
Who will carry out the evaluation?
The evaluation of the impact of the ECoC programme is based
on a strategy combining external and internal evaluation.
It will be carried out by an evaluation and monitoring team
consisting of experts from the Babeș-Bolyai University –
Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication
Sciences (FSPAC), responsible for external evaluation and
an evaluation team within the ECoC project team, providing
internal evaluation. While the main assessment is done
by the external evaluation body, the internal evaluation
focuses on overseeing internal processes and progress
in implementing the ECoC plans, aiming to improve the
programme management on the go.
FSPAC is not only a leading academic structure in the field,
it is the body that coordinated the elaboration of the ClujNapoca Development Strategy and the evaluation of the ClujNapoca 2015 European Youth Capital programme.
Will concrete objectives and milestones
between the designation and the year of the
title be included in your evaluation plan?
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2026
Assemble team of experts.
Recorrelate with long-term strategic city development plans.
Contact Greek and third country ECoC winner.
Build baseline indicator set.
Recruit survey staff, undertake evaluation.
Produce first analysis (Ex-Ante Evaluation Report).
Annual measurement of core indicators.
Match analysis targets against ECoC process, compare to other ECoC
city experiences, adjust plans.
Publish findings (academic, cultural operator, citizen levels),
conference – Formative Evaluation Report I.
Review development/changes, produce 2021 forecasts, adjust plans,
make recommendations for action.
Set up resources and system to measure the 2021 ECoC process.
Produce and publish progress analysis, conference - Formative
Evaluation Report II.
Carry out extensive surveys throughout the year.
Produce and publish preliminary results, press conference, by
November 2021.
Produce final reports by September 2022.
Communicate findings with stakeholders (academic, cultural, citizen)
- dissemination conference.
Produce and publish impact evaluation, conference.
What baseline studies or surveys - if any will you intend to use?
We intend to use as baseline studies:
Quality of Life Barometers – FSPAC, recent edition: 2013
Study on the International Dimension of Cultural
Activities in Cluj-Napoca - Cluj-Napoca 2021
Association, editions: 2012, 2014
Diagnosis Study on the Cultural Sector in Cluj-Napoca
- Cluj-Napoca 2021 Association, editions: 2012, 2014
Cluj-Napoca 2021. Attitudes and Perceptions. Cultural
Consumption in Cluj-Napoca – Romanian Institute for
Evaluation and Strategy, editions: 2013, 2015
Cultural Vitality of Romania’s Towns and Cities –
National Institute for Cultural Research and Training,
recent edition: 2010
Cultural Consumption Barometer – National Institute
for Cultural Research and Training, recent editions: 2012,
2014, conducted biannually
Eurobarometer – European Commission, DG COMM,
conducted twice each year
Public Opinion Barometers in Romania – released by
different research institutes
Data provided by the National Institute for Statistics
What sort of information will you track and
monitor?
In setting up the assessment and evaluation logic of the
Cluj-Napoca ECoC process we need to return once more to
the „non scholae sed vitae discimus”. The Open Academy
of Change is our main metaphor of a school embedded in
the city’s life. Then the WEAST programming logic is the
curriculum of the Academy and the activities done in the
urban laboratory of the city constitute the learning process
itself.
The Cluj-Napoca ECoC bid is focusing on change - by boosting
existing and developing new models of cultural and social
action. As a consequence with the Open Academy we need
to emphasize both its production capacity (e.g cultural and
social production) and its innovation capacity (e.g. cultural
and social innovation). The design of the assessment
framework needs to take into account both of these processes
in order to produce a nuanced assessment of our ECoC
programme.
Starting from bottom up, the Wonder, Explore, Activate,
Share and Trust components of WEAST serve as courses
of the WEAST curriculum. WEAST is both a production
and innovation curriculum. Whenever a number of actors,
citizens or cultural producers, define their optimum mix
for participating in the Cluj-Napoca ECoC process, they all
produce existing or innovate new forms of cultural and social
action.
As the five programme lines interrelate and complete
each other in WEAST, their individual performance will be
evaluated in the framework of the overall WEAST context. Our
assessment design includes a qualitative methodology based
on interviews, testimonials and focus groups to tackle this
dimension of the evaluation.
15
(1) Considering production evaluation is more straightforward
to grasp and parameterize. Existing European methodologies
- European Capitals of Culture (ECoC) 2020-2033,
Guidelines for the cities’ own evaluations of the results
of each ECoC and An international framework of good
practice in research and delivery of the European Capital
of Culture programme - serve as a productive starting point
for our evaluation.
(2) Regarding innovation (prototyping new cultural and social
action) we first note that there is no standard for measuring
innovation capacity and performance, not even in “pure”
academic contexts. Returning again to the “non scholae
sed vitae discimus”, measuring school (ECoC) performance
apart from life (Cluj-Napoca) performance can become a
challenging task. Taking into consideration that the Open
Academy of Change itself is immersed in the urban laboratory
of Cluj-Napoca, in what conditions the emergence of a new
form of cultural expression happening in the city in the ECoC
year can be attributed to the ECoC process?
These questions are not easy to answer and need to be taken
into consideration in constructing the indicator set and the
evaluation methodology.
As a final consideration, due to the high variety of individual
and micro social experience (the focus of our ECoC bid) we
found quantitative data could be insufficient to grasp the
specificities of our process. As a consequence evaluation will
be carried out using a hybrid model between qualitative and
quantitative approaches.
Quantitative data will be collected through surveys based on
questionnaires and interviews, data provided by institutional
actors (cultural organisations and institutions, tourism
and travel companies, public administration, a. o.), media
monitoring, public opinion polls and barometers, and a local
system to count and differentiate audience groups based on
bracelets of different colours and access cards. The Cultural
Strategy provides that a Statistic Observatory is set up, with
the view to defining a pool of key indicators and monitoring
tools to be used by local cultural producers. The data provided
is analysed by a Strategy Development Committee to
review on an annual basis the progress in the implementation
of the strategy. The Committee will also have the task to
evaluate the progress in the implementation of the ECoC plan.
Sources of qualitative data will include personal narratives,
journals, blogs, collected via interviews, focus groups, a.o. A
group of 15 people of different backgrounds will be followed
over the ten year span of the evaluation, through interviews
and photo documenting, as a way to generating a story
collection illustrating the relationship dynamic created and
the impact of the ECoC process on these people’s lives.
16
Objectives / Aims
Cultural development
Range, diversity, quality of arts & culture
Indicators / Success
• Number of cultural activities in the city / from the current average of 1.500 per year to
4.000 in the year 2021 and to an average of 2.500 in the years after
• Diversity of cultural programmes / 60% of the local cultural operators diversify their cultural
programmes by the year of 2022
European profile (of the cultural sector) and
European/transnational cooperation
Audience development (access &
participation)
Sustainability of the local cultural sector
Cultural heritage
Cultural Infrastructure
Urban Development
European profile of the city
Urban Development
Urban regeneration (Developing and
regenerating urban areas)
• Programmes in rural areas / 5% of the cultural programme in 2021 is developed in the rural
areas
• Artistic events in the neighbourhoods, in the metropolitan area and in the
Cluj County / + 100 %
• Total value of ECoC cultural programmes
• By 2022, participation of the local cultural operators to international networks / + 20%
• Cultural activities in the city involving European artists/+15%
• Number and quality of projects reflecting European diversity and themes, European coproductions/50% of the programme, 25% in 2022, volume and % of positive media coverage
• Presence of artists and cultural products from Cluj-Napoca at international level / +20%
• Increase the attendance (total number and frequency) of local citizens in cultural projects
• Number of sustainable opportunities for cultural participation of special audiences (youth,
elderly, disadvantaged and marginalized groups, including minorities)/+50%
• Performance of new ticketing and booking policy / 10% starting to use it in first year, 7%
increase / year
• Number of schools from Cluj County enrolled in the cultural education program/ 80%
• Number of cultural operators with audience development strategies/+300%
• Number of cultural organisations which develop their internal capacity (criteria to be
set by the Monitoring Team: increase in the budget, no of employees, new knowledge and
knowhow, new partners etc.)/+70%
• Percent-for-Art / Tax-based Fund launched by 2018
• Number of employees in the cultural sector/ + 20%
• Percent of budgets sustained from other sources (corporate, EU funds, tickets, crowdfunding etc.)/ + 20%
• Number of cooperations between the actors of the local cultural sectors through Open
Academy of Change
• Number of initiatives which preserve and protect the cultural heritage/10% of ECoC
programme
• Number of heritage (rural, traditional, historical, spiritual, industrial etc.) sites and venues
activated during cultural events/+25
• Number of cooperations which combine local cultural heritage and traditional art forms
with new, innovative and experimental cultural expressions/5%
• Building and setting-up the European Centre for Contemporary Art by 2020
• Building and setting-up the Transilvania Cultural Centre by 2021
• New art spaces, existing non-art spaces transformed into art-spaces (temporary and
permanent)/+7
• Number of facilities improving access to cultural venues for persons with disabilities/+30%
• Brand awareness of the city in Europe
• Number of tourists and tourists’ perception
• Volume and % of positive media coverage for the city
• Awareness of ECoC among residents
• Number of active agreements of the municipality with other European cities/+20%
• Number of urban zones regenerated (Someș River area, industrial areas and areas in the
outskirts of the city)/>3
• Number of projects piloting new sustainable urban living models (and the number of
people involved in)/>10 projects, >500 people involved
• Rehabilitated public spaces and monuments /according to the plan from Chapter 6
• Special transportation facilities for events of the Cultural Programme/+100%
Sources of information/
Evaluation Tools
• Study of the cultural sector questionnaire, annual reports
• Statistic Observatory
• Study of the cultural sector questionnaire, annual reports
• Study of the cultural sector
• ECoC programme
• ECoC programme
• ECoC programme
• ECoC programme
• Cultural participation survey
• Statistic observatory
• ECoC programme
• ECoC database
• ECoC programme
• ECoC programme
• ECoC programme
• ECoC programme/database
• ECoC programme
Objectives / Aims
Social Transformation
Citizen participation and empowerment
Enhance connectivity of local communities
Social Creativity / New Social Production
models (developing and piloting)
European Awareness and Engagement
East-West dynamic (cultural diversity,
understanding, valuing)
Eastern European Culture (understanding,
valuing, promoting)
Future of EU, generate debate, new EU
topics
Improve relations between EU and Eastern
neighbours
Tourism development
• Increase the duration of the visits / from 2 to 3 days
• Variety of touristic offer to increase
• Quality of services (Customer satisfaction)
• Number of connections (opportunities to travel) in the region and in Europe
• ECoC programme
• Number of local household actively involved in alternative tourist networks
(Airbnb, Couchsurfing etc.)
• Increase the number of volunteer city guides
Economic development
Creative industries Development
• City European Affairs Office Data
• ECoC programme
• Urbanism Department Data
• ECoC programme
• Urbanism Department Data
• Quality of collaborations
• Number of social creativity and pilot projects generated />30 projects
• Number of people involved in the pilot projects/>2.500 participants
• Quality and duration of projects
• Citizens' awareness of the diversity of European cultures and of a common cultural space
• Number of artists and professionals involved in the East-West works
• Number of audience/outreach of these works
• Number of experimental cooperation works building on the East as a resource for excellence
• Number of works focusing on Eastern European culture
• Number of artists and professionals from Eastern Europe
• Number of audience/outreach of these works
• Number of opportunities for public debate on EU topics - number of events, number of
participants, number of EU countries involved in the events
• Number of international co-productions with partners in EU neighbourhood area
• Number of tourists visiting Cluj-Napoca / +100% by 2021
• ECoC programme
• ECoC programme
• ECoC programme
• ECoC programme
• European perception study
(applied before and after)
Indicators / Success
• InJoy Cluj Fund – value in euro, number of projects supported, number of participants/
• Participatory budgeting project with Cultural components/operational by 2018
Number of projects and number of participants
• Increase the number of citizens who are involved in decision making (participatory
budgeting, public debates and consultations)/+30%
• Increase the number of citizens who are involved in community development
initiatives/+40%
• Number of Facilitators active in the Facilitator Programme />40
• Number of facilitated initiatives
• Number of citizens and organisations that go through our Facilitation process
• Number of cultural, educational and social projects addressing ethnic, confessional,
professional, age groups/25%
• Number of active meeting places and opportunities in the city (public spaces, regular
meetings, networking events)/+40%
• Number of cooperations between actors of the local community/+50%
Economic actors (increase cooperation
with the local community and EU partners)
• Increase in GDP and employment in cultural and creative sectors in the city
• Establishing Film Production Fund/ value in euro
• Number of local independent film productions and co-productions
• Number of start-ups supported by the ECoC actions
• Number of people working in the supported activities
• Centre for Multimedia Production - opportunities - access to funds, space, equipment for
multimedia producers
• Number of creatives involved / number of multimedia works produced
• Number of opportunities for interdisciplinary cooperations (local + EU) (residencies, etc)
• Number of professionals from different sectors working collaboratively across disciplines
(artists, craftsmen, IT workers, researchers, fashion designers, engineers, architects,
designers) in ECoC programme
• Number of innovation fairs, innovations / innovative products supported/facilitated
17
Sources of information/
Evaluation Tools
• Public opinion and participation
survey
• Public opinion and participation
survey / ECoC progr. database
• ECoC programme
• Interviews, Focus groups
• Case studies, 5 years after
• Surveys
• Surveys addressing tourists
• Tourist operators data
• Tourist operators data and focus
groups / Tourism Office
• Tourism Office, Travel agents
• Avram Iancu International Airport
• Internet stats
• Tourism Office
• Municipality Office
• ECoC programme
• ECoC programme
• Focus groups and interviews
18
European dimension
How will you define “success”?
There are two levels on which we measure success.
Firstly, reaching all target indicators of the above table will certainly mean success. The implementation team is committed to
reaching all indicators. Furthermore, since our project aims to put into practice a model of change made of the five steps of the
WEAST process, success means a boost of the following five dimensions of the city’s life:
Wonder – knowing and understanding each other better, as local and European cultures;
Explore – increase the number and quality of experimental work;
Activate – wider participation of citizens in the life of the city and European matters;
Share – more opportunities for learning and sharing;
Trust – wide dissemination of what has been produced and validated here, raised profile as a European city.
This is the level where we measure relevance, efficacy
and efficiency, sustainability and impact, using established
evaluation and monitoring tools.
On the other hand, based on the "non scholae sed vitae
discimus" principle, success of the Cluj-Napoca ECoC process
will have to be measured beyond our figures and charts.
Among the qualitative tools we plan to deploy in order to
measure impact we envisioned a three-level assessment of
social relations developing within the ECoC process:
1. individual levels
2. micro group levels (e.g. family, members of an art space)
3. group levels (neighbourhood, professional cluster)
Accordingly, we plan to select and follow 15 individuals, five
micro groups and three groups during their participation in
the production of a cultural event, the ECoC process and the
cultural life of the city, respectively. The resulting qualitative
studies (ethnographies) will shed light on the qualitative
aspects of our ECoC bid. At this level we keep our definition
of success open to the interpretation of these individuals and
groups.
Over what time frame and how regularly will
the evaluation be carried out?
The evaluation is carried out over a ten year period, 20162026 and includes four studies:
1. Ex-ante Evaluation
- before the programme implementation, 2016/2017
2. Formative Evaluation I
- during the preparation period, 2018
3. Formative Evaluation II
- during the preparation period, 2020
4. Ex-post Evaluation
- after the end of the title year, 2022
5. Impact Evaluation
- 5 years after the title year, 2026
Monitoring will be an on-going activity and will serve as basis
for evaluation.
A public report of each evaluation will be published online
and in printed version. Special dissemination events will
be organised at the release of the second Formative
Evaluation, Ex-post Evaluation and Impact Evaluation.
To share the results of the ECoC process and its evaluation
we plan to release: an ECoC Album – a collection of faces
and stories related to ECoC, a documentary film based on
ethnographies, and the ECoC Catalogue – an overview of the
projects and their results.
19
20
European dimension
2.
European dimension
Europe is at the heart of our application just as well as
Cluj-Napoca is, at heart, a European city. Our history,
our destiny, our ways of being, our culture, our mindset
and our everyday realities are European. Furthermore,
we take up the challenge of dealing with today’s most
ardent European issues. The themes of our projects are
the topics of every European, the space of our projects
is inhabited by Europeans. And, finally, we aim to bring a
higher contribution to Europe: to give new meaning to
Europeanness and to provide tested models for living
in this new Europe.
The challenge that we take through our programme is to
contribute to resignifying Europe, to redefining European
values and perspectives. If most of the keywords we use to
describe Europeanness have originated in the Western history
and traditions – liberal democracy, rule of law, prosperity,
respect for human rights – through our concept East of West
and the projects that we designed to put this concept into
practice we are adding new meanings to Europe.
21
East side stories
In the Romanian countryside a traditional concept
of solidarity called ”clacă” is still functioning. More
villagers get together to help one family get big work
done in a single day – such as cooking for weddings
and funerals or harvesting the vineyard.
In the city, on wooden benches in front of their block
of flats neighbours spend time together talking and
sharing their homemade elderflower juice.
It’s common practice to lend each other tools like
drilling machines and to help neighbours to find a
quick fix when their car broke down.
Our Easternness is our resource for this process of resignifying
Europe. In today’s complex realities, with social, economic and
environmental disruptions the old strategic thinking proves
insufficient. Our experience of living through crisis, transition
and scarcity has taught us to act in solidarity, to be creative in
finding solutions to unexpected problems, to innovate while
staying connected to traditions and being resilient to change.
And Europe today needs this resourcefulness.
2.1 Elaborate on the scope and quality of the activities:
Promoting the cultural diversity of Europe, intercultural dialogue and greater
mutual understanding between European citizens;
East of West and WEAST are our keys to unlock the multidimensional realities of Europe.
Bringing local cultures to the European attention
We aim to bring the culture of Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania,
Romania and Eastern Europe in general to the attention of
the wider European community. Our approach is to place the
local specificities in a European perspective, thus creating
a sense of familiarity for Europeans of a different cultural
background.
work placement programmes. The cultural and tourism
experiences we offer through the ECoC agenda do not simply
present the history and heritage of the place, they allow
the visitor to zoom into the details of the lived realities of
Romanians, Hungarians, Roma and the other cultures that
have been part of this history.
Multilingualism is for us both thematic focus and a tool for
inclusion. On one hand, our Literature and Performing Arts
Transylvanian Village is not simply about rural life in North- programmes aim to gather authors and works throughout
West Romania. It is about the history of Central and Eastern
Eastern Europe to build a comprehensive collection and
Europe and its multicultural pastiche. It highlights rural
showcase. We set up an ambitious translation programme
lifestyle and traditions from all parts of Europe and generates, to introduce contemporary literature and drama from the
through artistic residencies opened to international artists, a region to Europe-wide audiences and producers. On the
reflection on the connection between rural and urban life in
other hand, multilingualism is the choreography we choose
today’s Europe.
for our entire communication and promotion plan. We plan
to use Romanian, Hungarian, English, French and German to
We invite European citizens of all ages to get a direct taste of communicate our cultural programme.
the local cultures by engaging in our volunteer and
22
European dimension
European dimension
The excellence delivered to the world by our artists,
academics and scientists is illustrated by our cultural
programme through exhibitions, performances and
interdisciplinary projects. For instance, the ECoC is a great
opportunity to promote throughout Europe The Cluj School
of Painting or the efforts of our chemistry researchers
from Babeș-Bolyai University that are experimenting with
producing artificial blood.
European mobility is in the very nature of an entire
generation. Cultural operators and local entrepreneurs
are active in European networks. Their everyday work is
European work. The cultural programme we have designed
highlights this mobility and connectedness. Furthermore, the
fact that most of the works are developed in co-production
between local and European artists is a core principle to our
programme.
Enhancing the European experience of our citizens
Moreover, we experiment and pilot new approaches to
our European realities through our projects in culture and
For the younger generation, open borders and freedom
social creativity. We look for ways to make urban living more
to move across Europe for tourism, education or work has
sustainable through our Social Creativity projects, to further
become a natural reality. Yet large segments of the population intercultural dialogue through our Intercultural Platform
have never travelled abroad. For them, and for all the citizens and to pilot new forms of participation to decision making
of our city and region, we aim to create opportunities to get
through our Participatory Budgeting project.
closer to understanding and experiencing Europe’s cultural
richness and diversity. Our artistic programme features
Promoting mutual understanding
various forms of artistic expressions, highlights the European
tangible and intangible heritage, and, at the same time, brings Since the fourth enlargement, European Integration has
into focus specificities of various cultures from North to
actually been an Eastern expansion of the Union. This further
South, from West to East.
proves that the need to redefine Europe to reflect the values
of both East and West is fundamental. The countries currently
By earning the European title and engaging in our programme aspiring to become members of EU are in the Balkans, to the
– through community projects, the Open University and
North and to the East of Romania. East of West means that we
volunteering – citizens of our city and region become more
are bringing artists and citizens of these territories together
aware and proud as well, of their Europeanness.
in various projects to explore the meaning that Europe has
for them and to make visible what they can offer to Europe.
This is part of our strategy to promote mutual understanding,
along with self reflection, among European citizens.
Highlighting the common aspects of European cultures, heritage and history, as
well as European integration and current European themes;
The programme we put together is deeply rooted in European
realities and ethos. Some of these European realities and
experiences are built-in within our projects; others are
tackled as themes for discussion and artistic reflection.
The projects of the Wonder line of our programme expose
and value a rich heritage which is rooted in European history.
Explore is looking at the future of Europe, while Activate,
Share and Trust reflect our European present.
Today around 75% of Europe’s population is living in cities
and the trend is increasing. The future of Europe – as stated
in the Europe 2020 Strategy – is tightly defined around
the cities‘ potential to grow in a smart way, to become poles
of innovation, to offer higher quality standards through
opportunities for employment, education, culture and
inclusion. All of these in a sustainable way. By assuming the
fact that Cluj-Napoca is an element of the larger constellation
of European cities, the Urban Laboratory we are designing to
set in motion will not only serve the citizens of Cluj-Napoca,
but Europe at large. In this framework, Cluj Media City is
our key project designed to increase youth employment
in the creative sectors, where currently a large number of
university graduates in arts and the media fail to find jobs,
and to support research, development and innovation for the
IT sector.
Our Open Academy of Change is also addressing
the intergenerational issues – providing platforms for
participation and inclusion for old and young, delivering IT
courses for the elderly and bringing the topics of old age,
sickness and death on the public agenda.
Work mobility and migration are also our concern. ClujNapoca is a pole of attraction for work and study for the
entire Transylvanian region. The local population is in
constant change – with a large number of students coming
in and leaving out as graduates from the local universities,
with a high rate of work and brain drain towards the West
and with a growing trend of reverse migration and foreigners
moving in. A high percentage of the students that graduate
from the University of Medicine leave the country for better
paid jobs in France and Germany, which will affect the quality
and cost of health services in the country in the years to
come. Currently more than three million Romanian citizens
are working in other European countries and sometimes they
have to leave their families behind. Thus children growing
up alone or under supervision of relatives or neighbours
23
has become one of the most alarming social problems in
Romania’s recent years.
The universities from Cluj-Napoca host over 3.000 foreign
students, around 600 Erasmus students annually and
hundreds of academic and cultural exchanges. Students from
Republic of Moldova, from France and from Tunisia lead their
student life in rather self-isolated communities. Some of
them, especially the French students, seem to fight depression
and anxiety related to the double pressure to live in a city
from a foreign country and to live up to the expectations of
their university studies. Within our programme we take up the
challenge of developing the platforms and networks that will
help the foreign students to better accommodate to the city
and become part of its life. We address all these issues in our
project InClujing You.
Migration and politics towards refugees are among the most
painful problems EU is currently looking for a solution to.
We share these concerns and take responsibility to facilitate
reflection around them within our Future Fabulators
European story world. Future Fabulators– facilitated by an
already established transnational network of experimental
arts organisations – is a project that encourages people
to imagine experience and investigate living in a range
of possible futures of Europe, making use of forecasting
methods and physical narrative experiences. It may mean
a student writing a letter from the future self, imagining a
day of her life and work in 2045 if, say, EU were to cease to
exist. Or a group of architects drawing up a city plan for a
hypothetical reality 50 years from now when cities would
have borders to control migration. All these are immersive
ways of raising awareness of European topics such as work
practices, migration and demographics that directly connected
to our living reality.
The crisis we face now in Europe is not just a crisis of
economies and structures, but first and foremost of models,
trust in the value of common, to some extent, a crisis of
democracy itself. Europe today needs a new narrative – the
initiative New Narrative for Europe of the former European
Commission president José Manuel Barroso, confirms this
need and attempts to provide an answer. Yet narratives have
little power until they become lived realities.
