I would like to encourage the inhabitants of Wrocław to take a keen interest in cultural events. As culture is financed from taxes, which we all pay, we have the right to culture; however, we do not always enjoy this right.
The most urgent task to be accomplished by the Institution of Culture Wrocław 2016, which I have been in charge of for six weeks, is to draw up an application for the title of the European Capital of Culture. The document has to be completed, translated into several official languages of the European Union and delivered to the Ministry of Culture by the end of the third quarter this year.
The office of the Institution of Culture Wrocław 2016 commenced its activity a month ago. You can already visit our portal Kreatywny Wrocław and our office's official website, which will contain materials in Polish, English and Spanish, will be made soon. The Institution of Culture Wrocław 2016 supports some international cultural events which are aimed at promotion of Wrocław as a candidate city for the title of the European Capital of Culture as well as at cooperation with Europe's cultural centres, in particular the ones in Spain.
The main ideas regarding Wrocław's future application were worked out in the first weeks after the establishment of the Institution of Culture Wrocław 2016. It is the idea of beauty and the four dimensions of its presence (absence) in the life of our city and its inhabitants that is the most important category in which we think about culture in Wrocław.
This idea was accepted by the Steering Committee, which was set up by the President of Wrocław Rafał Dutkiewicz at my request. Directors of the units of the municipal office of Wrocław engaged in cultural issues and promotion of the city serve on the Steering Committee, which is chaired by President Jarosław Obremski. It was also President Dutkiewicz that approved this draft document. Soon the document will be presented to other bodies to serve as a matter for a social debate on culture in Wrocław and on Wrocław as a candidate city for the title of the European Capital of Culture.
Another institution that supports Wrocław as a candidate city is the Honorary Committee with the following members: Tadeusz Różewicz, Urszula Kozioł, Sylwester Chęciński, Andrzej Wajda, Kurt Masur, Norman Davies, Lech Wałęsa, Vaclav Havel, Władysław Bartoszewski and Cardinal Henryk Gulbinowicz.
The Institution of Culture Wrocław 2016 will also request the persons that have been supporting cultural events to become Cultural Patrons of Wrocław. This is the way in which we would like to honour them and appreciate their generosity and contribution to the development of culture in our city. We would also like to encourage outstanding figures to support our efforts by becoming Wrocław's Ambassadors of Culture.
The Institution of Culture Wrocław 2016 intends to make public the very process of working out of the application. Wrocław's Board of Culture will soon be established and the directors of all cultural institutions from Wrocław and Lower Silesia will sit on it. As a candidate city for the title of the European Capital of Culture, Wrocław wants to cooperate with the entire Lower Silesia as well as the Czech city Hradec Kralove and German Görlitz.
I have already met and talked to people of culture from Wrocław and Lower Silesia; these meetings and talks have considerably contributed to the application that is being worked out. Some of these people participate in today's debate held by Gazeta Wyborcza. Many pundits are working on the materials that will constitute an important part of Wrocław's application. Janusz Domin is in charge of “Sprężyna” association, whose members gather in Literatka cafe and get engaged in creative and unconventional thinking about culture in Wrocław. I participated in this association's meetings, which gave me an opportunity to talk to people of culture from Wrocław. I have not managed to meet all environments engaged in culture in Wrocław yet as I have only started my work in the Institution - I am asking you for understanding.
The debate regarding culture in Wrocław will be open to the public - everybody willing to take part in it should feel welcome. For this purpose, Wrocławski Akcjonariat Kultury will be established soon. It will be the citizens' platform, aimed to activate non-institutional artistic and cultural environments in Wrocław. We will appeal to the inhabitants of Wrocław to come up with innovative ideas on how to increase the number of works of art and cultural events in the city of Wrocław. We also strive to intensify the two-way cultural movement by encouraging the inhabitants to visit the cultural places in Wrocław and Lower Silesia more frequently than ever before. We want to encourage them to take part in cultural events as culture is financed from taxes, which we all pay, and we have the right to participate in culture but we do not always enjoy this right. What is more, our objective is to make institutions of culture more open to the public.
Let me refer to the issue concerning the number of Polish tourists on the beaches in Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey that one of the Polish politicians spoke about. In Wrocław there is Children's University where children aged 6-12 study. During my recent lecture on the beginnings of the philosophical ideas of ancient Greece I showed the children, who are very demanding students, a map of the ancient Hellenic world and asked who had ever visited these places. As many as 300 children attended the lecture and, as it turned out, each of the countries from that area had been visited by many young inhabitants of Wrocław - each time I asked a question who had been to Greece, Turkey, Egypt or Italy, several dozen children raised their hands to say "yes", some of them more than once. However, when they were asked whether or not they had visited a museum in the place of their holiday destination, not more than three hands were raised. Recently I have visited the museum in Środa Śląska and, as it turned out, on this day only five people came to admire the sensational treasure.
What we focus on when working out Wrocław’s application for the title of the European Capital of Culture is creation of mechanisms that will attract the inhabitants of Wrocław, Lower Silesia and all citizens of Poland not only to beaches in exotic countries but also to cultural places at home and abroad. We are drawing up projects which, if approved for implementation, will make Europeans visit places of art and culture in Poland. In fact, it is culture, art and the ability to benefit from these goods consciously that considerably contribute to the development of our social capital necessary for development of our country.
Director of the Institution of Culture Wrocław 2016, Professor Adam Chmielewski, Ph.D. Wrocław, 12 March 2010Source: Gazeta Wyborcza Wrocław