NEWS Umeå was officially selected to be the European Capital of Culture in 2014 by a 13 member international jury on the 8th of September. Umeå was chosen as the winner over Lund, another university town in southern Sweden.
“This is very gratifying!” says pro-vice-chancellor Åsa Bergenheim. “We believe that the jury has been attracted by the things we are doing here at Umeå University, specifically among our investment in Sami culture at CESAM, the Centre for Sami Research. Our unique and internationally respected meeting place for humanities and information technology, Humlab, has also been highlighted.”
Another unique venture is Culture on Campus, a project that delivers regular culture events to students and employees at Umeå University every week.
“We have been engaged since 2003 and have always based our work on cooperation, and cooperation is something that the jury weighed quite significantly. This victory means a great deal for us and I am looking forward to further developing our ideas together with new participants. The future looks bright!” says Jonas Ericson, project manager of Culture on Campus.
Umeå will be formally appointed as the Swedish representative as European Capital of Culture for 2014 by the Council of the European Union next year. Umeå will share the title with a Latvian city which will be chosen next week.
The selection of Umeå made it northernmost city in Europe to win the one-year title. The title, which has been given out since 1985 on a rotating basis through EU member states, is currently shared by Lithuania's Vilnius and Austria's Linz.
“We were very impressed with the determination, the unanimity of purpose, the energy, the program, and the concept. I think we were being invited to help Umeå with its mission to change its place in the world,” said Sir Robert Scott, chairman of the selection committee. He also led the Liverpool, UK successful bid to become the European Capital of Culture in 2008.
Photo (from left): Jonas Ericson and Åsa Bergenheim
Photo by: Andreas Nilsson
Editor: David Meyers