What Cluj-Napoca can offer Europe is inspiration, models
and a new story. A story about a new Europe which is larger
in both geography and mind frame, more inclusive and
welcoming, more resilient and sustainable, more self-aware
and better connected. Our programme not only tells the story
of this resignified Europe, but it also includes small scale
exercises that embody it.
European dimension
from twin cities, For example, we plan to invite the French
company La Machine from our twin city Nantes
Featuring European artists, cooperation with operators and cities in different
countries, and transnational partnerships. Name some European and international
artists, operators and cities with which cooperation is envisaged and specify the
type of exchanges in question. Name the transnational partnerships your city has
already established or plans to establish
European cooperation is a transversal priority in our
programme. All our flagship projects and at least 65% of the
portfolio projects are built on a international cooperation.
European partners in the projects are long-term partners of
local operators – such as the Kulturzentrum Klausenburg
(German Cultural Centre), Institut Franҫais (French Cultural
Institute), British Council, Magyar Filmunió (Hungarian Film
Institute), Salon du livre in Paris, the Mozarteum International
Foundation in Salzburg, Time’s Up (Austria), Bunker (Slovenia),
FoAM (Belgium), Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute
(Portugal), Arts admin (UK) – and new partners that we are
reaching out to through international networks and open
calls.
A platform for European artistic exchange is also included in
our design. Opportunities for residencies and placements with
companies and art institutions across Europe are offered to
local cultural producers in order to enhance cooperation and
mobility of artists and artworks.
Our option to include artists and companies from other
European countries is to provide support for co-productions
with local cultural institutions, rather than simply import oneoff events.
The East of West Award will highlight and acknowledge
major contributions in connecting and promoting artistic
cooperation and coproduction between East and West.
According to our research, in recent years 38% of the cultural
events produced by the main cultural operators in ClujNapoca have been involving international artists and just
4% have been co-produced with partners in other countries.
We plan that by 2022, 60% of the main events in the city’s
cultural agenda have a European dimension and at least 25%
of them are co-produced with European partners. To this
aim 65% of the projects in our cultural programme include
European artists and 50% are co-produced by at least two
European partners.
Thus, a major artist-in-residence programme is developed.
This comprehensive AIR scheme includes facilities for
accommodation and production for periods ranging from 4
weeks to 8 months for European and international artists
from all disciplines. All residencies have a local organisation/
institution as host and co-production partner. A special focus
is put on collective cross- and multi-discipline residencies.
Working groups of artists, curators and art managers from
various EU countries are involved in a Nomad Academy that
travels through the Eastern European countries, in a complex
programme including training, exploration of the local
cultural scenes, working placements and an experiment in
curating a representative programme of Visual Arts, Literature,
Music and Performing Arts.
Key partners for these activities are the European networks
that the University of Art and Design and the Gheorghe Dima
Music Academy are active members of: Central European
Exchange Program for University Studies - CEEPUS, European
University Association - EUA, Association Européenne des
Conservatoires, Académies de Musiqueet Musikhochschulen AEC, and European League of Institutes of the Arts – ELIA.
The artistic programme features prominent European artists,
artistic institutions and networks. Balkan Express, The Union
of Theatres of Europe, A Soul for Europe, Create to Connect,
The European Network of Cultural Centres are just a few of
the networks involved in the programme.
The Young and Famous Orchestra project is building an
orchestra of young musicians from all over Europe to jointly
perform in Cluj-Napoca and other European venues. The main
project from the Intergalactic Ethnography programme will be
developed by local media artists in cooperation with artists
As a curatorial choice, a significant part of the artistic
programme is European in scope. Even the exhibitions and
programmes that are focusing on local artists or themes do
so by putting that specific artist or theme into a European
context. For instance the exhibition celebrating the Cluj
School of Painting researches the links between the
emergence of this wave and other European movements
in the field, and reflects on the way the style and focus of
their work is rooted in the social and historical realities of
this specific place, in this specific time in a larger European
context.
25
One of the dimensions of our East of West concept is related
to transnational cooperation. We involve cultural operators
from Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine and Moldova in
cooperation projects that highlight the common aspects of
the Eastern European culture: Hungary – Zsolnay Kulturális
Negyed, Bulgaria – ACT Independent Theatre Festival, Varna
2017 European Youth Capital; Serbia – Kulturni Center
Beograda, Walking Theory; Ukraine – Bucovina Art Centre
for Conservation and Promotion of the Romanian Traditional
Culture from Cernăuți, Cernăuți Folk Craftsmen Association
and Mihai Eminescu Society for Romanian Culture in
Cernăuți; Republic of Moldova – Serghei Lunchevici National
Philharmonic from Chișinău.
Considering our position as a country at the Eastern border
of the European Union, our programme is looking to offer
European visibility to the culture of our neighbouring
countries that are aspiring to become EU members. The
involvement of Balkan Express and other regional networks,
is a key to these cross-border actions, consisting of caravan
meetings, festival participation, co-productions, besides the
Nomad Academy, East of West Award and the Publication
The Municipality of Cluj-Napoca is twinned with ten European and Translation programme.
cities: Dijon (FR); Köln (D); Korçë (ALB); Namur (BE); Nantes
(FR); Pécs (HU); Provincia Parma (IT); Rotherham (UK); Viterbo Cluj-Napoca has official ties with the cities of Pécs and
(IT) and Zagreb (HR). A cooperation programme with all these Nyíregyháza from Hungary, with Varna in Bulgaria and with
cities has been established with the view of the Cluj-Napoca
Chișinău, Ungheni and Cimişlia in Republic of Moldova,
2021 ECoC programme. The Young and Famous Orchestra
generating regular cultural exchanges.
project mentioned above is being currently piloted with
the twin cities, with the view to having been enlarged to a
European orchestra by 2021. All these ten cities have been
contacted and have confirmed their intention to actively
contribute to our cultural programme.
Following this line of thought, the European Centre for
Contemporary Art is designed to create a framework for
better valuing contemporary arts practice not simply in ClujNapoca and Romania, but from a European perspective, with
European partners, featuring European artists and using a
novel management model that is, at core, European.
2.2 Can you explain your strategy to attract the interest of a broad European
and international public?
Being a European Capital of Culture would definitely
be a onetime chance for Cluj-Napoca to strengthen its
international profile and to accommodate significantly more
European visitors than is does right now. Cluj-Napoca is
not known around Europe, we are fully aware of that. Our
city often gets wrapped in the mystery of the brands it is
sometimes associated with: Romania and Transylvania.
We will use this brand association to the benefit of both
our European public and the objectives of our marketing
campaign
Cluj-Napoca is an Eastern European city. Undeservedly, the
European public relate negatively to the Eastern idea. Most of
the times, in the Western mentality cities of Eastern Europe
are unsafe, with an increased rate of criminality and often
services below the European standards. To arouse the interest
of the European public it is important to increase the level of
trust regarding what an Eastern city, beyond the former Iron
Curtain, actually is.
To support this effort, various European polls list Cluj-Napoca
as one of the safest cities as well as Europe’s friendliest
place towards foreigners. In the communication targeted at
a wide European audience, we plan to mix the mystery and
adventure of exploring a new part of Europe with these facts
about its friendliness.
Due to its geographical position and its historical evolution,
Cluj-Napoca is seen as the place which can generate a change
of attitude regarding the perception of Western tourists about
the cities in Eastern Europe as a tourist destination. Thus,
in the communication strategy we intend to redefine the
perception on Eastern European cities.
26
European dimension
European dimension
Getting involved
Nevertheless, we have a series of activities designed for
As any other city would do, we will base our strategy to attract people with special needs.
the interest of the European public on the diversity and
quality of our cultural programme, on our tourist offer and
Our tourist offer
on the coverage and impact of our marketing strategy. What
is different in our approach is the principle of participation,
From the vibrant old town to the serene Transylvanian
both a challenge and an opportunity for the public to get
villages around the city and from the Botanical Garden to the
involved in Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC. For instance, for 2021
Cetățuia Hill which overlooks the Someș River, Cluj-Napoca
we challenge actual and former Cluj-Napoca residents
will meet you with a charming blend of East and West. Places
who travel, work or live abroad to join us in for a few days
like the haunted Hoia forest or the spectacular Turda Salt
of celebration, together with a foreign friend, within the
Mine make the tops of the most important travel publications
InClujing You project. Believers of different religions will join every year, while Transylvania and its stories are a magnet for
us here in a union of European religious choirs: Europe of
many Europeans.
Music, within the Together project.
We have a good setup for communication with the European
public, yet the key is not in the channels, the methods
or the budgets, but in the content. Our promise for the
European audience is that they will find Cluj-Napoca to be
a unique and accessible experience that they can merge
into: a place and time where East meets West, culture meets
street and modern meets traditional. The content of our
communication campaign is made of the cultural programme
and its opportunities to get involved in and of the cultural
and touristic heritage of the city and its opportunities to
experiment it.
We devote a special attention to communicating with and
attracting the Eastern European public. Our proximity and
Our aim is to give quality and appealing information about
Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC to a broad European audience, in
order to make the people of Europe want to come and meet
each-other in Cluj-Napoca. While only some of them will
make it to Cluj-Napoca in the coming years, our ambition is
to significantly increase the number of European citizens who
(1) have basic information about our city and (2) remain
interested in making plans to get to know us better.
Our official website (www.clujnapoca2021.ro) speaks about
our cultural programme, our cultural heritage and about our
touristic offer. And our entire programme and tourist offer
are built on the principle of participation: people can join
and not just witness, experiment and not just look. Through
its Volunteer, Facilitator and Exchange programs, the
Open Academy of Change is a tool we use to ensure that
people can actually be part of the programme. Our tourist
offer is not about sightseeing, but about offering chances to
live and experiment the uniqueness of our city and region
(e.g. Transylvanian Village project). Tourists are welcome,
of course, but we want to challenge them longer to become
resident visitors, in the sense that we aim to give them longer
and more personal experiences in Cluj-Napoca. Therefore
Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC is not just a travel opportunity, but a
chance to have an immersive experience in our culture - for
example the Intergalactic Ethnography project.
Our cultural programme talks to specific audiences, different
by interest, age and place of residence:
By interest: we have an agenda for high culture, popular
events, specific art sectors, participative programs,
tourism and leisure.
By age: both our cultural programme and touristic offer
specifically address the children, the youth and all the
young at heart.
By place of residence: our key communication messages
(and their correspondents in the cultural and touristic
agenda) are different for the national public, the Eastern
European public and the large European audience.
27
A key element of our strategy to attract the interest of a
broad European public to Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC is the
unconventional component of our marketing strategy: the
Intergalactic Communication Campaign based on viral
media projects and PR stunts.
To sum it up
Objectives and Legacy:
•• 25.000.000 European citizens will know that ClujNapoca is an ECoC by 2021
•• Involve 15.000 European citizens in Cluj-Napoca
2021 ECoC as direct participants to cultural
programme and volunteers
•• Bring 500.000 foreign visitors to Cluj-Napoca in 2021
(compared to less than 250.000 per year registered
currently)
•• Increase the yearly number of foreign visitors in ClujNapoca after 2021 to at least 300.000 per year
Main strategies:
•• Diverse cultural programmes for diverse audiences
•• Participation strategy:
••Volunteer, Facilitator and Exchange programmes
••Promote the Resident Visitors programme
••Person-to-Person ambassadorship programme
•• Tourism strategy based on the concept of resident
visitors
•• Marketing and communication strategy
Cluj-Napoca is easy to get to, has a good cultural
infrastructure and accommodation capacity and is very
affordable for the European public. According to the
European Backpacker Index 2015, Bucharest is the second
most affordable tourist destination amongst the capital cities
of Europe, with a minimum required budget of 27 dollars a
day. Different evaluators estimate that the cost of living in
Cluj-Napoca is 10% to 30% below Bucharest. To these data
we add the fact that numerous activities and events from our
cultural programme are free to the public. All these definitely
make Cluj-Napoca a very affordable destination for European
tourists.
Quality of life in Cluj-Napoca
According to numbeo.com - a specialised website
that measures worldwide life indicators such as:
crime rate, pollution, health system, consumer prices,
property prices, purchasing power - Cluj-Napoca
seems to provide in 2015 the best quality of life in
Romania. It is ranked 53rd in the world, before cities
like: Sofia (68), Budapest (67), Milan (69), Tel-Aviv
(59), Ankara (61) and Bucharest (74).
history with the Eastern European countries, and especially
with the Balkan ones, are good enough reasons to believe
that their citizens will find both the interest and the
possibility to experience Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC.
Our plan to reach European audiences also includes a
European media plan, aiming at broadcasting the highlights
of our cultural programme on channels such as Arte, Mezzo,
EuroNews, Deutsche Welle and extending the coverage of
the debates on EU topics that we host through media portals
and newspapers such as the European, n-ost/Networking
for Reporting on Eastern Europe a.o. Furthermore, we also
plan to reach the audiences from Eastern Europe through
collaborations like: Real TV and Media Meridian Club
(Cernăuți, Ukraine) and Herța Gazette (Herța Region).
Phases:
•• Phase 1: raising attention through our marketing
and communication strategy, especially through the
Intergalactic Communication campaign
•• Phase 2: providing relevant content to the European
public, based on their interest
•• Phase 3: promoting the participation opportunities
in Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC (exchange and volunteer
programmes, call for projects, tourist offer etc.)
•• Phase 4: proving that Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC is
accessible and affordable for them
•• Phase 5: deliver the promise of unique and accessible
experiences
2.3 To what extent do you plan to develop links between your cultural
programme and the cultural programme of other cities holding the European
Capital of Culture title?
More than 50 cities have hosted the ECoC title since 1985
and ten more cities have already been selected to host
the title by 2020. Our cultural programme aims at creating
connections with at least 20 other ECoC cities and generate
communication about the past titleholders.
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REMAKE is our main project in this area. Curated by
Carlos Martins, executive director of Guimarães 2012, the
programme will consist of remakes of landmark artistic
productions of past European Capitals of Culture. Art shows,
installations and performances will be re-made, looking not
only to reproduce the artistic drive and quality of the original
act, but also to embed the transformations that the artistic
production, the artist team and the society at large have been
undergoing meanwhile. The project will search advice from
the Network of European Capitals of Culture and will be coproduced with companies from former ECoC cities.
Sibiu is the first Romanian city to hold the ECoC title in
2007. Thus in our programme we will not only celebrate the
highlights of the Sibiu title, but we will also generate a series
of media events that will use interviews with inhabitants
of Sibiu telling their stories about the ECoC experience to
model the expectations of the local community in ClujNapoca. Cluj-Napoca 2021 Association has initiated an
official communication with former representatives of Sibiu
2007 European Capital of Culture with the view to develop a
framework for collaboration within the Remake project.
CJX is the initiative of two Cluj-Napoca based bloggers
who travelled in 2014 and 2015 across Europe to visit the
past and upcoming ECoCs, learn about their projects and
achievements and discuss with artists and locals about
the impact that the ECoC year brought to their cities. They
spread the word about our city and its aspiration to become
ECoC in 2021 and brought home valuable information about
Europe’s past cultural capitals. Inspired by this project, we
plan to create the CJX platform that facilitates connections
and mobility within former and future ECoC cities for media
professionals (from traditional media to blogging and social
media). In the years leading to the title year the project is
aimed mainly at Romanian media and in 2021 the focus is on
international media visiting Cluj-Napoca and the other two
ECoC cities of the year.
Our team has contacted the candidate cities from Greece, as
well as other cities from acceding countries that have so far
expressed their interest in bidding for the 2021 ECoC title Belgrade and Cetinje.
We have contacted 14 possible candidate cities from
Greece: Pireaus, Syros, Napflion – Argos, Kalamata, Ioannina,
Xanthi, Kavala, Volos, Rhodes, Messolongi, Sparta, Chalkida,
Tripoli, Larissa, and we are preparing to sign Memoranda of
Understanding with all those that will respond positively.
The projects that we will develop together are grouped in
bilateral and networked cooperation projects, around the
following subjects/artistic genres:
Film industry projects (workshops, visiting professors,
knowledge exchange).
Bilateral Artistic Residencies for young artists both from
Romania and the partner country.
Educational and cultural projects in partnership with
schools.
International Curatorial Platform with a focus on Greek
and Romanian artists followed by a joint exhibition of
Contemporary Art.
Contributions to the WRite of Spring, our contemporary
playwright project, by writers of the respective cities,
and the co-production of a new play resulted from the
program.
Traditional costumes parades within exhibitions and
festivals, and a series of workshops, lectures and fashion
shows about the influence of traditional costumes on
today’s fashion.
Framework cooperation agreements between Cluj-Napoca
and former ECoC cities and candidates include: Pecs, Siena
and Perugia.
Connections have been established with teams coordinating
current and future ECoCs: Pilsen 2015, Plovdiv 2019, Matera
2019 and Paphos 2017. Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC Association
has already contacted all Romanian candidate cities,
proposing a cooperation regarding the cultural programme in
a manner that would reflect and honour the artistic vision and
programme designed by each city.
The proposals include:
That a representative project of each bid is being
included in the programme of the winning city.
Projects that we want to develop together:
•• Creating a theatre/dance performance in Cluj-Napoca
with performers from all the other cities and then
tour it around the country as a Candidate Cities
cultural product.
•• University exchanges. Artistic universities from the
candidate cities will exchange students for a month.
They will have the chance to learn more methods
and create a partnership between universities. This
partnership can result in a university network.
•• Photography competition on the bid of each city
followed by itinerant exhibitions around the country.
•• Fashion design gala Cluj-Napoca with fashion
designers from all the candidate cities.
•• Short art residencies for art graduates in candidate
cities.
•• Universities from the candidate cities will agree to
receive 20-30 high school students from all over
the country for a week. They will have the chance to
experience the student and cultural life of the cities.
•• Exhibition of scenography, costumes and stage
design sketches with pieces from representative
performances from each city.
3.
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3.1 What is the artistic vision and strategy for the cultural programme
of the year?
Artistic Vision
Our artistic vision puts our core East of West concept in
motion – that is, connecting communities to empower
them culturally, socially and economically. We balance the
autonomy of the cultural act with socially committed art and
culture; we are aware of the importance of fostering cultural
and artistic excellence as such, and we also believe that
the ECoC process needs to make a clear statement on how
culture works transforming community and fostering urban
regeneration. Thus we implement a series of cultural fusion
experiments that connect communities to identify, create
and release new energies that produce cultural, social and
economic values fostering a new type of sociality. More than
beneficiaries or participants, citizens are co-creators of these
processes - envisioned to generate a better quality of life in
Cluj-Napoca and Romania, and provide for inspiration and
transfusion of new energies to Europe.
at our values and redefine who we are - in direct relationship
with the other. In this relationship we need to let our
boundaries dissolve and to explore these borderline areas,
to allow new meetings spark our imagination and creativity.
We need to test and experiment, make mistakes and learn
from them. We need to further our knowledge to the point
where we generate new meanings and new models of living
and working. Together. Together with our city. Together with
our Europe. This is why we are focusing on developing new
relationships between citizens and city, city and Europe and
Europe and citizens.
WEAST
In our effort to understand and perform change we have
designed a five step theory of change we call WEAST and
we have defined our cultural programming through it. The
acronym covers five distinct phases of transformation and
it also reminds us of our bid concept by suggesting the
confluence of West and East. Each of the letters stands for a
Our artistic vision reflects the idea that our drivers of change different role that actors (artists, researchers, youth workers,
are rooted in our need to understand ourselves more deeply – entrepreneurs, administrators and, of course, citizens) can play
our history, our aspirations. We need to become aware of our
in the broader scheme of community transformation. These
qualities and challenges, we need to look with honesty
roles provide the root structure of our cultural programming:
Programme line ... is the phase of:
Wonder describing the situation we are starting from
Explore
imagining, seeking new horizons, new possibilities of change
Activate
testing and performing change in small scale
Share
publicly releasing the new
Trust
mass-producing of the new, putting things in practice at a large scale
The Open Academy of Change
The Open Academy of Change is the hub in which the five
threads of WEAST converge. It is the platform for connecting,
learning, sharing and activating different stakeholders of
our community and beyond, everywhere in Europe, and
nourishing their willingness and capacity to become actors of
change. These actors (W) produce and translate knowledge,
(E) explore and (A) experiment, (S) share and promote new
working models and (T) ensure access and participation to
the life of the community.
We associate this phase with...
curiosity, knowing, describing,
charting, introspecting
research, imagination, drawing the contours of the
things to come
development, prototyping, functionality,
good practices
disseminating, distributing, putting new knowledge
in circulation so it becomes common good
social production, adding the new processes
to our public knowledge
The Open Academy of Change is the place and process
where actors of change find and fulfil their roles in the bigger
picture. They can develop skills in performing one or more
of these roles and can foster alliances with other actors. The
Open Academy of Change is a functional network where all
nodes are both knowledge providers and learners. Openness,
sharing and learning are key principles of the Academy.
The Open Academy of Change is more than a visionary
metaphor: it is the gathering place of those who enact
the vision of our ECoC project, who connect and become a
community, who produce the novel cultural, social, economic
and political models, adequate to the complex realities of
32
WONDER
the present Romanian and European society. WEAST - the five
programme lines – can be seen as the curriculum of the Open
Academy of Change.
Everybody can enrol in the Academy: citizens, cultural
organizations, companies or universities. Through our broad
Volunteers Programme we intend to guide all actors, including
European tourists and Cluj citizens, to seek not only a passive
spectator’s seat, but an active and meaningful role through our
programme.
Programme Strategy
As regards our strategy for building the programme, we
combine traditional and participative curating practices. On
one hand, the overall coherence of the cultural programme
and the selection of particular projects are coordinated by an
Artistic Director, together with an Artistic Board. On the other
hand, part of the programme is based on a participatory design:
workshops / working groups and open calls.
To ensure the core of our programme directly reflects the
artistic vision and concept we have designed a series of flagship
projects. These projects have been chosen and developed
during six months of public debates and specialised working
groups, involving 70 cultural operators. They reflect the alchemy
we find necessary for the transformation we aim to stimulate
– all these projects involve cooperation among several local
actors, are highly participative and plan to create empowering
processes, have interdisciplinary approaches, involve European
and/or transnational co-productions, involve the use of multiple
languages, have an educational component and devise facilities
or activities for special audiences (including youth, elderly and
disabled).
Knowledge | History | Heritage | Traditions |
Diversity | Documentation | Archives
Other projects in the programme will be selected following
open calls – 2017 and 2020. A call for project ideas has already
been organised in 2014, the selected ideas being either further
developed into one of the flagship projects or added to the
project portfolio in one of the programme lines.
TRANSYLVANIAN VILLAGE
Wonder | Heritage | Art | Travel | Culinary arts | # Flagship
Project
Furthermore, some of the projects we propose are actually
frameworks for supporting and encouraging ongoing initiatives
from the cultural sphere and from the citizens themselves. The
InJoy Fund is open to community projects while Percent-forArt sets up a mechanism that provides support for public art
projects on a regular basis.
Under the umbrella of the Open Academy of Change, the
ECoC programme also provides tools / incentives for developing
specific activities and abilities horizontally throughout the
programme:
An Artist-in-Residence scheme – to foster European and
cross-border cooperation and co-production
Mobility Fund – to facilitate local artists and producers, to
connect to European partners and realities, to promote their
work and develop professionally
Cultural Facilitators – a helping hand that any organiser
of events can resort to in order to successfully approach
communities and special audiences
Community Label – a guide for cultural operators to adopt
standards in addressing special audiences, involving schools
and developing audiences.
3.2 Describe the structure of the cultural programme, including the range and
diversity of the activities/main events that will mark the year. For each one,
please supply the following information: date and place / project partners /
financing.
The cultural programme is structured along five programme
lines, defined by WEAST:
W
Wonder
E
A
Explore Activate
S
T
Share
Trust
< < < Open Academy of Change > > >
Specific activities aimed to feed in transversally in the five
programme lines are coordinated under the Open Academy
of Change (e.g. the Volunteers Programme, Community
Facilitators).
The programme includes several types of projects:
Flagship projects - integrated projects reflecting the
triangular relationship between citizens, city and Europe
and translating the East of West concept into actions.
Established events - existing cultural and artistic projects
that are representative for the cultural agenda of the city.
All these events design special activities for the ECoC
programme - they address relevant themes, focus on
specific geographical areas or add new types of activities
(e.g. educational activities, community events, European coproductions or residencies).
Portfolio projects - small, medium and major projects
selected by our Artistic Board either directly or through calls
for entries opened internationally.
Ceremonies - festive large-scale thematic events, marking
the starting, the middle and the closing of the ECoC year.
Implementing partners: Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography,
Cluj County Council, Cluj-Napoca Municipality, University of
Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca,
Transylvania Craftsmen Association, Transylvania Trust
Foundation, Cernăuți Folk Craftsmen Association, Bucovina
Art Centre for Conservation and Promotion of the Romanian
Traditional Culture from Cernăuți, Cluj.com
Description: The purpose of the project is to strengthen and
enrich the cultural, artistic, social and touristic connections
between Europe, Cluj-Napoca and the cultural heritage of the
Transylvanian villages. It takes place in 2018-2021 in several
villages in the region, each of them being the scene of one or
more representations of the theme: customs and traditions,
arts and crafts, gastronomy and traditional beverages, music,
heritage, agro-tourism, ecology and traditional agriculture.
The Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography, one of the most
important of its kind in Romania, is a key venue for the project.
The villages and the Museum will host a series of multi- and
cross-disciplinary activities like art residencies, educational
projects, research projects, events and tourism.
Main components: We connect the existing traditional craft
shops in the city and the region to an educational program
for large audiences: traditional craftsmen and modern artists
teaching people new ways to tell old stories and to get
inspiration from traditions. We also aim at designing and
building several cultural and touristic star-shaped itineraries,
centred in Cluj-Napoca and connecting some of the most
culturally significant villages in Transylvania. Examples of events
hosted in the villages include the Pălinca Making Ritual
(pălinca is a traditional plum brandy) or the International
Alphorn Festival (the alphorn is a musical instrument that is
popular both in the Carpathians and in the Alps).
TOGETHER
Wonder | Spirituality | Intercultural Dialogue | # Flagship Project
Implementing partners: Orthodox, Greek-Catholic, RomanCatholic Dioceses of Cluj, Theology Faculty of Babeș-Bolyai
University, Jewish community, Neo-Protestant denominations
Description: Cluj-Napoca hosts not less than five Christian
dioceses: Orthodox, Greek-Catholic, Reformed, Lutheran and
Unitarian. This is something unique in the Christian world.
Roman-Catholic, Jewish and Muslim communities are also active
in the city. This element of confessional diversity is a major
opportunity for us to start a meaningful cultural dialogue with
the entire Europe. We plan to involve all the historical Dioceses
33
of Cluj and also Catholic, Jewish and Muslim denominations in
the development of a year-long program in 2021 comprising
both individual and common projects and events.
Main components:
The project is structured by four seasons:
Dialogue of Traditions is the spring agenda of this
project: itinerant exhibitions in European cities, fairs,
popular and religious celebrations for European visitors in
the city, guided tours (Romanian wooden churches, villages
in Transylvania with various religious traditions etc.).
Europe of Music is the summer series of activities,
offering both local and itinerant musical events like
Days of Byzantine Art, a ten year old project developed
in collaboration with the Greek Orthodox Church and a
perfect two-ways cultural embassy between Cluj-Napoca
and Greece 2021.
Via Maria is the autumn agenda of our inter-confessional
project: a cultural itinerary that connects Cluj-Napoca
and Europe, following the Western (Catholic) and Eastern
(Orthodox) routes and traditions related with the
Veneration of Virgin Mary. The itinerary, called The Virgin
Mary from Fatima to Nicula, offers access to cultural
exchanges, religious exhibitions and events, conferences
and pilgrimages.
Cluj Ecumenical Meetings is a series of events that
links the main confessions active in Cluj-Napoca and
Europe: debates, concerts, traditions and religious fairs,
photography and painting exhibitions and theatre
performances. The highlight of this winter season will be
the World Council of Churches Assembly.
TREASURE CLUJ
Wonder | Urban Art | Local Legends | Videography | # Flagship
Project
Implementing partners: Journalism Department of BabeșBolyai University, Faculty of Film and Television, Romanian
Order of Architects - Transylvania Branch, Romanian Writers
Union, Hoia-Forest Project, Transylvanian Museum of
Ethnography, AltArt Foundation, Cluj Raving Society/Delahoya,
Mihai Eminescu Society for Romanian Culture in Cernăuți
Description: Treasure Cluj is a platform for videographers,
architects, writers, other artists and the general public to create
cultural and artistic products inspired from the history and
legends of the city. Presenting Cluj-Napoca to its people and
to its visitors in ways it has never been presented before, this
is the final purpose of Treasure Cluj. The name of the project
is inspired from the old name of Cluj, which was known as the
treasure city during the 17th century.
Main components: The project includes: a website for
independent video documentaries, a program for art
interventions in public space and the so-called Intergalactic
Ethnography Programme.
34
The website www.treasurecluj.com is curated by the
Journalism Department of Babeș-Bolyai University and
offers an open platform for any artist, individual or group,
to create documentaries of Cluj-Napoca, on topics like local
heroes, local history, local architecture etc., and promote
them to large national and European audiences. The second
component, curated by the Romanian Order of Architects,
is a program of artistic interventions in public space, like
the Open Courtyards Day. This program also configures
thematic urban itineraries and runs a legislative initiative to
encourage the sharing of private yards and other spaces with
the general public. The third major component, called the
Intergalactic Ethnography Programme, is an extension of
the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography towards the Hoia
Forest – an area renowned as one of the strangest haunted
places in the world. This extension will be the host of a
residency program for European artists invited to explore the
idea of modern ethnography.
EXPLORE
Experimenting | Research | Imagination |
New Ideas | Expanding Horizons | Borderline
Cross-Fertilisation
SOCIAL CREATIVITY PLATFORM
Explore | Social Creativity | Sustainable Cities | DIY Culture |
Urban Laboratory | # Flagship Project
Implementing partners: Casa de Cultură Permanentă (a
house open to creativity based on gift economy, downshifting,
community spirit and permaculture), AltArt Foundation,
Colectiv A Association, La Terenuri (At the Playgrounds Common Space in Mănăștur Initiative), RAUM Architecture
Description: The project aims to foster the energies of a
large number of civil initiatives dealing with grassroots social
processes in the urban space of Cluj-Napoca. Be it sustainable
living, voluntary simplicity, eco-awareness, urban regeneration
or smart city planning, these structures already form networks
of practice that make Cluj-Napoca probably the most active
city of Romania in terms of grassroots civil movements. The
project will implement a series of small-scale gatherings,
based on exchanging experience, experimentation and
prototyping solutions in the urban laboratory of Cluj-Napoca.
The project will approach subjects and scenarios specific
to South-East European and Balkan countries in order to
discover solutions that can be applied in other communities
facing similar problems.
Main components:
Social Creativity Platform - Scenario planning, preenactments, workshops and symposiums and the release
of a zine gathering ideas and initiatives of the scene.
Prototyping will be the theme of a series of hands-on
ACTIVATE
experimentation workshops. Partners from European
networks will be invited for residencies and to give
lectures.
Urban Labs – pop-up spaces across the city, from
its very centre to its neighbourhoods host a series of
urban laboratories: places where people regardless of
gender, age or educational level can interact with new
technologies or come together for DIY workshops.
Garage 2.0 – is an urban regeneration pilot project,
focusing on improving the quality and extending the
public functionality and use of the spaces between blocks
of flats. Small garage buildings lacking a predefined
design are very frequent in the neighbourhoods of
Romanian cities. Often they take over the entire area
between buildings, leaving no space for public use. The
pilot project will focus on one such small area, where
inhabitants are interested in the experiment, building a
two level structure that provides space for car parking at
ground level and green areas to be used as playgrounds,
parks or common gardens on the upper level. This model
can be later upgraded and adapted for other similar
areas in the region. The project also includes workshops
on green and sustainable architecture, where those
interested can learn how to build structures of clay and
straw, use sheep wool for insulation a.s.o.
EXPAND
Explore | Cultural Education | Schools | # Flagship Project
Implementing partners: Cluj County School Inspectorate,
schools, cultural institutions, art organisations
Description: The project involves schools in a series of
activities meant to facilitate cultural education for children
and youth.
Main components:
Development of school curricula for cultural education
– including guidebook, exercise book and support
materials for teachers – to be taught in schools as an
optional subject.
Artistic education in schools: following an open call,
artists from various fields – film, photography, music,
dance, theatre, visual arts, literature– will work for one
semester with children aged 10-16, offering them both
basic skills in practising one art form and concrete
opportunities to create and perform.
Room 20/21 – is a project that directly involves schools
in the production of a professional performance. The
show will be developed using a double cast: one of
professional actors, directors and producers and the
second, made of young people from schools in ClujNapoca. The show, directed by Andreea Iacob, will be
performed alternatively by adults and children/youth.
Pilot Projects | Prototyping | Good Practices|
Mobilising People | Activating Places |
Community Actions | Kickstart | Motivate
SOMEȘ. FROM WEST TO EAST
Activate | Urban Regeneration | Community Projects | Green
Areas | Meeting Places | Participation | # Flagship Project
Implementing partners: Cluj-Napoca Municipality, Romanian
Order of Architects - Transylvania Branch, RAUM Architecture,
Cărturești Foundation, Fapte Association, AltArt Foundation
etc.
Description:
Someș, the river that crosses the city divides and unites the
city in many different ways. Probably the most important
natural resource of the city, the river Someș has been so far
neglected or underexplored – the buildings are positioned
backing the face of the river, the sides do not allow access
to water or leisure opportunities for the most of its length,
there are too few bridges to allow easy flow from one side to
another. The river Someș, flowing from West to East, could be
the metaphor for the problem that our bid for ECoC addresses
through the East of West concept. But it is much more than
a metaphor, it is the living reality that cumulates most of the
city’s inconsistencies. The project will approach best practices
from European cities that have found sustainable solutions
for water courses similar to our own.
From the suburb of Florești to the airport, the project
reinvents the life of the city along the river. Residual spaces
transformed into public spaces, parks and points of interest
inspired by the local folklore of each area of the route will tell
the story of Cluj-Napoca to both locals and tourists, regardless
of the season.
Main components:
Urban Regeneration
redesigning and refurbishing of specific areas along the
river
the expansion and improvement of public space including
the generation of new functions (meeting spaces) and
new facilities (bridges)
extending and enhancing the quality of green spaces
arranging spaces for sports and outdoor activities
improving accessibility both along the water (by building
bike lanes and pedestrian walk paths) and to the
waterfront (stairs, platforms, beaches)
improving the quality of the habitat for endemic plants
and wildlife and generating spaces for human-animal
interaction (dog parks)
Cultural Activation
A series of cultural activities are designed to inspire citizens
to redefine their relationship with the river. Community
35
projects in neighbourhoods animate the areas, strengthen
social ties and consolidate ownership towards the river and
environment protection. Pop-up events: festivals, artistic
interventions, picnics, performances, exhibitions and sports
games are activating specific spots along the riverbeds and
stimulate participation.
INJOY FUND
Activate | Fund | Community Initiatives | Empowerment
Implementing partners: Cluj Community Foundation, ClujNapoca Municipality, local companies
Description:
The program will encourage citizens and local operators to
plan community initiatives. At least ten of these initiatives
will be selected in the first years of the fund 2017-2019, the
support increasing in time to 30 projects in 2020 and at least
60 community projects in 2021. Besides financial support
the selected initiatives will receive in-kind resources and
guidance in implementation. The fund will be established
from local public and private resources.
SHARE
Common Good | Dissemination |
Distribution | Learning | Together
INTERCULTURAL PLATFORM
Share | Intercultural Dialogue | Cross-Cultural Co-creation |
Celebrating Diversity | # Flagship Project
Implementing partners: Kincses Kolozsvár Egyesület (Cluj
Treasure City Association), the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj,
Sapientia University, Babeș-Bolyai University, Házsongárd
Association, Romanian Union of Roma Youth Communities,
Bessarabian Initiative Group of Cluj-Napoca, Foreign Cultural
Institutes present in Cluj-Napoca, Jewish and Roma NGOs
Description:
The project stems from our need to move beyond the frames
of multiculturalism that seem effective in preserving identity
and diversity, but proved rather static in creating relationships
between actors. The project fosters relational processes that
catalyze intercultural dialogue and cultural learning.
It aims to create an intercultural platform that supports
mutual valuing and stimulates cooperation among ethnic
groups. Based on voluntary membership, the platform
establishes best practices that various institutions and
cultural producers are invited to adopt in their current
activity: such as use of multilingualism, representation of all
ethnic groups in management and programming bodies and
increased visibility of the contributions of minority cultural
groups to the respective sectors, be them music, literature or
medicine.
36
Main components:
Intercultural Castle / Gilău Intercultural Camp Centered around the three hectare Gilău Castle, just 12
km from the city, the project establishes an intercultural
venue with permanent programming showcasing a
large variety of ethnic cultures: Romanian, Hungarian,
Roma, Jewish, German and so on. Based on hands-on
experimentation and direct interaction of cultures, the
venue provides frames for co-creating new, cross-cultural
forms of cultural expression. Language camps, music
festivals, arts and crafts workshops, cooking and tourism
events are all included in the Gilău Intercultural Camp.
A novelty of the scheme is the linking of the events so
that the cultural outputs of one can be ported to become
the inputs of the next, upkeeping and facilitating the
continuity of audiences and interested citizens to provide
a flow of intercultural experience.
The Circle of Cultures – is a framework for regular
intercultural activities that will be set in motion starting
from 2017 to culminate in 2021 with an Intercultural
Festival. It hosts thematic events where local and
European cultures are meeting and interacting: reading
evenings of traditional stories and myths, slam poetry
competitions, music jams, a.o. The circle goes beyond
the showcase of specific art and folklore, it generates the
frameworks for interplay, dialogue and co-creation.
YOUNG AND FAMOUS ORCHESTRA
Share | Music | International Orchestra | Youth Exchange |
Participation
TRUST
Main components:
Each year building to the 2021 programme, musicians
from universities and orchestras across Europe become
one Young and Famous orchestra for one week. Following
four days of rehearsals, they perform in different locations
in Cluj-Napoca, in concert halls, hospitals, prisons and
public space. They attend master classes, participate in
workshops and deliver hands on learning experiences to
local schools. The highlight of the programme is a concert
where all artists perform a single score of classical music.
As a legacy of the European Youth Capital hosted by ClujNapoca in 2015, the grand concert is followed up by a
night-long show where orchestra musicians and DJs play
together.
INCLUJING YOU
Share | Participation | Europe | Re-connection
Implementing partners: Universities from Cluj-Napoca, Junior
Chamber International Cluj-Napoca, AIESEC - international
student organization, Bessarabian Initiative Group
Description: In the last 25 years around 400.000 people
have graduated from the schools and universities from ClujNapoca and are now living in Romania and abroad. Since
a 2014 Eurostat study has proven our city to be the most
foreigner-friendly city in Europe, we believe that we have
a big opportunity to say Servus to as many graduates and
their families and friends. InClujing You aims to activate the
European community of those who are emotionally connected
with the city, in an attempt to strengthen Romania’s image
abroad.
Implementing partners: Young Famous Association, BabeșBolyai University, Gheorghe Dima Music Academy, Transylvania
State Philharmonic Orchestra, Romanian and Hungarian
Main components:
Operas, Cluj-Napoca Municipality
The project is meant to happen every year, starting with 2016,
and consists of a week of events and activities that celebrate
Description: Young and Famous Orchestra came into
the diverse cultural values of our city and of the ones who
being in 2015 as an initiative to reinvent the experience of
love it. We plan to be a gathering of hundreds of people in
classical music. To bring back audiences to concerts and a
the first year and thousands of people in 2021: those living
living atmosphere to concert halls, talent, enthusiasm and
abroad and emotionally connected to the city are invited
open minds are needed. Thus conductor Vlad Agachi, disciple to bring friends and families to a yearly meeting in Cluj, to
of Daniel Barenboim - musical director of the Berlin State
discover or rediscover the city. We call this personal tourism.
Opera and La Scala in Milan - took the initiative of setting
InClujing You will be the perfect framework for activities
up an orchestra made of both young and famous musicians.
like urban exploration (rediscovery and revitalisation of
Young, to mobilize energy and passion and famous, to
representative places in the recent history of the community),
acknowledge and connect to the outstanding performance of class reunions, international fairs and guided tours of Clujalready accomplished musicians. They are engaging on stage Napoca and Transylvania.
in a dialogue with artists from other fields and with scientists
The project also creates a framework for a better cultural and
and, by playful interactions and performing in unexpected
social accommodation of the foreign students living in Clujlocations, they are closing the gap between the stage and
Napoca to the city life. It addresses mainly the community of
audience. The European Capital of Culture is where Young
French speaking students and the students from Republic
and Famous go European.
of Moldova.
Appreciating| Celebration | Excellence |
Mass Production/Distribution | Scaling Up |
Mobility | Growth
EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS
Trust | Visual Art | Cluj School | New Cultural Infrastructure |
# Flagship Project
Implementing Partners: Cluj-Napoca Municipality, Museum of
Art, University of Art and Design, Paintbrush Factory – Centre
for Contemporary Arts, Union of Visual Artists, Plan B Gallery,
Idea Art+Society, other galleries and organisations
37
the needs of the Romanian art scene, thereby combining
on the one hand the monographic exhibitions based on
long-term research and on a methodology informed by
the need of rewriting the recent Romanian art history;
and, on the other hand, thematic group exhibitions
turning to the most urgent issues of the Romanian
society and the larger cultural context of Central and
Eastern European art. This department will also develop
a section open to ephemeral art like performance, artistic
interventions and temporary public artworks, connecting
its physical space with the entire city of Cluj-Napoca.
The artistic programme for Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC
includes several large scale projects combining research,
documentation and exhibitions on the topics of:
Cluj School – Artists. Context. International dimension
and local relevance
Modernity Redeemed by Modernities – a series of
exhibitions that aim to re-conceptualize modernity from
a dialogical enriched perspective. These exhibitions aim
to articulate key topics regarding the comparative study
of the different artistic approaches of the masters of the
Cluj School in relationship with their Western congeners.
Artists such as Corneliu Brudașcu, Ioan Sbârciu, Ioachim
Nica, Ioan Aurel Mureșan, Radu Solovăstru, Marius Bercea,
Mircea Suciu will be brought in dialogues with artists
of the same generations like the German artists Markus
Lüpertz and Martin Kippenberger, the Italian artists
Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Palladino, the Dutch artist
Marlene Dumas, and other Western artists that will
The ECCA is an institution of the future, piloting a model
answer to this challenge.The exhibitions will be realised
of cooperation for its management and artistic direction
with the support of several Romanian and Western public
– almost all prominent actors in contemporary art in Clujand private collections. Curated by Maria Rus Bojan and
Napoca being part of the project. It is the first space to
Ami Barak.
allow large scale exhibitions and archiving of contemporary
Instant Art History – five shows starting from the idea
artworks in the region. Research and small scale exhibitions
of an accelerated art history, which looks at the recent
take place as of 2017, while the Centre with all its
Romanian art and tries to create flexible narratives,. Eg: A
departments and the flagship exhibitions is launched by the
Short Story on Gestures and Attitudes – an exhibition
end of 2020.
of immaterial art with Norbert Costin, Andreea Ciobica,
Catalin Ilie, Larisa Sitar, a.o. curated by Diana Marincu.
Main components:
Social and Political Art or Good Art? Can’t we have
The Centre for Research and Documentation – focuses
both? – a three year programme curated by the IDEA
on the research and archiving of the works of Romanian
arts + society curatorial collective, featuring works from
artists from the 1950’s to the present. Currently most of
artists such as Thomas Hirschhorn, Maria Eichhorn, Oliver
the early art of this period is under the risk of being lost
Ressler, Hito Steyerl, IRWIN, Chto Delat, Apsolutno, Klaus
or depreciated because the artists of this generation are
Schaefler, Dénes Miklósi etc.
dying and there have been no institutions capable of
Department for Media Art – will focus on the research
purchasing, preserving and putting into a larger context
and exhibition of new media: video art, interactive
their work. The work of the department is reaching out to
media art and art using locative media, environmental
audiences through publications issued by its Publishing
technology, mobile technology and performance. The
Programme and feeds-in the Exhibition Programme.
department is a joint project of ECCA and the Center for
The Exhibitions Department – manages the exhibition
Media Arts and Information Culture, included in the
programme that focuses on the artists and the conceptual
Cluj Media City project.
and artistic directions of the local art scene, and at the
Lab for Conservation and Restoration of Artworks
same time it presents trends, experiments and excellence
– provides accredited expertise and services for the
in contemporary art on the national, European and
conservation and preservation of artworks, and offers
international scene. The exhibitions will take into account
employment opportunities for the graduates of the
Description: The Cluj School is the name used by the
international art community to refer to a group of visual
artists emerging from Cluj-Napoca and presenting their works
in exhibitions around the world, from MoMA to Tate Modern
and Centre Pompidou. Their exquisite technique and the
specific subjects of their art tackling the memories, realities
and illusions of a transition society have been catching the
eye of curators, art critics, media and audiences.
The European Centre for Contemporary Arts is the flagship
project of the Cluj-Napoca 2021 programme in the field
of visual arts. Hosting phenomena like the Cluj School, it
is more than a museum: it becomes the museum of the
21st century, transgressing the concept of local or national
museums and defining its artistic directions in the European
artistic context. It builds on the potential of the vibrating
local visual arts scene - in a constant dialogue with the world.
38
specialised department of the University of Art and
companies will be programmed throughout the year.
Design. The lab will be the first regional provider of this
An experimental multi-language, multi-company
type of service.
performance mixing dance, theatre and video will be
Department for Education and Audience
produced, too. Its premiere is scheduled for the autumn
Development – generates a long term strategy for
season, when an international performing arts networking
attracting audiences and offering opportunities in
meeting will take place. Furthermore, three major
cultural education and participation for public. The main
European co-productions will be premiered during 2021.
focus of this department will be the construction of an
Leading international performing artists will be involved
open and transparent relation to the public by developing
in productions hosted by local art companies –for
a consistent and permanent program of talks and
example Cluj-Napoca National Theatre will stage new
workshops addressing issues regarding the new curatorial
works by directors Roberto Bacci and Rodrigo Francisco.
trends, the new museography a.o.
NomadEast – imagined as a platform for mobility and
Artists-in-Residence – the centre will offer studio space
exchange, the programme includes multidisciplinary
and support for Romanian and international artists in
artistic residencies, a travel fund to support working
residence.
placements for performing arts professionals from all
countries in Europe within Eastern European companies
Infrastructure development: A building project for the ECCA
and a co-production fund, supporting the collaborative
will start in 2016 and is due to be finished by 2020.
production of contemporary theatre, dance and music
performances for Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC. The project
PERFORMING EAST – PLATFORM FOR PERFORMING ARTS
also includes a series of workshops for non-professionals,
Trust | Performing Arts | Music | Eastern Europe | Mobility |
involving them also in small scale performances and
Learning and Performing | Drama Writing | Co-Production |
community projects.
Youth Participation | Translations | # Flagship Project
CLUJ MEDIA CITY
Implementing partners: Cluj-Napoca National Theater,
Trust | Media | ICT | Cultural and Creative Industries | Film
Hungarian State Theatre, The National Opera, The
Co-production | New Media Art | ICT Education | Research and
Hungarian Opera, Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra, Development | # Flagship Project
Gheorghe Dima Music Academy, Colectiv A Association,
Paintbrush Factory, Babeș-Bolyai University - Theatre and
Implementing Partners: Romanian Film Promotion /
Television Department, Reactor - for creative experiments,
Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF), The European
Create.Act.Enjoy Association, GroundFloor Group, Serghei
Foundation for Urban Culture / Comedy Cluj Festival,
Lunchevici National Philharmonic (Chișinău), Centro per la
University of Art and Design, Sapientia University/Faculty of
Sperimentazione e la Ricerca Teatrale - Teatro della Toscana
Film and Media, Babeș-Bolyai University / Faculty of Theatre
and Television, Cluj-Napoca Technical University, IT Cluster,
Description: This flagship project builds a story around the
Regional Centre for Excellence in Creative Industries (CREIC).
specificity and excellence of the Cluj performing arts scene,
supporting and highlighting the works of its two national
Description: The project aims to provide support for the most
theatres and two operas, the orchestras and the growing
promising branches of the creative industries sector from the
number of independent companies and events in theatre,
region. It brings together artists, designers, film and media
music and dance.
makers with ITC specialists and business people. It creates
opportunities for learning and cross-sector collaboration,
The Platform focuses on the outstanding contributions of the research&development and production. Part of the activities
Eastern European performing arts to the international arts
of the project are hosted by the Regional Centre for
scene. Contemporary authors and productions as well as their Excellence in Creative Industries, the construction of which
specific themes, approaches and concerns are at the core of
is due to be completed by 2016. The centre provides office
the programme.
spaces, laboratory and studio spaces for creative professionals
and startups, film studios and media production units.
Main components:
wRite of Spring– is the platform dedicated to
Main components:
playwriting, as well as to theory, history and research of
Centre for Media and Film Production – it includes
performing arts. Under the guidance of an international
a Professional development programme to boost
artistic board, throughout our programme, we aim to
entrepreneurial and production skills for film and media
promote Eastern European drama. Activities include a
professionals, a Visual Culture and Cinema Educational
workshop for young playwrights, writers in residence
Programme for children and youth and Transilvania
programme, and a translation and publishing programme.
Film Fund – a regional co-production fund for film.
Performing East – a showcase of performances
Center for Media Arts and Information Culture – it
by Eastern European directors, choreographers and
aims to make better use of the existing and developing
technologies in order to expand/improve culture, science
and everyday life. The centre experiments and pilots
new technologies for media arts and science/business/
educational purposes. It offers audiences opportunities
for hands-on experience with ICT. It offers courses
of different complexity to different groups: use of
interactive/sensor based technologies for performing
artists, coding for visual artists, but also PC use for elderly
and basic coding for children. It develops programmes
and platforms to encourage innovation and prototyping.
Interdisciplinary Residencies – to support the
development of new products, services and applications
of companies in the software and media sector, a
programme of interdisciplinary residencies is offered to
mixed group of artists, scientists and developers.
REMAKE
Trust | European Capitals of Culture legacy
Description: The programme will consist of remakes of
landmark artistic productions of past European Capital of
Culture. Art shows, installations and performances will be
re-made, looking not only to reproduce the artistic drive
and quality of the original act, but to also embed the
transformations that the artistic production, the artist team
and the society at large have been undergoing meanwhile.
The selection of artworks and performances to be part of
the Remake project is done by Carlos Martins, director of
Guimarães 2012.
YOUTH LEGACY
Trust | Youth | Schools | European Youth Capital 2015 |
Participatory Budgeting
Implementing partners: Share Federation/European Youth
Capital 2015 team, schools and universities, Cluj County
School Inspectorate, youth NGOs, Cluj-Napoca Municipality
Description: The project aims to ensure the continuity of
some of the youth programmes and policies developed within
Cluj-Napoca 2015 European Youth Capital.
Main components:
SharED – it is a platform involving all schools in ClujNapoca and organisations in the youth sector in joint
initiatives that aim to involve the pupils in the life of
the community through: voluntary activities, decision
making, international mobility, community projects,
entrepreneurship etc.
Com’on Cluj-Napoca. Youth for a Common Cluj. In
2013, the city started the first participatory budget
project in Romania, involving citizens in a democratic
deliberation and decision making process for establishing
the best way to spend part of the public budget. In 2015,
the city piloted a youth participatory budgeting process
and supported over 100 youth initiatives. The programme
will continue annually and will culminate in 2021 with
39
support for 200 youth initiatives. Thus empowering
youth and offering them the framework to build their
programme for the ECoC 2021.
Day 15 - (flagship project of the European Youth Capital)
to become Day 21 in the Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC
calendar – each month a day is dedicated to a theme of
general interest, that the community is invited to engage
with through simple actions.
ECoC CEREMONIES
Trust | Official Moments | Music | Celebration | Street Festival|
Open Access| Visitors| Preview | Joy
Implementing partners: Cluj-Napoca Municipality, Cluj
County Council, local, national and international cultural
producers
Description: The Opening Ceremony of the ECoC year will
be organised in the second weekend of January 2021, with a
special programme of music, street performance and official
moments involving representatives of the European Union,
of Member States, of the Romanian government and local
and regional authorities. Similarly, a Closing Ceremony will
be organised in December. A third Celebration will also be
included in the calendar, as an offer to European travellers
to stop by, explore the city and share our joy of being, for one
year, the European Capital of Culture. This ceremony will be
conjoined with the Cluj-Napoca Days, the days when the
city traditionally invites its international partners and sister
cities to join our celebration. This will be the peak time for
the InClujing you project. Moreover, special events involving
the members of the community will be organised in all the
neighbourhoods of the city.
The ceremonies will be accompanied by a three days
programme of events, among which the Open Access Days
– when cultural venues open both their front and backstage
doors for audiences to explore their universe, and the
Cultural Agenda Fairs where organisers of cultural events
within the ECoC framework present their programme, offer
ticket (pre)sales and meet their audiences.
OPEN ACADEMY OF CHANGE
Learning | Sharing | Connecting |
Participation | Audience Development |
Access to Culture | Networking |
Volunteers | Training | Open Courses |
Cooperation | Community Meetings |
Community Facilitators | Co-creation |
Special publics | Professional Development |
Mobility Fund | Artists-in-Residence |
Working Placements
Description:
Based on various theories, not only action is needed for
40
change to happen, but also the actors of change - people and
between different institutions, or individuals trained
institutions with appropriate skills. In his book The Tipping
to fulfil this role. They will be resource people for all
Point, Malcolm Gladwell introduces the idea that three
projects in the cultural programme, especially for the
roles/actors are to “play a critical role in the word-of-mouth
integrated flagship projects.
epidemics that dictate our tastes, trends and fashions”, and
Volunteer and Working Placement Programme these are mavens, connectors and salesmen. Mavens are
intends not only to fulfil the needs for volunteers of
those accumulating knowledge, connectors are those who are
our Cluj-Napoca 2021 project, but also to establish an
the nodes of a network, being able to create links between
ongoing community program for attracting and training
people belonging to different groups and salesmen are
volunteers, for local and international (especially
charismatic individuals that are able to generate trends. Our
European) projects. The Programme addresses not only
OAC provides these functions: the Open University is our
youth, not only Romanians and not only the cultural
nest of Mavens, the Facilitators Programme is generating
sector, but will have dedicated objectives for children
Connectors and our Ambassadors and Volunteer programme
and elderly, for persons with special needs and for
is the Salesmen club.
connecting the city with Europe. The Programme is
set on three main directions: (1) involving of cultural
Main components:
operators, key businesses, local government, volunteer
Open University – is a programme under the OAC,
centres and NGOs as providers of volunteer opportunities;
established three years before the actual year of the title,
(2) promoting the role and benefits of volunteering for
aiming to transform the whole city in a place of learning.
the general public; (3) developing leadership, project
Within the university, which is not concentrating on a
management and advocacy skills for community members.
single place but rather is connecting every interested
An Artist-in-Residence scheme – to foster European
institution, company, organization or household in the city
and cross-border cooperation and co-production, the AIR
in a network of knowledge courses in various disciplines
facility is coordinated within the OAC, yet the residencies
and practices from quantum physics, to neuroscience,
themselves are taking place within the different projects
banking, art history to music, cooking and gardening are
within the WEAST categories.
offered to anyone. Imagine university teachers taking
Mobility Fund – starting 2018 a mobility fund will be
break dance classes from the teenagers’ club in Mărăști
established, with the view to facilitate local artists and
district, the town hall opening its doors to trainees of all
producers to connect to European partners and realities,
ages, an IT programmer attending a course in psychology
to promote their work and develop professionally.
at the university, and a retired person learning to use the
It supports local artists to participate in festivals,
latest mobile technologies at one of the IT companies in
residencies and conferences in different countries.
town. The courses are offered for free or in a networked
Audience Development Programme – is a framework
system of credits where time devoted to training,
for professional development for cultural operators
coaching and volunteering can be exchanged with a
to improve their expertise in working with different
time credit for attending courses, and getting specialized
audiences. It involves training and mentoring in
advice or service from fellow citizens.
elaborating audience development strategies and actions.
Facilitators Programme – a key role to fulfil in order
It also trains a group of experts in this field, to provide
to achieve the desired momentum in our community is
assistance to cultural producers in designing activities for
the connector. The facilitators are a group of people that
disadvantaged or special publics, in planning cooperation
either by their current positions are acting as connectors
with schools, and applying a standard set of best
and translators between different social groups and
practices in community work (Community Label).
ESTABLISHED EVENTS
The cultural agenda of the city includes a series of established events that already have the scope and/or the scale
of a European festival. Some of them have already become prestigious events in their field and have significantly
contributed to raise the cultural profile of the city. These events are also connected to the ECoC programme. Following
joint working sessions, organizers of these events confirmed interest to gradually develop themes and projects in
correspondence with the concept of the candidature, both in the years leading to the title and in 2021.
_________________________________________________________________
The Musical Autumn of Cluj
Wonder | Classical Music | Festival |
Organized by the Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra
since 1965, this is one of the longest running classical music
international festivals in Romania. It has a rich musical repertoire
in terms of composition and interpretation and a programme of
masterclasses.
European collaborations: Germany, Hungary, Croatia, Norway,
Netherlands, Switzerland, England and Spain
____________________________________________________________________
Transylvania International Book Festival
Wonder | Literature | Book Fair | Translations |
An annual event, the festival encourages and stimulates the
interest for literature and creative writing, bringing together
readers with publishers, agents, booksellers, librarians, academics,
translators, artists and authors.
European collaborations: France, Belgium, Italy, Hungary, Norway,
Portugal, Ukraine
____________________________________________________________________
Steps Dance Festival
Wonder | Contemporary Dance | Workshops |
The Festival brings to Cluj-Napoca world class contemporary dance
performances. It is a creative platform for dancers, choreographers
and directors by offering workshops, themed events and
educational programmes.
European collaborations: Portugal, Greece, France, Israel
____________________________________________________________________
Hungarian Theatre – Interferences Festival
Explore | Theatre | Drama | European Performing Arts | Showcase |
Workshops |
The festival presents a kaleidoscope of some of the most
interesting trends of contemporary theatre. It is organised
biannually by the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj, since 2007.
European collaborations: Hungary, Italy, Poland, Germany, UK,
France, Serbia, Croatia, Netherlands, Slovenia
Network: European Theatre Union
____________________________________________________________________
Temps d’Image Festival
Explore | Theatre | Dance | Video | Experimental | Socially Engage
Practices |
A networked festival taking place in several cities in Europe each
year, Temps d’Images in Cluj-Napoca is focused on interdisciplinary
artistic research and co-production. Providing a radiography of a
society in constant change, the festival is a platform for reflection
and civic engagement.
European collaborations: France, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland
Networks: Temps d’Images Festival Network, EEPAP, Balkan Express
____________________________________________________________________
Jazz in the Park
Activate | Public Space | Jazz | Music | Street Art |
Cultural Education | Participation |
Inspired by an American concept from the 70’s, the festival focuses
on reactivating green public spaces through music and outdoor
activities accessible to everybody. It includes a Fund to support
young jazz artists and community initiatives, raised through
crowd funding and corporate donations. Artists from ten European
countries met with the 55.000 participants of the 2015 edition of
the festival.
41
European collaborations: UK, Norway, Serbia, France, Spain, Austria,
Hungary, Greece, Turkey, Poland, Czech Republic
Networks: EFFE - Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe
____________________________________________________________________
Hungarian Cultural Days of Cluj
Share | Hungarian Culture | Intercultural Dialogue | Participation |
Started in 2010 and mobilising almost 200.000 people (in 2015)
in the last week of August, the event animates the entire city in a
diverse programme celebrating not only the Hungarian cultural
inheritance from Transylvania and the Carpathian basin, but also
the multicultural life developed in Cluj-Napoca, through concerts,
exhibitions, public talks, fairs, workshops, educational activities, and
gastronomy.
European collaborations: Hungary /Budapest, Pécs, Eger,
Nyíregyháza, Gyula, Esztergom
____________________________________________________________________
Cluj-Napoca Days
Share | Cultural Diversity | Participation | Twin Cities |
With a programme consisting of several hundreds of events that
take place all across the city, Cluj-Napoca Days attracts a wide
and diverse audience: 80% of citizens attend at least one of its
activities. Artists and from all the cities that Cluj-Napoca is twinned
with participate in common cultural programmes.
Network: Twin Cities
____________________________________________________________________
Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF)
Trust | Film | Award | Arts | Cinema Education |
TIFF is a well-known brand of Cluj-Napoca on the international
film scene due to its outstanding programme. Its 14th edition in
2015 presented 223 films from 60 countries, and involved 850 film
professionals and 110.000 attendees.
European collaborations: Bosnia and Herzegovina/Sarajevo,
Lithuania/Vilnius, Bulgaria/ Sofia, Turkey/Istanbul, Germany/Berlin,
France
Networks: European Film Promotion, Fédération Internationale des
Associations de Producteurs de Films
____________________________________________________________________
Electric Castle Festival (EC)
Trust | Electronic Music | Banffy Castle - Bonțida |
Established in 2013, EC brings electronic music and urban activities
to a castle domain - the Bánffy Castle in Bonțida village - near ClujNapoca. In 2015 about 15% of the ticket buyers were foreigners
– almost 3000 (most of them from UK, Germany, France and the
Netherlands).
European collaborations: UK, Germany, Austria, France, the
Netherlands, Russia, Hungary, Ukraine
____________________________________________________________________
Untold Festival
Trust | Electronic, Pop and Rock Music | European Youth Capital
2015 |
Untold Festival was the highlight event of Cluj-Napoca 2015
European Youth Capital programme, reaching an audience of
240.000 people from Romania and different European countries. It
will continue in the next years as a legacy of the EYC 2015.
42
3.3 How will the events and activities that will constitute
the cultural programme for the year be chosen?
The selection of the activities and the overall quality of our
cultural programme is ensured by the Artistic Director and the
Artistic Board. They will make sure that the activities fit the
conceptual framework defined by the East of West concept
and WEAST structure and fulfil the criteria of artistic quality,
collaboration, participation, inclusiveness, European
dimension.
the flagship projects, new actions will be added during
the preparation phase (2017-2018), mainly as a result of
participatory curating workshops.
Given the participative process by which the current
programme framework has been developed – involving
cultural producers, experts of different sectors and members
of the community – participatory curating practices will
necessarily be employed in further selecting the activities in
our programme. In this respect, besides open calls for projects
addressed to local and European cultural producers on one
hand, and to local community groups on the other hand,
we will organise working sessions for project development.
These participatory curating sessions are important primarily
regarding special groups – Roma, disabled, elderly etc. – in
relation with whom artists and cultural producers have
usually limited knowledge and experience.
Open calls for projects are planned for 2017 and 2020 In
2014 we have made our first call for project ideas, with the
aim of making an inventory of the first activities that the
local cultural sector envisions for the cultural programme.
The result was a list of 60 projects that we used as a starting
point for the specialised workshops at the end of which our
flagship projects were designed. Apart from being essential
for the design of the theme projects, this first call for entries
was a very important learning experience both for our team
and for the local cultural sector, as it was the first time the
cultural operators of Cluj-Napoca were involved in such a
large and productive debate. Based on this experience and on
the above mentioned criteria we will run two more calls for
projects, one in 2017, to make a primary selection of activities
that can also include preparation phases in the years before
the title, and the other in 2020, to allow for new initiatives
and trends to be included in our programme.
The flagship projects that we developed are integrated
approaches to the themes that are most relevant for the
change we envision for our city and region through our ECoC
bid. They have been the result of a coordinated creative
effort of 70 cultural operators and constitute the base of
our programme. To the core activities already defined within
While the calls for projects are the main method to
encourage, allow and structure the way in which the local and
European cultural operators contribute to our programme
for 2021, our artistic team is also committed to continuously
look for independent projects which might be relevant for the
programme.
43
3.4 How will the cultural programme combine local cultural heritage and
traditional art forms with new, innovative and experimental cultural
expressions?
It is by our East of West concept itself that we committed
ourselves to create a cultural programme that welcomes
the productive confluence of cultural differences. As a direct
consequence the convergence of old and new, urban and rural,
traditional and innovative is a core feature of the cultural
experiment processes we envision.
We can trace this principle in almost all of our flagship
projects. For instance, Transylvanian Village, focused on
the traditions and heritage of the surrounding rural areas,
involves contemporary artists in village residences, thus
supporting the creation of new works inspired from traditions.
It also provides that the local heritage is being available to
be explored using new technologies.
contemporary living, for instance by using such buildings
for contemporary art exhibitions/performances. Taking into
account that Cluj-Napoca is an uprising IT hub (almost
10.000 people working in this sector), new media and new
technology will be extensively used in our programme also
for the purpose of making heritage available for online/
digital exploration.
The Social Creativity Platform generates the framework for
experimental models of sustainable urban living, some of
which are inspired from traditional lifestyle: permaculture
initiatives rely on the knowledge of traditional farmers,
Do-it-Yourself work inspires from old crafts and handmade
products, eco-building looks back to traditional resources and
techniques such as straw roofs, clay walls and wool insulation.
Within the framework of Treasure Cluj, the Intergalactic
Ethnography project aims to combine the traditional
elements present in the current Ethnographic Park (located
on the edge of Hoia Forest), along with their corresponding
folklore and myths, with fictional elements related to the
urban legends of the past 60 years related to the Hoia forest,
that seems to be the preferred site for UFO landings and
paranormal events. Artists, ethnographers and engineers come
together to build physical narrative installations and design
exploration scenarios that tell stories about past, future and
Several established events in our programme already
imagined worlds. These art installations will be the basis for
combine the traditional and experimental forms: Electric
gradually building up a theme park in the area.
Castle festival brings electronic music and new media
installations in a baroque castle, the Hungarian Days have
The project also researches old and traditional technologies
been producing interactive showcases of both traditional
and puts them in contemporary context, comparing them with and contemporary Hungarian culture and Temps d’Image
current technologies used for the same purpose. For instance, Festival has an ongoing tradition in affirming the value of
we will follow the alphorn, a wind instrument used in Apuseni interdisciplinary creation.
mountains both for music and long distance communication,
compare it with modern communication emergency systems
Also, our calls for projects will aim, among others, to generate
and generate a multimedia alphorn installation that we use
cultural projects and processes that combine past and
to send out, into the outer space, the Servus message.
future, tradition and innovation by specifying this criterion
in the selection process. Furthermore, our Facilitator
Someș - From West to East aims to develop through
Programme within the Open Academy of Change works
experimental ways the usage of a river course in an artistic
as a layer of micro-curating too, assisting cultural actors to
discourse.
explore, identify and implement new, experimental ways
of productively combining traditional with new cultural
All the activities to restore and promote heritage are
expressions.
aiming to create a direct relation between the heritage and
44
Capacity to deliver
3.5 How has the city involved, or how does it plan to involve, local artists and
cultural organisations in the conception and implementation of the cultural
programme? Please give some concrete examples and name some local artists
and cultural organisations with which cooperation is envisaged and specify the
type of exchanges in question.
Local artists and cultural institutions and organisations have
actively taken part in the process of designing the current
programme.
Between 2010 and 2012 the Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC
Association has established seven working groups –
performing arts, visual arts, heritage, literature, cultural
diplomacy, new media, cultural education - that brought
together the professionals of the respective disciplines to
produce a first assessment of the strengths, challenges, needs
and potential of the city’s cultural sector with the view to bid
for the ECoC title. The reports of these working groups led to
the development of the main directions of the project.
Between 2012 and 2014 we mobilised a group of local
experts from various fields (the core of this group consisted
of 25 people) to provide the key input for the programme
preparation. They have coordinated the process leading to
the elaboration of the Cultural Strategy and of the Creative
Industries Strategy, of the East of West concept along with
the slogan, the WEAST programme lines and to identifying
the key project themes. In total, during this period, over
200 people collaborated voluntarily for the programme
development. Public debates, press conferences and
presentations for key stakeholder groups - political parties,
administration, cultural sector, academia, business, minorities
groups, schools and high schools- were organised when
finishing each main step.
The programme development was in itself a collaborative
process that took six months (October 2014 - February 2015),
and involved organising around 20 thematic meetings with
artists, cultural producers, representatives of public and
private cultural venues, along with experts from the local
administration, the business and academic sectors. A public
call for ideas has been organised in 2014 bringing forward 60
project proposals for our programme. Most of these proposals
served either as starting point for the activities integrated in
the flagship projects or as individual projects for our cultural
portfolio. The programme lines and the cultural program
itself were developed by the members of the bid preparation
team, cultural institutions and the civil society.
For further developing the programme, as already mentioned,
we will invite local and European cultural producers
to propose relevant initiatives through open calls and
participatory curating workshops.
Throughout this process, the Cluj-Napoca 2021 Association
and its main team have acted as facilitators, creating the
frameworks and necessary conditions for the actual artists
and cultural producers to express their will and knowledge
regarding the programme design. This principle will be
further carried out through the programme implementation
phase. The Cluj-Napoca 2021 Association will organise
just few of the actions within the programme (e.g. the
Ceremonies and Open Academy of Change main projects),
its main role remaining that of facilitating and coordinating
the process.
The projects within the cultural programme are mostly carried
out by local, regional and European cultural organisations,
acting individually and/or in partnerships. In the case of the
flagship projects, given their complexity and importance
in fulfilling the vision of our bid, implementation is carried
out by multiple partners covering all the fields of expertise
touched by the projects: culture, architecture, technology,
social sciences, public administration a. o.
Each of the flagship and main projects involve local and
European partners and professionals. The project descriptions
presented earlier in this chapter detail the local institutions
and organisations that will contribute to the implementation
while some of the European partners are mentioned in
Chapter Two / European Dimension.
4.
45
Capacity to deliver
4.1 Please confirm and evidence that you have broad and strong political support
and a sustainable commitment from the relevant local, regional and national
public authorities.
“We are much honoured to hereby state that the Cluj-Napoca City Hall and Local Council, and
the Cluj County Council fully support the candidature of Cluj-Napoca as European Capital
of Culture 2021. The authorities we here represent are founding members of the Association
that has run the bidding process. We are proud to announce that the local and the regional
administrative structures have adopted the resolutions to ensure the necessary budget for the
preparation years and for the ECoC event.”
Emil Boc
Mihai Seplecan
Mayor of Cluj-Napoca
President of the Cluj County Council
Financial commitment
In June and August 2015, the Cluj-Napoca Local Council and
the Cluj County Council unanimously adopted resolutions
regarding their contributions to the operational budget for
ECoC 2021: 15 m euros, respectively 6 m euros.
Institutional support
Cluj-Napoca announced in 2010 its candidature for the
ECoC 2021. An independent NGO, named Cluj-Napoca
2021 European Capital of Culture Association, having an
autonomous executive team, was then founded for this
purpose. The mayor of our city and the president of our
County Council are members of the Association’s Board of
Directors.
Since the beginning, the city and county legislators have
approved the budget, the action plan and the overall strategy
of this Association, thus offering a full stability to our
endeavour.
From 2010 to 2015, the leadership of the city has changed
several times: we had three mayors, two presidents and one
interim president for the County Council. Moreover, one of
the mayors is convicted and a county council president is
prosecuted for corruption, but the bidding process wasn’t
disturbed. The Association executive team is still the same
that started this endeavour, regardless of the turbulences that
shook the city.
Political commitment
In 2013, Cluj-Napoca became the first Romanian citycandidate where all political parties represented in the
City Council and in the County Council signed a protocol for
supporting this bid and the Association which implements it
accordingly. Seven party branches, including the Hungarian
minority one, undertook this candidature as a priority project
for the city development.
During the five years of the preparation process, neither the
local parties nor the institutional leaders have used this
project for political goals. Thus, we are confident that no
election cycles or any other contingent situation can hijack
our bid for ECoC 2021.
46
Capacity to deliver
Capacity to deliver
There are two city owned spaces in the city centre – The
Casino Centre for Urban Culture and the Taylor’s Tower
and two such spaces in the largest neighbourhoods –
Cinema Mărăști and Cinema Dacia (former cinema halls
rehabilitated). These spaces will serve in 2021 both as info
points for the ECoC programme and venues for some of
the activities of the Open Academy of Change such as
the cooperation meetings of the cultural and non-cultural
operators, workshops, trainings and courses, public talks and
small exhibitions and performances.
The city has two modern stadiums, one of 25.000 seats and
the other, opened in 2010, with a capacity of 35.000 seats
(Cluj Arena). There are also two multipurpose halls, with the
capacity to host an audience of 5.000 and 10.000 people,
respectively. The newest multipurpose hall was opened in
2014 and it is the largest of its kind in the country. These
spaces, designed primarily for sports events and increasingly
used for hosting festivals and other cultural events, will play
an important role in delivering the large scale events of our
cultural programme. The major festivals and music concerts
that create highlights to attract the wide European public,
will take place in these venues. The opening and closing
events of our ECoC year, addressing large audiences, will
make use of the Cluj Arena stadium and various public spaces
in the city.
4.2 Please confirm and evidence that your city has or will have adequate and
viable infrastructure to host the title. To do that, please answer the following
questions:
Explain briefly how the European Capital of Culture will make use of and develop the
city’s cultural infrastructure.
Cluj-Napoca has a fairly good cultural infrastructure.
Among the indicators that positioned Cluj-Napoca as the
most culturally dynamic city in Romania (Bucharest as an
administrative capital was not included in the study), cultural
infrastructure rated as one of the strengths of our city.
The main cultural venues of the city - the two theatre and
opera buildings, the puppet theatre and the museums – are
used for the regular programmes of the respective public
cultural institutions. Within the ECoC programme, all these
institutions carry out special activities that link to the themes
and concept of our bid. Cluj-Napoca National Theatre has
been organizing since 2011 The International Meetings – a
platform for international dialogue and cooperation through
theatre. In 2021 this platform will be at its fullest and the
Cluj-Napoca National Theatre will organize a ten days theatre
festival The Hungarian Theatre of Cluj has organized since
2007 the Interferences Theatre Festival. The Hungarian
Theatre of Cluj is a member of the Union of the Theatres
of Europe and this festival aims to bring together all the
theatres of this union. In 2021 the Interferences Festival will
have a special edition and the members of the Union will be
invited to perform in Cluj-Napoca.
Our school art project Room 20/21 will also be produced
and performed in the Cluj-Napoca National Theatre. These
venues are also hosting touring and invited productions – for
instance the Temps d’Image and Steps festivals will present
part of their programme on the two national theatre stages.
The European Capital of Culture title is a valuable opportunity
for the rehabilitation of the buildings of these institutions
and to improve their equipment and audience facilities. The
ECoC will facilitate for public and independent producers
access to funds to upgrade their technical facilities and will
set up an equipment base for events in public space, that will
be available for delivering the cultural programme of the
ECoC year and the years to follow.
In the case of the Museum of Art and the Pharmacy Collection
of the National History Museum of Transylvania, which have
had their buildings retroceded, the ECoC title will be able to
create the necessary decision-making will at local, regional
and national level in order to either buy the old buildings or
find new buildings for their activity.
Following a growing trend among independent cultural
producers to open contemporary arts venues in former
industrial or abandoned heritage spaces – such as the
Paintbrush Factory, ZUG and Reactor – and considering the
dynamic of the city real estate, our programme has a special
focus on temporarily activating various urban spaces. While
the existing independent venues will host and produce
events within the ECoC programme, particular events target
neglected, invisible or decayed spaces – such a former film
47
depot, the Remarul 16 februarie and other former factories,
abandoned electric plants, water towers - to generate
awareness of these spaces and bring cultural events to less
known places in the city. Since ownership or legal issues
prevent some of these spaces from receiving a long-term
destination, thus remaining unused for years, we aim to
generate best practices in giving temporary cultural use for
such buildings and places.
A large number of the events in our programme take place
in public spaces, both in the city centre and across the city, in
neighbourhoods and the villages of the metropolitan area.
On the occasion of the ECoC title various public spaces will
be rehabilitated, having in view also their potential as places
for hosting cultural events, pop-up markets and gatherings. A
guide to responsible and sustainable use of public space will
be created, too.
The Regional Centre for Excellence in Creative Industries
(CREIC), due to open in 2016, will host in its premises
most of the activities of the Cluj Media City project of our
programme, including training, interdisciplinary residencies,
and production support for film and new media.
When considering the cultural infrastructure, besides
the buildings and their facilities, we also rely on the soft
infrastructure, a pool of approximately 2.500 people
employed in the cultural institutions and main events venues.
They cover a wide range of specializations, from artists to
technicians, stage designers, producers and PR and marketing
experts, teachers and other cultural operators. Adding to
these around 2.000 artists and creatives that occasionally
participate in the production of events, along with the 2.000
art and media graduates of each year, we get a consistent
pool of human resources that the ECoC programme can and
aims to mobilise.
What are the city’s assets in terms of accessibility (regional, national and international
transport)?
Cluj-Napoca lies in the heart of Transylvania, at an equal
distance, around 450 road kilometres, from our country’s
capital, Bucharest, and from Hungary’s capital, Budapest.
Air access
Cluj-Napoca is a gateway to Transylvania due to Avram Iancu
International Airport, which is located ten kilometres East of
the city centre - around 20 minutes by car from the city centre.
In the last three years, our airport has registered an annual
traffic of more than 1 million passengers, thus being the
second largest airport in Romania. Because of its international
traffic percentage (almost 80% in each of the last three
years), it has become the most important regional airport in
the country, with high standards and secure services for all
airlines and passengers.
Alongside the main traditional airlines, low-cost and charter
flights complete the services offered by our airport. Therefore,
Cluj-Napoca is permanently connected to the European air
hubs (more than 20 destinations, of which 8 capitals) and
furthermore, during summer, to the Mediterranean area (both
mainland and islands).
48
Capacity to deliver
Regular and charter flights
Capacity to deliver
Number of total & international arrivals
Source:
Avram Iancu
International Airport, 2014
There are multiple possibilities to reach the city centre
once you check-out from the airport: shuttle bus / executive
transfers, regular bus lines (the bus station lies at the
entrance of the airport and you can purchase tickets through
SMS), taxis waiting in front of the Arrivals terminal (less than
8 Euros per drive to the city centre) or rent-a-car companies
within the airport.
hours, but completion of Transylvania Highway, which links
Braşov to Oradea via Cluj-Napoca, will shorten this time to
about one hour. Transylvania Highway was set as a priority in
the Romanian National Infrastructure Master Plan and it will
be ready by 2018.
The present dimensions of our airport are the result of
major projects developed in the last ten years: extension of
the runway, intermodal passenger and cargo infrastructure,
security lighting. All of these have allowed the landing of
higher capacity aircrafts and have contributed to increasing
our city’s attractiveness as a tourist and business destination.
The public transportation inside our city is constantly
developing, being a current priority for the whole
metropolitan area. This is ensured by various means (bus,
trolleybus and tram) and also provides easy connections to
the nearby villages.
According to the Romanian National Infrastructure Master
Plan (for short, medium and long term), approved by the
European Commission this summer, Cluj-Napoca Airport
will receive almost 130 m euros for development. The
development refers to: improving and enlarging the landing
runway, a new cargo terminal, enlargement of passenger
terminal and improving the safety of the airport.
Rail and road access
The train station in Cluj-Napoca is within 15 minutes
walking distance from the main downtown squares. Our city
is connected by international rail routes to Budapest and
recently it has been linked to Vienna. We have express routes
to our capital, Bucharest, covered by two train set types Intercity and Blue Arrow, and connections to all major cities in
Romania, provided by our railway state company (CFR).
By car, the distance between Cluj-Napoca and the western
border of Romania is now travelled in about two and a half
City transportation
In order to reach international standards, the Municipality has
spent almost 35 m euros for new buses and trolleybuses. An
automated ticketing system, with completion in 2015, was
also developed in the recent years.
Benefiting from a Romanian-Swiss cooperation programme,
our Municipality has applied for a 6 m euros funding for
purchasing new electric buses, so as to provide a public
transport which is silent, modern, economically efficient and
environmentally friendly. For the same purposes, the local
authority has invested more than 30 m euros in modernizing
the city tramway and in purchasing powerful tram cars.
The Municipality has also set the targets of a healthier
lifestyle and easier city traffic. In these regards, a bike sharing
project (worth 3 million euro) has been made operational
this summer. It will consist of 50 bike-renting points in selfservice mode, with a total of 500 bikes. In addition to this, a
solid network is currently being built inside the city and in the
city surroundings.
49
What is the city’s absorption capacity in terms of tourists’ accommodation?
Cluj-Napoca is the unofficial capital of Transylvania. Not
merely due to its population, business power or geographical
position, but because it pumps energy into the region
and attracts the major knowledge flows. Whoever wants
to understand Transylvania, besides the fortified Saxon
churches, the amazing Romanian and Hungarian dances or
the transhumance of the Romanian shepherds, needs to take
a breath of our city’s atmosphere.
City: 5.670 beds
County: 4.600 beds
Locals registered
in CouchSurfing networks
and Airbnb rentals: 5.240 beds
Campus places: >2.000 beds
Total: 17.510 beds
This status is proven also by the tourist dynamics: around
260.000 arrivals in 2014 and almost 493.000 overnight stays.
But these figures represent less than 28% of our annual
absorption capacity, which exceeds 2.1 million overnight
stays.
Untold Festival audience: 240.000
Maybe the best proof the city is ready to host big events and
to accommodate a huge number of tourists is Untold Festival
which happened this year, as the main event of the 2015
European Youth Capital.
According to the National Tourism Authority, Cluj-Napoca
has one of the best accommodation capacities in Romania,
regarding the number of beds and hotels classification.
It registered a 240.000 audience during four days. From
the total number of unique ticket buyers, 15% were foreign
citizens and 35% were coming from different parts of
Romania. It was for the first time when all hotels in ClujNapoca were fully booked.
We have a total of 151 hotels, hostels and pensions. Speaking
of beds, the number is 5.670, of which 4.000 are in hotels.
Among these there are 23 three-star hotels, 15 four-star
hotels and three five-star hotels.
In addition, 5.240 locals are registered in CouchSurfing and
Airbnb networks. There are 4.600 other accommodation
facilities in Cluj County, within a 60 kilometres radius outside
Cluj-Napoca.
In case of special events, particularly during summer, our
accommodation absorption capacity may increase thanks to
our universities, which can accommodate more than 2.000
tourists in their campuses.
Quality and creativity
In a city where the main reason for incoming travel is
business, the quality of services has to naturally grow high.
Furthermore, in a city where students and youth make up
almost half the population, creativity thrives. And when these
two dimensions meet – quality of service and creativity special places are born. Joben bistro is such an example. A
thematic bistro inspired by the novels of H.G.Wells and Jules
Verne, Joben is listed by specialised websites as one of the
most interesting bars in the world.
Let’s suppose we become ECoC and also let’s double the
current figures. So, in 2021 we would register around 500.000
arrivals. Let’s also suppose the average individual overnight
stay would rise by 50%, reaching three nights. That would
mean 1.5 million overnight stays and we will still remain
below 75% of our hotel accommodation capacity.
Of course, this capacity also depends on visiting peaks. Here
we also have some good news. Our peaks are in May-June
and in September-October, when the occupancy rate amounts
at most to 65%. The explanation for these peaks? Today
Cluj-Napoca is predominantly a business and conference
destination, and also a transit hub for regional landmarks.
So the main summer season, July-August, when most
European citizens go on vacation, will be an excellent
opportunity for organizing some of our main events in the
ECoC year. This looks like the ideal match between the city
business dynamics and its openness towards cultural tourism.
Turda salt mine
A special tourist destination in Cluj County is the old salt
mine in Turda (30 kilometres from Cluj-Napoca). Turda salt
mine - now a museum and entertainment location - was
ranked by Business Insider as the most beautiful underground
place in the world and was visited by almost 240.000 people
last year.
50
Capacity to deliver
In terms of cultural, urban and tourism infrastructure what are the projects (including
renovation projects) that your city plan to carry out in connection with the “European
Capital of Culture” action between now and the year of the title? What is the planned
timetable for this work?
The European Centre for Contemporary Art is the main
infrastructure project of the ECoC programme. During the
various consultations and working groups leading to the
development of our programme a sense of urgency was
formulated around the need to research, document and
archive, collect and exhibit modern and contemporary art
from Cluj-Napoca and the region.
Although it implies that a new administrative structure
should be created in the city, the artistic direction of the
centre is closely connected to the actual local scene. Building
on the excellence of the local artists, curators, galleries and
the Art University, the European Centre for Contemporary Arts
acts as by supporting cooperation and scaling up their actions.
Made to complete (not to compete with) the existing activity
of the contemporary arts scene the ECCA is a medium-sized
project in terms of infrastructure development, providing
adequate space for medium and large scale exhibitions,
archive and storage space, and several residency studios.
A 12 m euros budget is foreseen by the local administration
for this project, to be secured from European funds and
matched from local sources. The building timeframe is 20182020, the first major exhibition marking the inauguration
of the space being included on the agenda of the spring
season of the title year. A group of local experts is currently
researching possible locations for the project.
Transylvania Cultural Centre is a cultural infrastructure
project that has been on the agenda of the local
administration for several years. The building wishes to serve
as a home for the Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra,
which, short of its own venue, has been rehearsing and
performing in various halls in the city for the past 15 years.
The Centre also includes studios and performing spaces for
the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy and the Puck Puppet
Theatre, along with studios and exhibition spaces to be
used on a project base by the local cultural producers, both
public and private. The budget of 65 m euros required for
the construction is secured from EU, local and governmental
funds. The project is in the stage of issuing the building
permit, construction works being planned for 2017-2021.
A major urban regeneration project along the river Someș
is both a priority project of the City Development Strategy
and a flagship project of the ECoC programme. It intends
to rethink the relationship of the city with the river, to
rehabilitate public spaces along the river for culture, sports
and community activities, and to animate these spaces and
their neighbouring communities.
A public architecture contest for the project master plan has
just been launched by the municipality. The rehabilitation
work is planned to begin in 2016 and to be finalised by 2020,
with an estimated budget of 25 m euros that will be raised
from EU funds and local resources.
Other infrastructure projects relevant for urban, cultural and
tourism development that the city intends to carry out before
the title year:
The rehabilitation of the Cetățuia Hill ensures the
preservation of the former Vauban Fortification and gives
back to the city and its visitors the most spectacular
panoramic view promenade. A small scale summer theatre
will be arranged in this area, on the location of a natural
amphitheatre.
Rehabilitation of the Firemen’s Tower is also planned.
The tower belongs to the former fortified network of the
ancient citadel and will be used as an observation point
and space for small cultural and artistic activities.
An integrated city communication system is being
currently implemented, providing a network of outdoor
displays, urban screens, totems, and signs to mark spaces
and directions.
Rehabilitation of public monuments and historical
buildings: the Carolina Monument, the Virgin Mary
Monument and heritage buildings.
New touristic route: Central Cemetery – Kogălniceanu
street – Union Square – Museum Square – Caragiale Park
– The Saxon Bridge – Cetăţuia Hill. The project includes
rehabilitation works along this route, pedestrianization
of Kogălniceanu Street and the West side of the Union
Square and re-building the pedestrian Saxon Bridge.
Outreach
5.
53
Outreach
5.1 Explain how the local population and your civil society have been involved in
the preparation of the application and will participate in the implementation of
the year?
In a city that builds its identity, as stated in the City
Development Strategy, around three pillars, one of which
is Participation (besides Innovation and University), the
European Capital of Culture – both as a bidding process and
project to be implemented – can only be a community project.
The Preparation Process
The preparations leading to this application started more
than five years ago, in June 2010, when the NGO meant
to carry out the bidding process was founded under the
name Cluj-Napoca 2020 European Capital of Culture
Association. (Later on, after new regulations, it changed its
name into Cluj-Napoca 2021 European Capital of Culture.)
The initiative was sparked by academics and civil society,
Rotary and Lions clubs and was rapidly embraced by the
local authorities. The Association was set as a joint initiative
of public institutions, on the one hand, and civil society
organizations and individual members, on the other hand. The
wide constituency of this NGO legitimizes this process and
also acts as a watchdog for its activities.
The core team taking charge of this bid is made of cultural
experts from local NGOs, led by a manager who had
previously worked in the local public administration. Besides
this core group of six persons, more than 30 professionals
have been closely contributing to the design of the bidding
process and to the content of this application.
Yet, most significantly, the entire bidding process has been
highly participative and the cultural sector in Cluj-Napoca has
been involved in all its stages:
Needs assessment: in 2010-2011 a series of working
meetings involving all stakeholders led to a status report
on seven thematic areas. Throughout 2012-2013 we
carried out surveys and research in order to generate a
solid base for the cultural strategy and the conceptual
framework of the bid.
The Cultural Strategy was developed over a one-year
period, involving a series of meetings and more than 100
cultural operators.
Concept: this was a decisive phase for establishing what
transformation is the city embarking on. Two working
retreats bringing together two dozens of leading
professionals from culture, urban planning, sociology,
education, economy, environmental studies and political
sciences helped generating the core input that led, after
consultations, to the design of the concept and slogan.
Programme structure and content: a long series of
meetings with local artists and cultural producers penned
the programme structure and key themes. In addition,
another 60 initiatives have been suggested through the
open call we launched in 2014, addressing the local,
national and European contributors.
Imagine 2021
In June 2015, a public debate was organized together with
Impact Hub. Moderated by one of the World Cafe founders,
Toke Moeller, it was attended by 300 people from ClujNapoca. The purpose of this debate was to imagine the city in
anticipation of 2021. The resulting ideas were collected and
some can be found in the projects of the cultural programme.
Each of these stages included public consultations and
presentations, the community as well as the local media
being constantly in contact with the work for the application
in progress.
Information campaigns and community projects
Between 2013 and 2015, three public campaigns were
conducted to promote the candidature, the concept, the
slogan and the programme main themes. Channels used
included: outdoor billboards, newspaper articles, flyers/
direct mail, online banners, and facebook contests. The first
two campaigns (2013-2014) took place under the slogan
Culture Transforms the City and aimed at promoting
the participation of the city in the ECoC competition and
illustrating the potential of culture for the city development.
The first campaign was mainly informative, while the second
encouraged citizen participation by submitting photographs
and messages. Cluj Deserves is the motto of the third
campaign, carried out in 2015, that presented the main
themes of the ECoC programme.
Local media have been interested and supportive of the city’s
ECoC bid throughout the preparation period. We hosted press
conferences and regular informal meetings with journalists.
54
Outreach
The application process have been covered by over 300
media articles and appearances.
In 2014, the visual identity package for our programme was
established, following a public competition for logo design.
Professional and non-professional designers have submitted
79 proposals. The local community was invited to contribute
to the selection of the logo by online voting, the public
preference weighting in the final decision, along with the
vote of the expert jury.
The results of the communication undertook are certified
by two sociological analysis, according to which an
overwhelming percentage of our city’s inhabitants are aware
of the candidature (84%), know the activities of the ClujNapoca 2021 Association (64%), want their city to win this
title (89%), believe it is beneficial for the city (65%), and
most importantly: 65% are willing to voluntarily engage if
requested.
In addition, since 2010 various civil society initiatives brought
into discussion the candidature of our city. Carpatica Cultural
Foundation, the Civil Local Council and AltArt Foundation
have organized a series of public debates on this matter.
Outreach
#clujulmerita/#clujdeserves
– 10.000 photo messages
In 2014, the initiative of two NGOs, Fapte
and PhotoRomania, led to the largest
community support project: a photographic
documentation of Cluj inhabitants answering
these three questions: Why does the city deserve
the title? What would they do for the city in
order to support the candidature project? And
what does the city need to become a successful
cultural capital?
In 2015, other NGOs - Beard Brothers and The
Sisterhood - joined the project in order to help
us reach a target of 10.000 photo messages
from locals and foreigners alike. According to
a survey, one in three Cluj-Napoca inhabitants
got to know this photo project.
CJX
The Cluj-Napoca 2021 Association initiated partnerships
with various university departments to generate knowledge
and materials for the bid preparation and to involve students
and teachers in the project. Thus, in 2015 students from the
Faculty of Geography in cooperation with the city’s Tourist
Information Centre have conducted a research on the tourist
profile, gathering data on the amounts spent in our city,
duration of stay, countries of origin a.o.
Following a call for volunteers, 12 students from the Faculty
of Letters and their teachers, got involved in translating
the content of our website in the four available languages:
English, French, Hungarian and German.
Student involvement
The candidature became a subject of research for students
in Cluj-Napoca. Since 2010, 20 Bachelor and Master thesis
centred on the Cluj-Napoca ECoC application have been
written by students of History, Geography, Tourism, Economic
Sciences and European Studies. Between 2012 and 2015, 60
students from the Faculty of History and Philosophy did their
internships within the Association.
consulting them about projects to be included in the bid. We
had a coordinated campaign to connect schools and cultural
operators within the Another Kind of School project, which
is a national initiative to involve pupils in different type of
non-school related activities.
We plan to continue and develop some of the activities of the
European Youth Capital, such as SharED project, a platform
including all schools in Cluj County.
Civil society participation during the title year
The involvement of civil society and of the community is
reflected both in our programme – with various programmes
and platforms for participation, cooperation and co-decision
- and in our management structure. Besides the cultural/
artistic, technical and management teams, there is an entire
department to coordinate community affairs.
The Open Academy of Change is a framework programme
for citizen participation, meant to facilitate cooperation of
More than 40 art and media students from the University of
established institutions with community organisations and
Art and Design (UAD) and the Sapientia University contributed informal groups, and to generate citizen-led actions.
with photos and videos to our media gallery during the last
two years.
Within the Open Academy of Change, a project of special
relevance is the Facilitators Programme. By this platform we
In 2015, as a graduating project, students of Fashion Design
train and employ a pool of facilitators to work as connectors
at UAD proposed 43 designs from which the official t-shirt of between the projects of the ECoC and the individuals that
Cluj-Napoca as ECoC candidate city will be chosen.
may be interested in taking part.
The Capital Beer – Informal Meetings
Throughout 2014 and 2015 we have organized the socalled Capital Beer meetings. Given the capital importance
that cooperation has in our vision for the Cluj-Napoca as a
European Capital of Culture, on the last Thursday of each
month we hosted, along with our corporate partner Ursus
Breweries, informal get-togethers of artists and producers
from both the institutional and independent cultural sector,
event organizers, business people, representatives of the
municipality and the civil society in Cluj-Napoca. Through
these meetings we got to know each other better, exchange
information, establish ties and initiate collaborations.
Once the main messages of the candidature
reached the public, actual initiatives began to
emerge, such as the CJX project, carried out by
the members of the the blogger community
from Cluj-Napoca. They embarked on two
expeditions – one in 2014 and the second in
2015 - to visit and discover former and future
ECoC cities, as well as candidate cities from all
over Europe. The bloggers visited 20 cities where
they met coordinators of the bidding projects
and talked to citizens, looking to find out, in
their perception, the impact of the ECoC title on
their city.
Their website www.cjx.ro attracted tens of
thousands of visitors, as well as local, national
and international media exposure. Furthermore
they gathered bidbooks, cultural programs,
touristic and cultural information. As a result,
the Association managed to set a small themed
library that is now available for everybody
interested in finding out more about the
European Capital of Culture programme. This
way they helped disseminating a simplified way
of what a European Capital of Culture is.
Two groups of 30 students from the Babeș-Bolyai University,
Faculty of European Studies and the Saxion University of
Applied Sciences (NL), developed projects proposing solutions
for urban policies for Cluj-Napoca as a potential ECoC, during
a two week course organized in 2014 and 2015.
55
Cooperation with Schools
From the beginning of the bidding process, school pupils in
Cluj-Napoca have been invited to interact with the idea of
the city candidature. In 2010-2012, several schools conducted
competitions in which students were challenged to imagine
their city as a European Capital of Culture.
After the city won the European Youth Capital title we
thought it appropriate not to insist on thematic actions
directed to the pupils so that they could turn their attention
and involvement to the events organized accordingly.
However, we kept in touch with their teachers by sending
them information about the European Capital of Culture and
The facilitators act as “translators” across social clusters. They
have the skills and tools to understand and connect to each
group – from neighbourhood communities to ethnic, religious
or sexual minorities – and find them opportunities to plug
into existing activities. Furthermore, the facilitators mobilise
and support citizen led activities that come to life through
support programmes such as InJoy Fund and Com’on ClujNapoca.
The Volunteer programme and the Open University are
also platforms where individual, in-depth contribution to
the ECoC project is made possible, leading to both personal
development – through learning, hands-on experience, work
experience accumulated by participants – and to community
development – through individual contributions to projects
meant to raise life quality inside the city.
All the flagship projects as well as a significant part of the
portfolio projects have a community participation component.
Furthermore, local organisations are initiators and organisers
in most of these projects.
56
Outreach
Outreach
5.2 How will the title create in your city new and sustainable opportunities
for a wide range of citizens to attend or participate in cultural activities, in
particular young people, volunteers, the marginalised and disadvantaged,
including minorities? Please also elaborate on the accessibility of these activities
to persons with disabilities and the elderly. Specify the relevant parts of the
programme planned for these various groups.
The Open Academy of Change is a good example of a new
and sustainable opportunity for citizens to participate in
cultural activities and decision-making processes. It sets in
motion structures aimed at enhancing human potential and
interaction with a long-term effect.
The Volunteer programme is a development of the
Volunteer Academy set up by the European Youth Capital in
2015 and will continue to operate beyond the title year.
Similarly, the SharED platform, Com’on Cluj-Napoca, InJoy
Fund and other initiatives will continue as permanent or
annual activities, offering sustainable opportunities for
citizens of different social and cultural backgrounds to be
active in the city life.
The cultural programme of the ECoC year is meant to
facilitate a wide access for vulnerable and disadvantaged
groups. Each project has details related to accessibility and
at least one third of the programme devises a kit for special
audiences.
These facilities include:
Braille prints and audio descriptions for the blind – for
the general programme and for the individual projects;
city tours and performance runs adapted to the special
needs groups: electric car tours for those with reduced
mobility, including old people, sign language tours of
exhibitions and cultural sights etc.
special access areas for wheelchair users or people in
need of assistance for concerts and performances at all
venues;
cultural facilitators will be available to accompany
special needs audiences through various events/
experiences: they will offer sign language city tours,
summaries of performances and exhibition briefs, as well
as audio experiences for hearing impaired audiences.
These specially trained people will also offer assistance
and advice for producers to develop and adapt their
events to special needs audiences.
SensorLab – a workshop space where the themes of the
flagship projects can be explored using all senses. This
will allow the audience to feel by touching the shape
and proportions of particular works of art that are being
exhibited in that period, hear the story of a film, dance
or theatre performance, smell and taste food or raw
materials used in community projects and so on.
At chosen hours, events in the programme will be offering
a special setting for parents with children and infants –
e.g. morning screenings or theatre performances where
kids are free to roam the space, children corners with
animation and educational activities where parents can
leave their kids under specialized supervision while they
attend other events.
The French and French speaking students in Cluj-Napoca
form the largest community of this kind in Eastern Europe.
With support from the French Cultural Institute we have
connected to this group and designed actions to specifically
address their needs as part of the InClujing You project.
The French community in Cluj-Napoca also supported
the candidature through the photo project #clujulmerita
(#clujdeserves).
Another large community is that of the Bessarabian students
in Cluj-Napoca, who are Romanian ethnics from Republic of
Moldova. They are also joining the InClujing You initiative.
57
Although it initially seemed a significant challenge, outlining
a major project that involves the religious denominations
in Cluj-Napoca developed naturally and in a relatively short
time. Following joint meetings with the representatives
of the Orthodox, Catholic, Reformed, Lutheran, Unitarian,
Jewish denominations, the Together project emerged. Most
denominations agreed on joining the project. The programme
consists of activities such as ecumenical gatherings and choir
music performances, assigned to the four seasons of the title
year.
Involving Minorities in the bidding process as well as in the
programme design has been a priority.
In our effort to accommodate the needs and cultural
specificities of minority groups, during the preparation phase
we held a series of working meetings with representatives
of different ethnic groups. Dedicated meetings with
representatives of Hungarian, Jewish and Roma communities
took place.
Thus projects to support and promote specific cultural
manifestations of the different ethnic and language
minorities in the city are included in the programme. Our
Intercultural Platform will host common actions of these
minorities such as evenings of traditional children’s stories
and poetry reading and gastronomy events.
Special events such as Hungarian Cultural Days are
included in the programme. All flagship projects have
components that involve the Hungarian community.
Even though the Roma community is 1% of the city
population, their issues represent a major challenge for
Cluj-Napoca and its authorities. With a large part of the
Roma community - about 1.500 people - living in Pata Rât
on the city wastefield, the Roma community confronts with
severe difficulties related to exclusion, poverty, poor health,
dire living conditions and limited access to education. Given
the differences in their representation and the immediacy
of the challenges they face, we had difficulties establishing
partnerships for projects planned for a rather distant horizon
as the 2021 ECoC title.
Thus in our programme we create a framework for Roma
projects (traditional music, dance, crafts) and cultural
actions bringing together Roma and non-Roma participants
(performances, sport events, storytelling, public space
events). Our key partner in this respect is the Roma Youth
Organization.
5.3 Explain your overall strategy for audience development, and in particular the
link with education and the participation of schools.
Since our overall goals are to facilitate urban regeneration
and social transformation, access and participation to culture
are essential drivers. They are both aims and means. Thus,
a consistent part of our programme is devoted to increase
cultural engagement.
Audience Development
The Open Academy of Change in itself is a strategy to
develop human capacities and generate opportunities for
participation and co-creation.
To begin with, we acknowledge the particular context of the
city. We have a dynamic cultural life, with a large number of
events, yet very few producers have strategies for audience
development: the interested people come mainly from the
same social segment, and opportunities for cultural education
are limited.
This is why our strategy for audience development is a twostep plan: on the one hand we focus on building the capacity
of the cultural sector in the field of audience development
and on the other hand we generate measures that will
directly support wider participation.
The capacity building component is concentrated in the years
to precede the year of the title and includes:
a series of training opportunities for cultural producers.
a mentoring programme by which cultural
organisations and institutions are supported in building
their audience development strategies.
58
Outreach
working placements for local cultural workers in
museums, theatres and arts organisations across Europe
to facilitate transfer of expertise from institutions with
experience in audience development and a fund to
support pilot projects in the field.
The Open Academy of Change is also offering the
platform for regular networking among local cultural
producers, facilitating cooperation to reach new
audiences and improve the experience of existing
audience.
Access to Culture
The measures for widening access to culture are:
City Card: to facilitate access, a card integrating multiple
services will be developed for the ECoC programme.
It will offer discount access, access to museums and
galleries. It will integrate discounts for hotels, restaurants
and it will serve as base to offer incentives to frequent
users.
Cultural Voucher System, intended to stimulate people
with low interest to attend cultural events. The voucher is
a value coupon that everyone in the city receives and can
be used to get free/discount access to artistic events. The
organizers later get reimbursed from a fund supported by
local companies, thus also stimulating the involvement
of the private sector in the community’s cultural life.
Furthermore, the voucher is a key tool to support
participation of disadvantaged groups – low income
families, old people, children and youth, unemployed and
other people facing the risk of exclusion.
Free events/non central: our cultural programme
includes a large number of free access events as well as
events in public spaces and in non-central locations, all
these meant to open access to a wide range of audiences.
Language facilities – The performances delivered in
Romanian will have English, Hungarian, French and
German translations; written programmes of main events
will also be available in five languages and Braille.
Outreach
Cultural Agenda Fairs: during the year 2021, there will
be four fairs where organisers of cultural events taking
place in the following months present their programme
to the public. This event not only allows audiences to get
a more accurate idea about the content of the artistic
offer, but also facilitates interaction with the organisers,
pre-booking/booking tickets and registration for
volunteering, workshops and other hands-on experiences.
Open Access Days: throughout the preparation years
and the title year, a series of open access days will
take place, mobilising the entire cultural scene to offer
special programmes to trigger curiosity and involvement
of diverse audiences. Such events include the already
established ones like The Night of the Museums, The
White Night of the Galleries, The White Night of
Theatre, Cluj Art Weekend, Open Doors Days and also
special events where audiences can visit the backstage,
the building workshops or the technical room of theatre
spaces, can attend rehearsals, talk to the artists, go
through different stages of production, access unseen
parts of the museum collections, a. o.
Centralised booking and information service: the
management team of the ECoC programme will also
develop a centralised booking and information service
regarding the cultural programme. It will offer services
both online and in info points in the city.
Community Label: cultural organisations and
institutions may receive this label on the condition to
fulfil a series of standards in relation to their audience:
offer special programmes that are accessible to
children or to people with special needs, offer audience
development and educational activities etc.
SharED–Cultural education platform. The platform
facilitates networking and resource sharing among
cultural and educational workers, the development of
cooperation projects of non-formal education, of cultural
education in schools, artistic projects involving youth etc.
It allows teachers and informal groups of young people
or parents to reach out for cultural opportunities and for
cultural workers to reach for young audiences.
Cultural Education and Involvement of Schools
With regards to cultural education, our programme gives
particular attention to the inclusion of children and youth.
The flagship project in this area is EXPAND, a three year
project involving all schools in Cluj-Napoca and 20 more
schools in Cluj County. Activities include:
Development of school curricula for cultural education
– including guidebook, exercise book and support
materials for teachers – to be taught in all these schools
as an optional subject. A basic course on culture will
help students get familiar with European heritage,
artistic genres from traditional to contemporary art and
new media, will help them to acknowledge the ECoC
programme, and make informed choices about their
participation in the programme.
Artistic education in schools: following an open call for
artists, 80 artists from various fields – film, photography,
music, dance, theatre, visual arts, literature – will work
for one semester with children aged 10-16, offering them
both basic skills in practising one art form and concrete
opportunities to create and perform.
Com’on Cluj-Napoca – Youth for a Common Cluj – is
a project that was piloted in Cluj-Napoca in 2015 on
the occasion of the European Youth Capital that will
be further developed as a youth public participation
process. The goal of the project is to increase the level
of awareness of young individuals towards the needs
of their community and to actively involve them in the
community building process, thus creating the basis for
59
a culture of participation. In 2015, over 300 projects
were proposed by informal groups of young people. For
2021, this project will develop on the same framework:
following a period of facilitation and consultations, a
competition for initiatives is launched. Afterwards, the
youth for the most valuable initiatives that will receive
financial support and mentoring for implementation. This
component helps at empowering youth and offering them
the framework to build their programme for the ECoC
2021.
The Council of the Students from Cluj County schools will
organise a festival dedicated to youth art - school bands,
choirs, dance groups, theatre groups, writers, painters and
designers of school age will perform and present their
works in professional art venues.
Rooms 20/21 is an artistic programme, led by director
Andreea Iacob, that will use two parallel casts of
professional artists and young performers (ages 12-18). It
will result in the staging of a theatre/dance/multimedia
performance on a professional stage, consecutively,
in both casts. Each student artist will thus have a
professional mentor to rehearse with. The youth cast will
not be limited to acting roles, but will be also involved in
directing and technical functions.
Besides these special projects, a department specifically
addressing cultural education and managing the
relationship of the ECoC programming team with the
schools in the region will be set with the Open Academy
of Change.
Management
6.
61
Management
a. Finance
City budget for culture:
What has been the annual budget for culture in the city over the last 5 years
(excluding expenditure for the present European Capital of Culture application)?
The municipal cultural budget rose considerably and
constantly in the past five years. As shown in the table the
raise was from 0.18% to 1.06%, more precisely from 368.937
euros to 2.834.545 euros. These strictly represent the budget
of the municipality for the cultural agenda of the city.
The percentage may seem small at first glance, but it
reflects only a small part of the city’s cultural budget
which is approximately 18 m euros. This is due to the fact
that most major cultural institutions in the city are under
the administration of the Ministry of Culture and national
legislation does not allow additional funding from the
Municipality.
Funding from the municipality has been
oriented to subsidise the independent
cultural sector (local NGOs) and sometimes
to finance specific projects of major cultural
institutions in the city
Year
2011
2012
2013
2014
current
Annual budget for
culture in the city
(in euros)
368.937
1.214.533
1.267.194
1.814.137
2.834.545
Annual budget
for culture in the city
(in % of the total annual
budget for the city)
0.18%
0.62%
0.60%
0.67%
1.06%
Besides the direct investments allocated to the cultural
operators and institutions, in the past five years the City
Hall invested almost 40 m euros for developing the cultural
and touristic capacity of Cluj-Napoca. The most important
investment projects were: building a new Multipurpose Hall
and CREIC, refurbishment of a part of the historical centre,
new pedestrian areas, landscaping works for the Central Park,
refurbishment of the Casino Building and reopening of Dacia
and Mărăşti cinemas.
In case the city is planning to use funds from its annual budget for culture
to finance the European Capital of Culture project, please indicate this amount
starting from the year of submission of the bid until the European Capital of
Culture year.
If Cluj-Napoca wins the European Capital of Culture title the
city and the county council will not use funds from the annual
budget for culture.
In June 2015, the Local Council decided to vote a special
financing line dedicated for ECoC for the 2017-2022 period.
The sum allocated is 15 m euros. In August 2015, the County
Council too voted a special financing line for ECoC for the
same period 2017-2022. The allocated amount is 6 m euros.
These sums do not include the infrastructure investments,
which are detailed in the following answers.
Which amount of the overall annual budget does the city intend to spend for
culture after the European Capital of Culture year (in Euros and in % of the overall
annual budget)?
The Cultural Strategy of Cluj-Napoca refers to a 2014-2020
timeframe. The budget for the next years will gradually
increase from 1.06 % (2015) to at least 3% of the city
budget in 2020. Between 2021 and 2027 the city budget
for culture is estimated to be at least 3% of the total
budget. This percentage represents financial allocations for
supporting cultural activities (2%) and operating budget for
the new cultural institutions (1%): The European Centre for
Contemporary Art.
Compared to the total budget of the city in 2015 (as reference
year), 3% will represent approximately 8.4 m euros.
62
Management
Management
Operating budget for the title year
Income to cover operating expenditure:
Please explain the overall operating budget (i.e. funds that are specifically set aside
to cover operational expenditure). The budget shall cover the preparation phase,
the year of the title, the evaluation and provisions for the legacy activities.
The operational budget for the Cluj-Napoca 2021
European Capital of Culture project is 35 m euros. This
is divided in three categories: Programme expenditure
70.14%; Marketing and communication 15.57 % ; Wages,
overheads and administration 14.29%.
From the total of the operational budget, 7.14% represents
income from the private sector and 92.86 % represents
income from the public sector: the Local Council, the County
Council, the National Government, EU (with the exception of
the Melina Mercouri Prize).
In regards to the cultural programme, in 2021 we intend to
Total income to cover operating
expenditure (in euros)
35.000.000
From the public
sector (in euros)
32.500.000
spend 12.836.143 euros and the difference from the total
will be directed to pilot projects which will start from 2017.
The reason why the budget allocated for the years 20172020 is almost equal to the ECoC year is due to the fact
that all flagship projects are new and need to be tested and
developed in advance in order to be delivered to the right
parameters. Also, our experiences with the European Youth
Capital has shown that the preparation phase is as important
as the implementation year.
The budget for marketing and communication, along with
the budget for wages, overheads and administration have a
gradual increase as the year 2021 approaches.
From the public
sector (in %)
92.86%
From the private
sector (in euros)
2.500.000
From the private
sector (in %)
7.14%
Income from the public sector:
What is the breakdown of the income to be received from the public sector to cover
operating expenditure?
Income from the public sector to
cover operating expenditure
National Government*
City
Region
EU (with the exception of the Melina Mercouri Prize)
Other
Total
in euros
10.000.000
15.000.000
6.000.000
1.500.000
0
32.500.000
%
30.77%
46.15%
18.46%
4.62%
0.00%
100.00%
* Until the moment of the application, the Cultural Ministry of Romania
did not announce the budget for the European Capital of Culture action.
But, after analyzing the budget of the ministry from the past years, the
way it was distributed to certain major cultural events from Romania and
given the importance of the European Capital of Culture action, we expect
that the National Government will contribute with 10 m euros, which
represents around 30% of the operating budget of Cluj-Napoca 2021
ECoC.
Have the public finance authorities (City, Region, State) already voted on or
made financial commitments to cover operating expenditure? If not,
when will they do so?
During the meeting of June 3rd, 2015 the Local Council
unanimously approved (26 votes for yes, 1 member absent) a
budget of 15 m euros for the ECoC action, for the 2017-2022
period.
Also the Cluj County Council voted on the 31st of August
2015, a budget allocation of 6 m euros for the Cluj-Napoca
2021 ECoC project.
So far we have secured, through official decisions
of the Local and County Councils, 21 m euros
which represent 60% of the overall operating
budget.
63
What is your fundraising strategy to seek financial support from Union
programmes/funds to cover operating expenditure?
Our plans to seek financial support from Union programmes
and funds cover the preparation phase, the title year and the
evaluation and monitoring process. The Managing Director
has direct responsibilities regarding the fundraising strategy
for EU financial support.
The minimum target for 2017-2022 is 1.5 m euros covering
the following components:
Operational costs for projects in the Cultural Programme
Flagship projects
Support for cultural operators.
Operational Costs for projects in the Cultural Programme
Operational and preparation costs for flagship projects and
for the title itself will be secured through programs such EEA
Grants, Erasmus+ or Creative Europe.
For example, the research and documentation program
for European Centre for Contemporary Art could be
supported by EEA Grants. Treasure Cluj will seek funds from
the Conservation and Revitalization of Cultural and Natural
Heritage Program. The Young and Famous Orchestra project
will apply for the Creative Europe Program. The Volunteer
Program and Open Academy of Change will try to receive
financial support from Erasmus+.
Operational costs for programs such as InJoy Fund or the
development of Com’on Cluj-Napoca could be supported by
the NGO Fund (EEA Grants).
Flagship projects
A wide range of EU programs and funds will be used to secure The Intercultural Platform addresses the issue of
the budget of the flagship projects, from Creative Europe
ethnic minorities and their integration, a theme widely
program to URBACT III.
supported by European Programs. For example the
language camps, the arts and crafts workshops could be
The European Centre for Contemporary Art will seek
supported by Erasmus+, while the interethnic festival
financial support from Creative Europe program for
could be sustained by the EEA Grants through Promotion
its exhibition and residency programs.The EEA Grants
of Diversity in Culture and Arts within European Cultural
Program, Promotion of Diversity in Cultural and Arts
Heritage. The project itself is also eligible for the Local
within European Cultural Heritage is a good opportunity
and Regional Initiatives to Reduce National Inequalities
to support international exhibitions and residency under
and to Promote Social Inclusion Program under EEA
ECCA, both during the title year as well and after.
Grants.
Someș from West to East will benefit from participating
in European networks of cities facing similar urban
challenges (like River//Cities//Rivers of opportunities
network), through exchange of good practices,
conferences, debates and other such activities. In this
regard we aim to participate in at least two European
cities networks under URBACT III till 2021.Creative
Europe, EEA Grants, NGO Fund and Promotion of Diversity
in Culture and Arts within European Cultural Heritage
program, as well as Erasmus+ will be explored as support
for local cultural projects implemented as part of Someș
from West to East project.
InClujing You will seek financial support from European
programs supporting tourism development such as
COSME, European Regional Development Fund and
European Agriculture and Rural Development Fund, while
its artistic agenda could be financed through Creative
Europe or Cultural Diversity Program under EEA Grants.
The Platform for Social Creativity may be supported
by the Europe for Citizens Programs that cares for
initiatives that strengthen remembrance and enhance
civic participation at EU level. A collaborative project with
the Balkan region could be financed under the European
remembrance priority.
64
Management
Treasure Cluj residency program falls under Creative
Europe priorities. Also its idea to reveal the stories
of Cluj-Napoca to its citizens and visitors, could be
developed under an URBACT III project or Erasmus+
initiatives.
The Via Maria project, a major component of Together
programme can be supported by Creative Europe,
while the conference and the workshops could seek
financial support from Erasmus+ or the European Youth
Foundation.
The projects from Performing East programme –
wRite of Spring, the mobility and exchange projects
(NomadEast), as well as the Young and Famous
Orchestra project can be sustained by Creative Europe or
EEA Grants program for promoting cultural diversity.
Management
Cluj Media City will seek financial support from the
Media priority of the Creative Europe Program, both for
its educational agenda and for supporting the production
costs for residency authors.
Last, but not least, the Open Academy of Change
budget will be partially covered from EU grants. For
example the development of Open University can be
supported by the NGO Fund (EEA Grants). The InJoy Fund
and Com’on Cluj-Napoca can seek financial support
from EEA Grants, while the Volunteer Program can be
supported by Erasmus+ and European Youth Foundation.
In this regard we plan to:
Involve the local cultural operators in the development
of our flagship projects, as partners in European projects
under Creative Europe, Erasmus+ or EEA Grants. For
instance the organizations involved in ECAC may be part
of the European networks and projects developed under
Creative Europe or the representatives of the ethnic
2017
0
500.000
750.000
375.000
0
0
2018
300.000
500.000
750.000
375.000
0
0
2019
300.000
500.000
750.000
375.000
500.000
0
2020
300.000
2.000.000
1.500.000
750.000
500.000
0
2021
300.000
5.500.000
7.500.000
3.500.000
1.500.000
0
+
2022
300.000
1.000.000
3.750.000
625.000
0
0
*excluding the Melina Mercouri Prize
The Melina Mercouri prize is not comprised in this table. However if Cluj-Napoca wins the prize we plan to transform it into a fund to support projects
selected by the Artistic Team and to develop the Remake project. We are also aware that the prize may be received in the second part of 2021, so these
projects will be produced after May 2021.
What is the fund-raising strategy to seek support from private sponsors? What is
the plan for involving sponsors in the event?
minorities involved in Intercultural Platform may be
partners in an Erasmus+ exchange project.
Support local cultural operators to apply as lead
applicants and as partners for their projects developed
in connection with Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC. For example
we aim to back the residents of Cluj Media City to seek
financial support for the production and dissemination of
their art work under the Media Program. The promoters
of the projects selected under the three calls for projects
will receive assistance in applying local and European
grants in order to co-finance their projects (Creative
Europe, EEA Grants, Asia – Europe Foundation, Erasmus+,
national and local cultural funds).
According to what timetable should the income to cover operating expenditure be
received by the city and/or the body responsible for preparing and implementing
the ECoC project if the city receives the title of European Capital of Culture?
Funding from the Local Council of Cluj-Napoca, County
Council and the Government starts from 2017. We know for
sure that the Local Council and County Council financing
will take the form of a membership fee in the ClujNapoca 2021 Association, which ensures employment of
personnel, initiating communication campaign and starting
the flagship projects. The European Youth Capital 2015
experience has shown us that any form of funding - other
than the membership fee - is not sustainable for the optimal
development of the European Capital of Culture project.
At the same time, this direct form of contribution solves
the cash flow problem that we encountered as a city in
the implementation of the European Youth Capital 2015
project. We also allocated, for 2022, 16.21 % from the total
operational budget in order to continue certain cultural
2016
-
Income from the private sector:
Support for cultural operators
Romania has participated in 129 projects between 2007
and 2013 under the Culture Program, being one of the low
participation countries. Apart from seeking financial support
for our flagship projects and for the cultural infrastructure
development, we aim to support local cultural operators to
enlarge their European networks and to benefit from more
European funds.
Source of income for
operating expenditure
EU*
National Government
City
Region
Sponsors
Other
65
projects and also to conduct research on the impact of the
ECoC programme in the city.
We did not include a specific budget for the 2016 year since
according to our calculation the final decision of the jury, will
be announced at the end of the year. In this matter we also
asked for an official position from the European Commission
and our calculations were confirmed. However, if needed, the
Local Council is able to allocate a sum for the remaining
months of 2016.
Starting with 2018 we estimate that we will access EU funds
according to the fundraising strategy and from 2019 we will
collect financial contributions from private sponsors.
Recent years have shown that Romania is more and more
prepared to bring corporate funding to the cultural sector.
Cluj-Napoca, in particular, has started to develop a corporate
culture of investing in arts and community, as several large
scale cultural and artistic events have developed over the
recent years: projects like European Youth Capital 2015,
Transilvania International Film Festival, Electric Castle
Festival, Jazz in the Park Festival, Untold Festival and Musical
Autumn of Cluj have raised significant private sponsorship
funds in 2015.
Attracting corporate funds has been a priority for Cluj-Napoca
2021 Association. Almost 50% of the total budget of the four
years of preparation for this bid come from corporate funds.
Companies like Ursus Breweries – a large brewery founded
in Cluj-Napoca, Terapia – a major national pharmaceutical
company, Banca Transilvania– founded in Cluj-Napoca and
country’s number three bank - were our most important
corporate partners. We also partner with large companies
active in IT, services or consumer goods industries.
We have an active corporate sponsor base:
Ursus Breweries, Banca Transilvania, Moldovan Carmangerie Sânnicoară and others have supported us
with 150.000 euros in the last four years.
Commercial Bank of Romania, Vitrina Advertising,
Amprenta Advertising, PMA, Daisler Print House, IRES and
others were involved with Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC early
projects:
•• #clujulmerită (#clujdeserves) – photo campaign
•• InJoy Cluj Fund – fund for community initiative
•• Culture Transforms the City – awareness raising
campaign
IT companies like Arxia (based in Cluj-Napoca) acted as
technical partners in our projects.
These already established partnerships, will be further
developed, including finance-wise, if the ECoC title is granted
to Cluj-Napoca. We anticipate that - at that moment - many
other companies will be ready to partner with us, considering
that: firstly the ECoC year is a great marketing opportunity for
companies and secondly once the title is granted companies
that provide services across the country, which decided not to
support a particular city during the competition phase, will be
ready to join the winning project.
Our strategy
Strategic goals:
Increase the involvement in society (culture, art and
social sphere) of the local business sector in relation with
Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC programme to at least 1 m euros
in the years 2019 and 2020, and 1.5 m euros in 2021.
Prior to 2021 we aim to strengthen the relationship
between the business sector and the cultural sector
and to establish new collaboration mechanisms for the
coming years:
•• Percent-for-Art – a local initiative to encourage
companies to support cultural projects.
•• Public participation mechanism – residents of
the city will decide which projects will be supported
through a special fund established by the local
administration and private companies. Citizens
will have the possibility to vote for the projects
they find most relevant form a list of project ideas
submitted by local organisations and initiative
groups through an open call. For instance they may
opt for the production of an artistic installation in a
specific neighbourhood, for supporting infrastructure
development of an existing cultural space, or for
granting additional funding for a cultural event.
One to five such projects will be financed annually
through this mechanism.
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Management
•• Business to Culture – a Manifesto of the most
important Romanian companies to support ECoC
2021.
Our focus is to make business-to-culture collaborations
sustainable, by actions that are significant for both society
and business purposes. Exchange of money for logoposting on event banners is not sustainable.
Our purpose is to raise at least 2.5 m euros from the
corporate sector for the period 2018 - 2021.
Strategies to get the support of the business sector:
Management
Strategies to attract individual corporate partners:
When it comes to partnering with private sponsors, the key
strategy we have in mind is, once again, participation. We
encourage them to be actively involved in our project and not
simple benefactors. Giving our corporate partners an active
role is a way for us to value their expertise and technology,
but also to offer them the chance to take out their products to
our public, so people can interact with them (test them, offer
feedback, buy them etc.).
We have three main strategies to attract individual corporate
Partnerships with the existing business clusters and
partners in our projects:
associations in Cluj-Napoca: Cluj IT Cluster, Tetarom
Ensure qualitative brand activation opportunities for
Industrial Park and foreign business clubs.
them during our events
Ensure a large and qualitative brand exposure for them
The member companies of a business club are easier to
during our projects, events and campaigns
contact. They are naturally oriented to networks. We will
Offer custom packages and a variety of standard or
establish partnerships with all the major clusters and
modular options to participate: flagship projects partner
associations in the Cluj region, with a special focus on the
packages, other projects project partner packages, event
ones which involve European networks of companies and
partner packages, service partner packages etc.
products.
Strategies to attract funds from other private sources:
Business to Culture, a Manifesto of the most important
Romanian companies to support ECoC 2021 with funds,
Merchandising
technology, human and material resources.
Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC promotional products like t-shirts,
coats, umbrellas, cups and mugs, fridge magnets etc. are
The ECoC title is a great opportunity for Romanian
intended to bring us a total income of at least 100.000 euros.
companies to take pride in being Romanian and also a
The merchandising strategy is to associate the graphic and
great marketing opportunity for promoting their products emotional packages of Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC with the most
at European level. We will identify ways for the major
powerful brands of the city: Cluj-Napoca itself, Transylvania,
Romanian companies to get involved in supporting
loved and established festivals and communities (e.g. Clujour programme not only based on Corporate Social
Napoca 2021 proudly brings to you TIFF).
Responsibility reasons, but also based on the creative
use of their products and services in the context of our
Crowdfunding
programme.
Some of the projects and events in our cultural programme,
especially small scale artistic and community events will
SMEs Club: smaller companies contributing to ECoC 2021 be funded through crowdfunding campaigns. We plan to
encourage and promote these initiatives on the official
Thousands of SMEs are registered in the county of Cluj
channels of Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC, in order to help secure
every year (4074 SMEs in 2014, according to Romanian
the needed budgets and to contribute to the establishment
Post-Privatization Foundation). While the financial
of the crowdfunding as a regular mechanism to ensure the
contribution of SME to the ECoC budget is unlikely to
financial sustainability of cultural projects.
be very consistent, its enthusiasm and readiness to get
involved are sky-high. This is why our plan is to give
Experimental funding mechanisms
SMEs opportunities to support and associate with smaller Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC is a great chance to experiment new
scale projects and events in our programme. If only 100
models of community and business relations. Our intention
SMEs invest 1.000 euros each in such projects, this brings is to prototype funding mechanisms, like the Cultural
100.000 euros more to the ECoC budget. As an example, a Voucher, and also to put to test gift economy models - an
medium enterprise with 200 employees from Cluj-Napoca exchange network (where cultural operators exchange
– Moldovan - Carmangerie Sânnicoară - financed in the
essential resources for their projects) and a time bank (an
last three years our Association with 5.000 euros/year
exchange network for services, which are measured in time
because they felt that it was important to get involved in units). Furthermore, we intend to involve and promote social
this community project.
businesses as partners of large events and programs.
Donations
Since our aim is to ensure the active participation of
private sponsors in our project we do not put emphasis on
67
donations within our fundraising strategy. Yet we plan to offer
opportunities to donate to companies and private persons
who prefer this way of contributing to our project.
Operating expenditure:
Please provide a breakdown of the operating expenditure, by filling in
the table below.
Breakdown of operating expenditure
Programme expenditure(in euros)
Programme expenditure (in %)
Promotion and marketing (in euros)
Promotion and marketing (in %)
Wages, overheads and administration (in euros)
Wages, overheads and administration (in %)
Other (please specify) (in euros)
Other (please specify) (in %)
Total of the operating expenditure
24.550.000
70.14%
5.450.000
15.57%
5.000.000
14.29%
0
0.00%
35.000.000
We consider Evaluation and Monitoring very important
for our process. As we already described in chapter
1.4 evaluation is an on-going and long-term activity
assessing parameters. We allocate 100.000 euros for
implementing the Evaluation and Monitoring strategy.
Planned timetable for spending operating expenditure
Timetable for spending*
Programme expenditure (in euros)
Programme expenditure (in %)
Promotion and marketing (in euros)
Promotion and marketing (in %)
Wages, overheads and administration (in euros)
Wages, overheads and administration (in %)
Other (please specify) (in euros)
Other (please specify) (in %)
Total of the operating expenditure
2016
-
2017
1.139.821
4.64%
253.036
4.64%
232.143
4.64%
0
0.00%
1.625.000
2018
1.350.250
5.50%
299.750
5.50%
275.000
5.50%
0
0.00%
1.925.000
2019
1.700.964
6.93%
377.607
6.93%
346.429
6.93%
0
0.00%
2.425.000
2020
3.542.214
14.43%
786.357
14.43%
721.429
14.43%
0
0.00%
5.050.000
2021
12.836.143
52.29%
2.849.571
52.29%
2.614.286
52.29%
0
0.00%
18.300.000
2022
3.980.607
16.21%
883.679
16.21%
810.714
16.21%
0
0.00%
5.675.000
*Later
1.964.000
70.14%
436.000
15.57%
400.000
14.29%
0
0.00%
2.800.000
* In the next years, starting with 2023 until 2027, the expenditures will have the following proportions: 70,14% for programme expenditures, 15,57% for promotion and marketing and 14,29%
for wages and administration. For example, for the year 2023, from the total amount of 2.800.000 euros, the sum of 1.954.000 euros will be spent for programme expenditures (70,14%), 436.000
euros will be spent for promotion and marketing (14,29%) and 400.000 euros for wages and administration (14,29%).
Budget for capital expenditure :
What is the breakdown of the income to be received from the public sector to cover
capital expenditure in connection with the title year?
Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC Association will not implement
direct investments in cultural and touristic infrastructure. All
the infrastructure projects presented in the next table will
be developed by Cluj-Napoca Municipality and Cluj County
Council.
The annual city budget of Cluj-Napoca has increased
constantly in the past years, reaching 268 m euros in
2014, the investment budget representing 39% of the
overall budget. However, in the past three years the capital
expenditure has constantly reached one third of the city
budget.
Have the public finance authorities (city, region, State) already voted on or made
financial commitments to cover capital expenditure? If not, when will they do so?
68
Management
The projects listed in the next table are included in the ClujNapoca Development Strategy. Some of these projects have
been adopted by the Local Council following a technical
and economic assessment. The table also details the current
status of the projects.
So far the Romanian Government has not announced officially
the EU funding programmes that local authorities can apply
at in order to co-finance their infrastructure development
projects for 2014-2020. However, based on the experience
Management
of the previous funding period 2006-2013, the Cluj-Napoca
Municipality intends to finance the projects, in the following
table, from multiple sources: EU funds, Governmental funds
and local funds.
The city infrastructure development budget line is different
from the dedicated ECoC budget. Thus, there is no risk for
a potential increase of the infrastructure costs to affect the
operational budget of Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC.
What is your fund raising strategy to seek financial support from Union
programmes/funds to cover capital expenditure?
Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC Association will not allocate or
spend capital expenditure directly. Within the Cluj-Napoca
Municipality, the General Directorate for Communication,
Local Development and Project Management has
expertise and staff to apply for EU structural funds and
other programmes. In the last five years the city authorities
attracted more than 150 m. euros from EU funds its
development projects.
The main cultural and touristic infrastructure projects related
to the ECoC project included in the investment plan of the
City-Napoca Municipality for the 2014-2020 period, are
eligible for the following EU financing funds:
Refurbishment of Firemen Tower - The Regional
Operational Programme (ROP) 2014-2020, Priority Axis
5 - Improvement of urban environment and conservation,
protection and sustainable use of the cultural heritage..
Rehabilitation of Cetățuia Hill (former Vauban
Fortification) - The Regional Operational Programme
(ROP) 2014-2020, Priority Axis 5 - Improvement of urban
environment and conservation, protection and sustainable
use of the cultural heritage. And Priority axis 4 - Urban
development support.
Someș River rehabilitation - The Regional Operational
Programme (ROP) 2014-2020, Priority axis 4 - Urban
development support.
Transilvania Cultural Center - The Regional Operational
Programme (ROP) 2014-2020, Priority axis 4 - Urban
development support, and Priority Axis 5 - Improvement
of urban environment and conservation, protection and
sustainable use of the cultural heritage. Swiss-Romanian
Cooperation Programme
European Centre for Contemporary Arts - The Regional
Operational Programme (ROP) 2014-2020, Priority Axis
5 - Improvement of urban environment and conservation,
protection and sustainable use of the cultural heritage;
Priority axis 4 - Urban development support; Priority axis
3 - Supporting the transition to a low carbon emission
economy; Norway Grants; Swiss-Romanian Cooperation
Programme.
According to what timetable should the income to cover capital expenditure be
received by the city and/or the body responsible for preparing and implementing
the ECoC project if the city receives the title of European Capital of Culture?
Please see the answer below. As mentioned in the
beginning of this chapter, between 2011 and 2015, the local
administration finished major cultural, touristic or leisure
investments directly related to the preparation of the city for
the ECoC 2021 candidature.
The investment projects are diverse and spread over different
neighbourhoods; thus we plan to spread the cultural
activities - which nowadays are a city centre “monopoly” - to
the outskirts.
If appropriate, please insert a table here that specifies which amounts will be spent
for new cultural infrastructure to be used in the framework of the title year.
All future infrastructure development projects presented in
the table below are related to the ECoC programme. These
specific needs for infrastructure development resulted
from the consultations that took place during the strategy
development process carried out in 2013. The projects are
part of the Cluj-Napoca 2014-2020 Development Strategy.
Destination
Estimated budget
Funding source
Current Status
Implementation period
1.Transilvania Cultural Center
Home for Transylvanian Philharmonic Orchestra and other cultural institutions
65 m euros
EU funds, local funds, governmental funds
At the moment the project is at the release of building permits
2017-2021
The project is a priority of Cultural Strategy of the City and is related to Performing East project.
Destination
Estimated budget
Funding source
Current Status
2. European Centre for Contemporary Arts
Arts exhibition centre, residency and research centre
12 m euros
EU funds, local funds, governmental funds
At the moment the City Hall is searching the appropriate location
2018-2020
The project is a priority of the Cultural Strategy and is related ECoC visual arts flagship project.
Destination
Estimated budget
Funding source
Current Status
Destination
Estimated budget
Funding source
Current Status
Destination
Estimated budget
Funding source
Current Status
Destination
Estimated budget
Funding source
Current Status
69
3. Rehabilitation of Cetățuia Hill (former Vauban Fortification)
Promenade area and summer theatre
6 m euros
Local funds, EU funds
Currently the City Hall is negotiating with the private owner to buy the land
2016-2018
The project is a priority of the Development Strategy of the City and is related and is to promoting the historical
heritage and improvement of cultural infrastructure.
4. Refurbishment of Firemen Tower
Urban cultural centre, observation point
3 m euros
EU funds, local funds
At the moment the City Hall announced an architectural public contest
2016-2018
The project is a priority of the Development Strategy of the City and is related to historical heritage and improvement of cultural infrastructure.
5. Someș River rehabilitation
Urban regeneration, new public spaces, mobility, leisure
25 m euros
EU funds, local funds
At the moment the City Hall announced an architectural public contest
2016-2020
The project is a priority of the Development Strategy of the the City related to Someș from West to East flagship
project.
6. City Communication System
Improving the cultural communication and citizens interactions
0.6 m euros
Local funds
The project will soon starts
2016-2017
The project is a priority of Cultural Strategy and will help cultural institutions and operators to promote cultural
activities in the city.
70
Management
Management
71
b) Organisational structure
What kind of governance and delivery structure is envisaged for the implementation
of the European Capital of Culture year?
Destination
Estimated budget
Funding source
Current Status
Destination
Estimated budget
Funding source
Current Status
Destination
Estimated budget
Funding source
Current Status
7. Rehabilitation of public monuments and historical building:
Carolina Monument, Virgin Mary Monument and historical buildings
Promoting architectural heritage
3 m euros
Local funds
At the moment there are prepared the technical details for auctions
2016-2018
The rehabilitation of public monuments and historical buildings are priorities of the Cultural Strategy of the City.
8. Rehabilitation of the Mihai Viteazul Square
Public space
3 m euros
Local funds
In preparation a contest in partnership with the Romanian Order of Architects - Transylvania branch
2017-2020
The Mihai Viteazul Square is the third main square of the City and it represents a priority in the Development
Strategy, being in direct connection with the need of urban regeneration.
9. Pedestrianization of Kogălniceanu street and developing a new touristic route:
Central Cemetery – Kogălniceanu street- Union square – Museum square – Caragiale park – the
Saxon bridge – Cetăţuia hill
Touristic and cultural pedestrian route
9 m euros
Local funds
Conducting feasibility research
2016-2019
Has a direct connection with the Touristic Development of the City.
Destination
Estimated budget
Funding source
Current Status
10. Modernization of the Union Square – stage 2 (includes the pedestrianization of the West wing)
Pedestrian and touristic area
2.5 m euros
Local funds
Under implementation
2016
The project is a priority in the Development Strategy of the City.
Destination
Estimated budget
Funding source
Current Status
11. Gheorgheni park – leisure and sports complex
Leisure area
6 m euros
Governmental funds / Local funds
Under implementation
2016
The project is a priority in the Development Strategy of the City.
Total of estimated investments: 135.1 m euros
The implementation of Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC is ensured
by the Cluj-Napoca 2021 - European Capital of Culture
Association. The Association was founded in 2010 as a nonpatrimonial, non-governmental, apolitical and independent
organization, with a cultural and educational purpose. The
aim of its activities is to ensure the coordination of the ClujNapoca 2021 - European Capital of Culture project.
The Association has ensured all the necessary actions for
the preparation of the application and will carry out the
implementation of the project if the title is awarded.
The Association is built on four essential layers:
Membership – Institutions, Organisations and Citizens
with the Member status: the members attend and vote
in the General Assemblies, where all the plans of the
Executive Board are to be approved. All members are
equal according to the principle one member – one vote;
Operational – An Executive Board and a Management
Team formed of skilled people who are selected based
on professional and transparent criteria (three full time
employees and external collaborators);
Decision-making – The Executive Board formed of
cultural experts, representatives of local and regional
authorities, universities, public institutions and business
(15 people);
Audit – Internal audit team ensuring the legal
compliance of the activities (three people).
Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC Association is active not only in
preparing the application, but also in many other areas
related to the bidding process and community activities:
the initiation of the city integrated communication system,
Someș river strategy, City Development Strategy, improvement
of local laws regarding the financing of cultural activities,
supporting the activities of other local organisations
and involvement in university projects. The Association
team has also provided expertise for the preparation and
implementation of the Cluj-Napoca 2015 European Youth
Capital project and it has been actively involved in promoting
at European level the city of Cluj-Napoca and its cultural
scene.
According to a recent survey (April 2015) more than 80% of
the citizens of Cluj-Napoca trust the work of the Association.
How will this structure be organised at management level? Please make clear who
will be the person(s) having the final responsibility for global leadership of the
project?
If Cluj-Napoca is awarded the ECoC title we consider the
following structure:
The Executive Board is formed of one Managing Director,
one Artistic Director and one Community Director. The
Community Director and the Artistic Director respond to
the Managing Director, who is the final responsible for
the project and holds the final decision when needed.
The Executive Board, represented by the Managing
Director, responds to a Steering Committee formed of
highly skilled experts and representatives of the local
institutions and authorities.
The Steering Committee is managed by the Mayor of
Cluj-Napoca, as Chairman.
The Management Team is comprised of three Teams
(Production, Artistic and Community) managed by their
respective Directors (Managing Director, Artistic Director
and Community Director). The Directors benefit from the
support of the appropriate Advisory Board, as stated in
the diagrams and tables below.
All the projects and events are handled in Project Teams
which respond to their appropriate department manager
from the Management Team. The external projects and
events (those which are run by organisations other than
the Association) are affiliated to our Programme based on
a contract with the Association. The contract states the
objectives of the projects and the terms and conditions
imposed by the Association (branding rules, guidelines of
the Cultural Programme etc.).
The Co-Team is a support body created to provide shortterm solutions for highly specialised jobs in the Project
Teams and in the Management Team. Especially for
specific and short-term jobs and projects, we want to
temporarily hire qualified and experienced team members
coming from our partner organisations (companies,
cultural, arts etc.), to cover specific specialised project
needs. The members of the Co-Team work pro bono or
have their salaries paid by their home organisations.
The Open Academy of Change, a key department of
the Community Team, offers two essential bodies for the
well-functioning of the overall structure: the Facilitators
Team and the Volunteers Team. The two bodies provide
connectors and, respectively, workforce to all the project
teams which need those. While anyone can be a volunteer
in the Volunteer Team, the members of the Facilitators
Team need to have a solid background in general or
cultural management and a strong network of contacts,
as their role is to improve the project teams’ access to
resources.
72
Management
Management
CLUJ-NAPOCA 2021 EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE ASSOCIATION
Bodies
Steering Committee
Responsible
Steering Committee
Chairman – The Mayor of
the City
Executive Board
Managing Director
Production Team
Managing Director
Artistic Team
Artistic Director
Community Team
Community Director
Artistic Advisory Board
Chairman of the Artistic
Advisory Board
Community Advisory
Board
Event & Project Teams
Co-Team
Members
9 members: Mayor of the City (Chairman), President
of the County Council, representatives of National
Government, representatives of the bidding team, cultural
experts, representatives of universities and local business
community, representatives of local cultural institutions
Managing Director
Artistic Director
Community Director
Corporate Partnerships Manager
Production Manager
Financial Manager
Secretariat
5 Artistic Managers (one for each Programme line)
Marketing Manager
Hospitality Manager
Audience Development Manager
Open Academy of Change Manager
(incl. Facilitator Team and Volunteers Team)
9 members, representatives of the local and European
cultural and artistic sector
Responsibilities
The Steering Committee approves the action
plans, budgets and the strategic decisions of the
Executive Board and advises the Executive Board
on strategic and current matters.
The Executive Board manages the planning and
implementation processes in the Association.
The Production Team manages the resources flow
in the Association: HR, financial, material and
informational.
The Artistic Team manages the cultural
programme.
The Community Team manages the
communications and networks around the project.
The Artistic Advisory Board advises the Artistic
Director and provides feedback and suggestions
for the cultural programme.
Chairman of the Community 9 members, experts in marketing, tourism and social work The Community Advisory Board advises the
Community Director and provides feedback and
Advisory Board
suggestions for the work of the Community Team.
External Projects and Events are affiliated to
Team Members
Event or Project Managers
Cluj-Napoca 2021 Programme based on a contract
with the Association.
The Co-Team brings external resources from
Team members
Managing Director
our partner organisations for the short-term or
highly-specialised jobs in the Project Teams.
Structure of Cluj-Napoca 2021 European Capital of Culture Association
STEERING COMMITTEE
ARTISTIC ADVISORY BOARD
COMMUNITY ADVISORY BOARD
MANAGING DIRECTOR
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
COMMUNITY DIRECTOR
ARTISTIC TEAM
PRODUCTION TEAM
COMMUNITY TEAM
5 ARTISTIC MANAGERS
PRODUCTION MANAGER
CORPORATE AFFAIRS MANAGER
FINANCE MANAGER
SECRETARIAT
MARKETING MANAGER
HOSPITABILITY MANAGER
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
OPEN ACADEMY OF CHANGE MANAGER
/ WONDER / EXPLORE
/ ACTIVATE / SHARE / TRUST
73
How will you ensure that this structure has the staff with the appropriate skills
andexperience to plan, manage and deliver the cultural programme for the year
of the title?
Cluj-Napoca is a great pool for managers and cultural
workers. Along with representatives of the administration
and of the civil sector, many of them have been involved in
the process of developing this candidature and are willing to
take active roles in the implementation stage. The members
of the initial team have also made plans for remaining
involved in the project, with active roles in the team or with
consultancy roles in the advisory boards, according to their
areas of expertise: Florin Moroșanu and Ștefan Teișanu on
the management and production side, Tudor Giurgiu, Rarița
Zbranca and István Szakáts on the artistic and community
programme side.
Starting with the autumn of 2016, according to the selection
criteria and procedures detailed in this chapter, our Steering
Committee will run a selection process to identify a
Management Team. Anyone can apply for the positions and
we expect to have no sourcing problems, as we know we can
count on the above described local pool of skilled operators,
managers, producers and cultural workers, as well as on the
foreign experts already active in Romania, on the teams of
Cluj-Napoca ECoC 2021 and Cluj-Napoca European Youth
Capital 2015 and on other Romanian and European cultural
managers interested in the project. The pool of experts in
the Co-Team will also have key contributions to fill in specific
short term needs for specialised skills in the project.
Following their recruitment, all team members undergo
training and participate in professional development
activities that are focused on developing their knowledge
and skills in working in the European Capital of Culture
action. In this respect the Cluj-Napoca 2021 Association will
seek advice from experts that have already been involved
in managing ECoC projects and will actively involve in the
activities of the Network of European Capitals of Culture.
How will you make sure that there is an appropriate cooperation between the local
authorities and this structure including the artistic team?
Administrative and political support
Strategic level
During the five-year activity of Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC
Association, we managed to develop a balanced relationship
between the executive team and the local/regional
authorities and between the Association and political
parties. The key to success was constant communication
with and involvement of these major stakeholders in the
bid preparation process. Thus, all Mayors of the City and
Presidents of Cluj County Council since 2010 have been
members of the Executive Board of the Association. The
future holders of these seats will also have a key position in
the ECoC project implementation structure.
Furthermore, all political parties signed in 2013 an
agreement to support the city ECoC project and are
committed to its implementation. To ensure that both present
and future decision-makers from all sides of the political
spectrum are well informed about the ECoC process, the
possible impact of the title for the development of the city
and their role in this process we have been in constant
dialogue with the local presidents of political parties. We
presented the project to members of the youth organisations
of political parties and encouraged their involvement in
specific activities of the Association, for instance in our public
communication campaigns.
Operational level
The European Youth Capital experience makes a good
example of collaboration at the operational level between
the administration and the team that implemented the
project. We are learning from this experience. During 2015
joint working groups of Share Federation (the organization
that implemented the project) and local institutions have
been established. The working groups met when major
events/activities were in the preparation stage and also in the
implementations stage. The mission of these joint working
groups was to correlate the actions needed for: safety
of citizens, the use of public and private spaces, touristic
infrastructure, circulation and public transport etc.
We intend to set up an on-going inter-institutional working
group of the ECoC Association with Cluj-Napoca City Hall and
Local Council, Cluj County Council, Local and National Police,
Prefecture, Gendarmerie, and Public Transport Company in
order to keep these institutions informed on the process, to
prevent and solve problems that may occur and to generally
support the implementation of the programme.
Regarding the implementation of the cultural programme,
the Artistic Director and the Artistic Team will have total
independence and support from local authorities.
Regarding the Artistic Team and the implementation of the
cultural programme, the Artistic Director will benefit of total
independence and support from local authorities.
74
Management
Management
According to which criteria and under which arrangements have the general director
and the artistic director been chosen – or will be chosen? What are – or will be –
their respective profiles? When will they take up the appointment? What will be their
respective fields of action?
The Managing Director, the Artistic Director and the Community Director will be chosen by the Steering Committee following an open call
based on the criteria listed below.
The Managing Director’s profile:
At least five years of relevant management experience
Proven performance in the management field
Experienced in working with public authorities
Experience in cultural management is a plus
Experience in working in international projects and networks
Good understanding of arts and culture
Leadership, communication and coaching skills, ability to work
across disciplines
Interest and availability to commit to the assignment for the
entire period (2017-2022)
Clear understanding of the role and scope of European Capital
of Culture
Fields of action:
Manages the entire project, the Executive Board and the
Management Team
Manages the budget
Manages the corporate fund-raising and the EU grants-writing
strategies
Represents the Association outside the organisation in all
essential matters except for the cultural programme
Answers to the Steering Committee
Assists the Chairman of the Steering Committee in his/her
activity and is the representative of the Management Team in
relation with the Steering Committee
Date of appointment: July 2016
The Artistic Director’s profile:
At least seven years of relevant experience in the cultural
sector
Proven performance in the cultural/artistic sector
Experience in working with public authorities is a plus
Well-connected with cultural and artistic networks
Experience in managing large, complex projects and processes
Clear understanding of the role and scope of European Capital
of Culture
Fields of action:
The Artistic Director will have the final decision regarding the
artistic programme and will lead a team of experts in order to
accomplish his/her tasks
Manages the programme, the artistic content and the
Artistic Team according to East of West concept and WEAST
programme design
Fosters the cooperation between Cluj-Napoca and other
Romanian and foreign cities in terms of cultural exchange
Answers to the Managing Director for matters related to the
management of the programme
Chairs the Artistic Advisory Board and leads the Artistic Team
essential matters regarding the programme
The Community Director’s Profile:
At least seven years of relevant experience in the management
field
Proven performance in management of community work and
participatory processes
Experienced in working with public authorities is a plus
Well-connected with networks and communities in and outside
the country
Experience in managing large, complex projects and processes
Fields of action:
Answers to the Managing Director
Chairs the Community Advisory Board
Manages the Open Academy of Social Change Team and the
entire Community Team
essential matters regarding the responsibilities mentioned
above
If Cluj-Napoca is awarded the title the statute of the association will be updated to reflect the new structure and
attributions described above.
75
c. Contingency planning
Have you carried out/planned a risk assessment exercise?
We have carried out an initial risk assessment exercise and we have another one planned for the second stage of the selection
process. The results of the first risk assessment exercise can be found in the table at the end of this section.
What are the main strengths and weaknesses of your project?
CULTURAL PROGRAMME
Strengths
It is purpose driven, long term planned and process
oriented.
It is based on collaboration and strong networks of
partners at local and European level.
It is designed to have a concrete, relevant and positive
social impact.
Weaknesses
It does not respond to an immediate, critical need in the community, therefore, it is likely to be hard to see as
an urgent necessity by the general public.
Its implementation needs a wide range and a large number of cultural experts and artists to be committed to
the project for a long period of time (at least six years).
It is supposed to break the vicious circle of diverse cultural operators and different communities which
are too indifferent or too vainglorious to collaborate - if they find ways to collaborate, then we have a
“breakthrough”.
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
Strengths
All of the members of the original team of the project have been involved in
all stages of the process (cultural strategy, concept, programme lines, writing
the application etc.) and will eventually implement the project if the title is
awarded (members of the team, project managers or consultants etc.)
We have a very strong and healthy partnership with the local authorities. Our
Association is independent and supported at the same time.
The Co-Team (our system of leased professionals temporarily working for the
project) helps us cover all the specialized HR needs and keeps us connected
with the business sector, the cultural sector and the public sector.
Weaknesses
So far there have been no crises that really challenged the internal structures of
the Association and therefore we do not know how we will react in an extreme
situation.
The Association structure is complex and difficult to organize.
Romanian legislation makes it difficult for cultural operators to work with public
money, especially in terms of cash-flow and of procedures for choosing your service
providers.
The ECoC project requires a high and long term commitment to numerous cultural
and management experts.
BUDGET
Strengths
60% of the budget is already secured from regional/county funds.
We count on diverse sources of income and have a good team of specialists for each
of them (fundraisers, grant writers, corporate affairs experts etc.)
Weaknesses
National Government did not established its financial support.
The use of public financial resources requires complicated procedures for goods and
service procurement. National legislation regarding procurement prioritizes the
quantity (or low price) of services and does not favour choosing the best quality
services.
How are you planning to overcome weaknesses, including with the use of risk
mitigation and planning tools, contingency planning etc.
The stakes for the ECoC cities have gotten higher and
higher in the recent years, in terms of objectives, budgets,
infrastructure, tourism and others, but the risks involved have
also increased at the same time.
To minimize risks we have based our entire planning on the
principle of purpose-driven activities: all the events and
activities in our programme are not a purpose themselves, but
are methods, measures, steps to reach a final, higher purpose.
This principle fosters long-term thinking and allows us to
be more flexible with resources allocation, to implement
control measures more easily and to always keep an open
mind: reaching the final purpose is essential, while maximum
precision delivery of the action plan is only recommended.
76
Management
Weaknesses & Main risks
Internal/Local
Loss of administrative and political support
Changes in the Executive Board and at the level of key
managers in the Management Team, due to personal
problems, resignations or failure to attract the right
people for the job, in terms of fitting in the team
External
Failure to secure the planned budget
Determinant external trends or force majeure
affecting the programme, the stakeholders and the
socio-political context (like wars, economy dropdowns
etc.)
Programme related
Not enough resources (people, time, money) to
implement the entire programme
Failure to attract a relevant number and quality
of European artists and cultural operators in the
programme
Management
Probability
Minimal
Average
Minimal
Average
Average
Minimal
Control Measures
Official decisions of approval for the financial participation in the project of Cluj-Napoca Local
Council and Cluj County Council; memorandum of understanding and support signed by all the
political parties.
Representatives of all major institutions are involved in the projects as members of the Advisory
Boards, as project managers or as members of the Co-Team.
Our aim is to keep, at Executive Board level and at top of Management Team level, as many of
our long-term collaborators as possible: the initiators of the project, the executive team, the
cultural operators involved in the research and development of the programme, the initial team
of external consultants.
The recruitment process for the Executive Board as for the key roles in the Management Team has
started long ago and is based on the triple criteria of Skill, Will & Fit: while Skill and Will are more
easily evaluable, Fit needs a longer time to be fulfilled.
We base our financial sustainability strategy on the concept of diversified sources of income.
We have already secured 60% of the budget, from the local and county budget.
While such impactful events will definitely have an influence on the contextual relevance of
our programme and on our capacity to deliver it, culture always finds its ways to serve a social
purpose. Part of our programme is especially designed to foster new responses to challenging
contexts. A change in the scenario brings a change in the data and a change in the data will be
reflected in the way we will adapt our programme and plan if the moment calls for it.
Our programme is not a series of events, but a compact, multi-layered, inter-connected series
of projects planned to be launched in 2021 (or earlier) and developed on the long term. Having
in mind that project management is a tool and not a purpose helps us re-scale and re-plan the
entire process according to the available resources, so the programme can be implemented.
All our planned activities, as the concept itself, are based on the principle of collaboration and
have a European dimension.
Our flagship projects and all the major events and activities in the programme are built on
strong networks of international partners.
We have two European calls for projects planned for 2017 and 2020.
d. Marketing and communication
Could your artistic programme be summed up by a slogan?
The slogan of our project is Servus. In Romania this form
of greeting is very specific to us, the people from ClujNapoca. Everywhere you go and say Servus people say Aha,
you’re from Cluj, right? The expression has Latin origins
and became well-known in the Central-European cultural
space. Servus is the word which talks about our aspiration
to fulfil our potential as a community and also is the symbol
of trust: it is used by both Romanians and Hungarians, it
is how friends say hello to each other and it is the way you
greet people who you consider as your equals. It represents
openness, and familiarity. It is the synthesis of East meeting
West.
”Servus is an elliptical form of Ego servus tuus
sum, which means”I am your servant”, in the sense
of”I put myself at your disposal” or ”I am ready to
serve you”. The expression was used in the Roman
Antiquity, in the entire Roman Empire, including
Dacia, Moesia and other Danubian provinces, as a
form of courtesy.
[...] In the German world of the XVIth and XVIIth
centuries there was a tendency to revive and
imitate Antiquity. This is when the German
and Austrian nobles, while trying to act like the
Romans, started to greet each other with Servus
tuus! This form of greeting has rapidly been
adopted by the elites of the neighbour areas:
Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Polish, Hungarian and
Romanian (from Transylvania). In other words, this
polite form of salute has reached us through our
77
Western (German) influences, despite the fact of
having Roman roots.
[…] With Servus we encourage our guests from
all over the world to make themselves at home
in Cluj-Napoca, while we will do our best to
serve them, as the unwritten laws of hospitality
demand. This is why Servus is not only a part of
our common European history, but also a part
of the civilisation we have built together here in
Transylvania. When we say Servus we open up
our souls and we present in front of the world with
a certain courtesy, availability and dignity, as it
should be done.”
Acad. Prof. univ. dr. Ioan-Aurel Pop
Rector of Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca
What is the city’s intended marketing and communication strategy for the European
Capital of Culture year? (in particular with regard to the media strategy and the
mobilisation of large audiences)
How will you mobilise your own citizens as communicators of the year to the
outside world?
According to our Operational Budget we have allocated
5.450.000 euros for marketing and communication
(15.57% operational budget). While our East of West
concept obviously has a great potential for international
communication, we have chosen a particular marketing
approach to enhance this potential even more: the
keystone of the marketing and communication strategy is
participation.
Moreover, participatory marketing is more effective than
traditional marketing, as it relies on involvement and
recommendations. So, our plan is to build a sense of
ownership and responsibility for Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC
among the local community and the visitors from all around
Europe. We aim to get people involved in the program, to
help them have immersive experiences in the project. The
people and their ideas put to work, this is our marketing and
communication campaign.
How will we go on doing this?
Our strategic goals:
To increase participation in culture on the short and long
run
To communicate Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC to a local,
national and European audience
Our target groups:
By age: children, youth and young at heart
By place: local, Transylvanian, Romanian, Central-EasternEuropean and European
By background and interest: people with a cultural or
artistic formation, people interested in tourism, travel
and entertainment, people interested in ethnography and
heritage and other large audiences
Special needs audiences
Our main steps:
Making the involvement in the programme possible
and desirable: Our offline and online hubs for action in
culture are the pillars of Cluj-Napoca 2021 Programme:
the initiative groups of the flagship projects, the
Open Academy of Change, the calls for Projects, the
Volunteer Programme etc. People are invited to join the
discussion and all these hubs are open for everybody.
Offering concrete ways for the audience to take
charge: Offline and online hubs where people to have
access to the development of the programme itself.
Projects based on user-generated content. Word-of-mouth
networks created by our team. Online advisory boards for
specific needs. Co-creation activities like idea contests,
tech challenges, brainstorming etc.
Letting people know about Cluj-Napoca 2021: Our
project benefits from a complex mix of traditional
marketing and communication tools like radio and TV
coverage, printed and online ads and articles, dedicated
newsletters, online banners, OOH (out-of-home
advertising) indoor and outdoor campaigns, social media,
but also from a very consistent agenda of own marketing
productions which are both spectacular and effective
marketing-wise: PR stunts, invented worlds etc.
78
Management
Building collective enthusiasm: Our participatory
marketing approach is meant to build collective
enthusiasm as 2021 gets closer and closer, with a peak
on the project itself. Thus, we estimate that by 2020 they
will already be the critical mass which is needed.
Making information accessible: All the above
mentioned efforts will only have effect if the information
is easy to access. For this we count on our website
(www.clujnapoca2021.ro), our series of brochures and
magazines, our network of info-points in Universities, the
Romanian Cultural Centres from abroad a.o.
Own marketing productions
Intergalactic Communication
•• PR stunt: Cluj-Napoca is known as one of the
favourite destinations for “visitors” Universe-wide.
BBC has placed the Hoia Forest of Cluj-Napoca
amongst the top three most haunted places in the
world. It is said that the woods "host a portal for the
communication with other worlds". We will invest in
an Intergalactic communication campaign, to ensure
Cluj-Napoca 2021’s coverage at an inter-planetary
level. Together with a Romanian tech company based
in Cluj-Napoca that supports the Space Program of
the Romanian Government, we will build a tulnic
(alphorn) to send Servus signals about our project
to the outer space.
•• Intergalactic Ethnography Camp is an annual
residency program for young artists from all around
Europe, who are invited to imagine an Intergalactic
Ethnography Exhibition in the local Transylvanian
Museum of Ethnography
•• Freelance travel journalists and journalists from the
international partner newspapers are invited to visit
Cluj-Napoca prior to 2021, to tell the world about
what’s real and what’s surreal here.
Word-of-mouth campaigns
•• It is said that the word-of-mouth is the most effective
marketing method. One cannot control it, of course,
but one can encourage it. This is why we will run
Servus Europe, a person-to-person ambassadors
program which connects the Romanian diaspora, the
foreigners who live or have lived in our city and the
students of Cluj-Napoca to their European friends.
•• The campaign offers an annual meeting place for
everyone involved: InClujing You a summer week
of events and activities that celebrate the diverse
cultural values of our city and of the ones who love
it. All the people living abroad and emotionally
connected to the city are invited to bring friends and
families to this yearly meeting in Cluj-Napoca, to
discover or rediscover the city. We call this personal
tourism.
How are we organized?
We have a Marketing and Communication Manager in
our Community Team, working directly under the Community
Director and with the managers of the Open Academy of
Change, Audience Development and Hospitality departments.
This is a reflection of our participatory marketing strategy,
genuinely connecting the marketing department with the
teams which administrate people’s involvement in our ClujNapoca 2021 ECoC project. Participatory marketing is a two
way street: people need to get involved in and you need
to communicate this, with their help, to the outside. The
Community Team takes care of both: people get involved in
by using the opportunities and programs run by the Academy
of Change (Volunteer Programme, Exchange Programme,
Hubs etc.), by the Hospitality Team (unconventional
accommodation networks, travel guides etc.) and by the
Audience Development team. Team, and communication goes
out through the efforts of the Marketing and Communication
Team.
How does the city plan to highlight that the European Capital of Culture is an action
of the European Union?
The visibility of the European Union brand and name will
be ensured at an “intergalactic” level, throughout our entire
marketing and communication campaign (referred to in the
previous answer) and during the project itself.
All logos stipulated in the EU guidelines will be shown on all
Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC official materials, printed and online.
Representatives of the European Commission will be invited
as speakers at all our major events, prior to 2021 and during
the project. We will integrate key issues of the EU related
to social, urban and cultural discourse into our campaigns
and communication approach – and we will bring to the
attention of the public issues on the EU agenda, Migration,
Cultural entrepreneurship, New Narrative for Europe, Creative
Industries, Mobility of artists, Cultural legislation, Human
Rights, Education, Internet, Cohesion policy, Digital Europe etc.
We will partner with key EU institutions, in order to bring
them to Cluj-Napoca and promote the opportunities they
offer and the legacy they leave to the European cultural
sector, the ECoC program being showcased as one of these
opportunities.
Additional information
In a few lines explain what makes your application so special compared to others?
So is this the end? We can now look back and ask ourselves:
how did we change? And how has this process changed our
city?
Five years have passed and the coordinating team of this
application is the same. Now, we can confess: we are so
proud and honoured to have reached this point, and we are
so deeply grateful to everyone we've met during this journey.
They all enriched our souls. How many teams can say they've
stayed together since the start? We've learned every single
day and in every single meeting that nobody has all the good
ideas, that the right solution only comes through open talks
and that community interest has to prevail over ideology.
We can now testify that, thanks to this candidature, ClujNapoca has gained an amazing momentum. You've come until
here with reading this application and you've surely made up
your mind - "this one deserves or deserves not to win". So let's
face it: imagining that our city will become European Capital
of Culture has ignited a whole miraculous atmosphere in our
lives. Thanks to this halo, remarkable ideas were born, original
events have been appearing every year and we all feel the
city we love is on the verge of a unique transformation.
activities, to make the necessary decisions in good time and,
most of all, to open itself - this is maybe the hardest thing
inside "the system" - towards the civil society. We feel special
because in the last five years we have already changed the
city to some extent.
We embarked on a unique and authentic process of
transformation, generated from bottom-up. We feel special
because we took the courage and determination to recognize,
face and address our challenges. Our East of West concept, our
Academy of Change and WEAST programme philosophy are
testifying it.
We feel special because our mandatory financial allocations
for the ECoC project year have already been adopted.
We feel special because we tested our capacity to deliver a
project of such magnitude by implementing our European
Youth Capital in 2015.
We feel special because becoming a European Capital of
Culture is our dream, the same as it was five years ago. And
dreams cannot be chased away.
We recognize we are not the ones to decide if we are special.
We feel special, first of all, because in our five year process we
succeeded in serving community interest.
We are ready. The local authorities are also ready.
This burst of cultural initiatives compelled the city
administration to keep up. To improve the budget for cultural
So again: is this the end? We say it is the real beginning.
Now the decision if we are special is in your hands.
Add any further comments which you deem necessary in relation with your
application.
We propose to embark on a collective investigation on how
cultural articulations of our common European identity
shape the European construction and reconstruction. Among
all economic turmoil, Greece – the country we are sharing
the title year with – shows even by the sheer number of
cities that intend to apply for the ECoC title that culturally
it feels as European as ever. Their message is clear: we need
to harness our collective energies and address the issue of
European identity frontally.
Abbreviations
AIR - Artist in Residence
CFR - Romanian Railway Company
CIC - Cluj Innovation City
CREIC - Regional Centre for Excellence in Creative Industries
DIY - do it yourself
ECCA - The European Centre for Contemporary Arts
EYC - European Youth Capiital
FSPAC - Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences
GIS - Geographic Information System
ICT - Information and Communications Technology
IRES - The Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy
NGO - Non-governmental organization
OAC - Open Academy of Change
SME - Small and medium-sized enterprises
TIFF - Transilvania International Film Festival
UAD - University of Art and Design
UBB - Babeș-Bolyai University
UMF - University of Medicine and Pharmacy
Photo Credits:
Ion Petcu (Nonu) p. 1
Roland Váczi p. 4: Get Up - AltArt; 58 - ADI-ZMC; 79: Creative Wagon - AltArt
Radu Pădurean p. 7, 10, 12, 19, 22, 43, 52, 54
Pan Ioan Photography p. 15, 57: At the Playgrounds-Common Space in
Mănăștur Initiative - Colectiv A
Urban Stage p. 20: Cluj Never Sleeps
Nicu Cherciu pag. 24: TIFF; 30
Radu Sălcudean pag. 26, 27
Dacian Groza p. 29: Between the lines - Plan B Gallery/Paintbrush Factory; 51:
Someş Delivery; 59: Between the lines - Plan B Gallery/Paintbrush Factory
Dan Bodea (Transilvania Reporter) p. 40: Untold Festival
Biró István p. 42: Divas - Ground Floor Group
Plan B (Cluj-Berlin) p 44: Adrian Ghenie
Pocan Ioan Valentin p. 49: Joben Bistro
AltArt p. 76, an idea after Alternative Routes by Panait L. and Medeşan S.
Mayor of Cluj-Napoca: Emil Boc
County Council President: Mihai Seplecan
Prefect’s Institution Cluj County: Gheorghe Vușcan
Cluj-Napoca 2021 European Capital of Culture Association
and the authors for the Application form:
Florin Moroșanu (executive director) / Rarița Zbranca / István Szakáts /
Ștefan Teișanu / Ștefania Robu / Miana Domide / Mihnea Măruță /
Hanna Ugron / Vasile Sebastian Dâncu / Irina Petraș / Alin Ivan / Adrian Chirca /
Gabriela Bodea / Cristian Avram
Board of Directors: Radu Munteanu / Irina Petraș / Emil Boc / Mihai Seplecan /
Ioan Sbârciu / Vasile Jucan / Ioan Leanca / Răzvan Rotta / Florin Stamatian /
Florin Țala / Radu Badea / István Szakáts / Ioan Chirilă / Sorin Dan / Ionel Vitoc
Members of the Cluj-Napoca 2021 European Capital of Culture Association:
Gheorghe Dima Music Academy / North West Regional Development Agency
/ Cluj Hoteliers Association / Cluj County Association for Romanian refugees
/ displaced and deported from Bessarabia / Northern Bucovina / Herța and
Cadrilater region during 1940-1945 / Art Image Association / Colectiv A
Association / Balla & Vanja Projects Cultural Association / Pro Transilvania
Association / Business Women Association in Cluj / GroundFloor Group
Association / Romanian Film Promotion Association / Employers and Craftsmen
Association Cluj County / Victoria Film Association / Chamber of Commerce and
Industry / Students’ Culture House / Transylvania Lions Club in Cluj-Napoca /
Genesis Lions Club Association / Ioan Georgiu Lions Club Association / Rotary
Club / Cluj County Council / The Paintbrush Factory Federation / Transilvania
State Philarmonic / AltArt Foundation for AltArternative Arts / Apostrof Cultural
Foundation / Carpatica Cultural and Charity Foundation for Protecting the
National Cultural Heritage / General Social Protection Foundation in Romania
- Transylvania Branch / European Foundation for Urban Culture / Transylvania
College Foundation / French Cultural Institute in Cluj-Napoca / The Romanian
Institute for Research on National Minorities / League of Romanian Writers
/ Cluj-Napoca Municipality / Art Museum from Cluj-Napoca / Ethnographic
Museum of Transylvania / National History Museum of Transylvania / Hungarian
Opera in Cluj / Order of Architects in Romania - Transilvania Branch / Avram
Iancu Cultural-Patriotic Society / Romanian-German Cultural Association / Puck
Puppet Theatre / Hungarian State Theatre / National Theatre of Cluj / Visual
Artists’ Union – Cluj Branch / Visual Artists’ Union - Cluj-Bistrița Branch / Avram
Iancu University / Babeș-Bolyai University / Bogdan Vodă University in ClujNapoca / University of Art and Design Cluj-Napoca / Iuliu Hațieganu University
for Medicine and Pharmacy / University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary
Medicine in Cluj-Napoca / Sapientia University / Technical University in ClujNapoca /// Albu Eugen / Ambrus Adam / Radu Badea / Burzo Emil /
Cecălășan Călin / Chircă Adrian / Cozma Vasile / Cristea Aurelia / Haiduc Ionel /
Leanca Ioan-Grigore / Moroșanu Grigore Florin / Mureșanu Camil /
Pănescu Eugen / Petraș Irina / Pop Mihai-Valentin / Puscaș Vasile /
Rotta Răzvan / Sbârciu Ioan / Subțirica Ligia / Stamatian Vasile Florin /
Tala Ioan Florin / Vușcan Gheorghe Ioan
Other Contributors: Horea Avram / Șerban Țigănaș / Maria Rus Bojan /
Ami Barak / Corina Bucea / Mara Rațiu / Horațiu Răcășan / Daniela Maier /
Mihai Mateiu / Tudor Giurgiu / Cristian Hordilă / Kinga Kovács / Andreea Iacob /
Miki Braniște / Kinga Kelemen / Oana Bălan / Diana Buluga / Cristian Pascariu /
Cristina Bolog / Mircea Király / Cătălin Balog / Tudor Sălăgean /
Ovidiu Cîmpean / Ligia Smărăndache / Sebastian Hosu / Attila Király /
Adela Fofiu / Dan Sânpetrean / Laura Panait / Eugen Pănescu / Dan Clinci /
Federația Share / Călin Stegerean / Mihai Pop / Melinda Boros /
Simona Șerban / Karin Hann / Horațiu Dumitraș / Rareș Crăiuț /
Emilia Botezan / Diana Apan / Sorin Ionescu / Cornel Hozea / Dan Ciulea /
Gabriel Aldea / Raluca Gârboan / Călin Hințea / Simona Noja /
Raluca Antonie / Marius Andrei / Tudor Țiclău / Adrian Hudrea / Ioan Hosu /
Cătălin Baba / Adi Rusu / Diana Marincu / Alexandru Fekete / Paul Bucovesan /
Alin Vaida / Meda Corovei / Valentin Toader / Cristian Chifu / Cosma Smaranda /
Marius Lazin / Adina Negrușa / Marius Oprea
Special thanks to our strategic partners:
Ursus Breweries, Moldovan - Carmangerie Sânnicoară
Consultants: ACULTOS / Essen
Graphic Design: Bencze László
English proofreading: Virgil Stanciu / Clara Burghelea
The publication of the bid book is financed by:
Cluj-Napoca City Hall and Local Council
Published by: Cluj-Napoca 2021 European Capital of Culture Association,
no. 58, 21 December 1989 blvd, 400094, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Cluj-Napoca 2021 European Capital of Culture Association,
no. 58, 21 December 1989 blvd, 400094, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
[email protected], www.clujnapoca2021.ro

cluj-napoca

Transcription

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