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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

Table of contents

Introduction – General considerations

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

61

Additional information

79

Introduction – General considerations

3

Introduction 0.1 Why does your city wish to take part in the competition for the title of European Capital of Culture?

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.

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.

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).

Introduction – General considerations

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.

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

6

Introduction – General considerations

0.3 Explain briefly the overall cultural profile of your city.

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.

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

Introduction – General considerations

7

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).

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

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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Introduction – General considerations

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.

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.

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

Introduction – General considerations

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.

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.

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?

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.

Contribution to the long-term strategy

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.

Contribution to the long-term strategy

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.

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

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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.

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Contribution to the long-term strategy

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

Contribution to the long-term strategy

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

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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 SomeČ™ 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.

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Contribution to the long-term strategy

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. Annual measurement of core indicators.

Review development/changes, produce 2021 forecasts, adjust plans, make recommendations for action.

Annual measurement of core indicators.

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

Contribution to the long-term strategy

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.

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(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.

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Contribution to the long-term strategy

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

Cultural development European profile (of the cultural sector) and European/transnational cooperation

Cultural development Audience development (access & participation)

Cultural development Sustainability of the local cultural sector

Cultural development Cultural heritage

Cultural development 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 • Statistic Observatory • Study of the cultural sector • ECoC programme • ECoC programme • ECoC programme • Study of the cultural sector • Statistic Observatory • Study of the cultural sector • ECoC programme • Study of the cultural sector • Cultural participation survey • Statistic observatory • ECoC programme • Statistic Observatory • ECoC database • ECoC programme • Study of the cultural sector • Study of the cultural sector • ECoC programme • ECoC programme • Study of the cultural sector • Statistic Observatory • Study of the cultural sector • Statistic Observatory • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme • ECoC programme • ECoC programme • ECoC programme • ECoC programme • ECoC programme • Study of the cultural sector • Study of the cultural sector • European perception study (applied before and after)

• City European Affairs Office Data • ECoC programme • Urbanism Department Data • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme • Urbanism Department Data • ECoC programme/database

Contribution to the long-term strategy Objectives / Aims Social Transformation Citizen participation and empowerment

Social Transformation Enhance connectivity of local communities

Social Transformation Social Creativity / New Social Production models (developing and piloting) European Awareness and Engagement East-West dynamic (cultural diversity, understanding, valuing) European Awareness and Engagement Eastern European Culture (understanding, valuing, promoting) European Awareness and Engagement Future of EU, generate debate, new EU topics European Awareness and Engagement Improve relations between EU and Eastern neighbours

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% • 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 • Increase the duration of the visits / from 2 to 3 days

Economic development Tourism development

• Variety of touristic offer to increase • Quality of services (Customer satisfaction) • Number of connections (opportunities to travel) in the region and in Europe

• 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

Economic development 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

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Sources of information/ Evaluation Tools • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme/database • Public opinion and participation survey • Public opinion and participation survey / ECoC progr. database • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme/database • Study of the cultural sector • Interviews, Focus groups • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme/database • Case studies, 5 years after • Surveys • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme/database • Surveys addressing tourists • Tourist operators data • Surveys addressing tourists • Tourist operators data • Tourist operators data and focus groups / Tourism Office • Surveys addressing tourists • Tourist operators data • Tourist operators data • Tourism Office, Travel agents • Avram Iancu International Airport • Tourist operators data • Internet stats • Tourist operators data • Tourism Office • Statistic Observatory • Municipality Office • ECoC programme • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme/database • ECoC programme/database • Focus groups and interviews • ECoC programme/database

• ECoC programme/database

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Contribution to the long-term strategy

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.

European dimension

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Contribution to the long-term strategy

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.

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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

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European dimension

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.

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.

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

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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.

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

European dimension

from twin cities, For example, we plan to invite the French company La Machine from our twin city Nantes 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.

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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.

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European dimension

Getting involved As any other city would do, we will base our strategy to attract the interest of the European public on the diversity and quality of our cultural programme, on our tourist offer and on the coverage and impact of our marketing strategy. What is different in our approach is the principle of participation, both a challenge and an opportunity for the public to get involved in Cluj-Napoca 2021 ECoC. For instance, for 2021 we challenge actual and former Cluj-Napoca residents who travel, work or live abroad to join us in for a few days of celebration, together with a foreign friend, within the InClujing You project. Believers of different religions will join us here in a union of European religious choirs: Europe of Music, within the Together project.

Nevertheless, we have a series of activities designed for people with special needs.

Our tourist offer From the vibrant old town to the serene Transylvanian villages around the city and from the Botanical Garden to the Cetățuia Hill which overlooks the Someș River, Cluj-Napoca will meet you with a charming blend of East and West. Places like the haunted Hoia forest or the spectacular Turda Salt Mine make the tops of the most important travel publications every year, while Transylvania and its stories are a magnet for many Europeans.

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.

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).

European dimension

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

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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

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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Cultural and artistic content

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.

Cultural and artistic content

3.

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Cultural and artistic content

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

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Cultural and artistic content

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).

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.

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.

WONDER Knowledge | History | Heritage | Traditions | Diversity | Documentation | Archives TRANSYLVANIAN VILLAGE Wonder | Heritage | Art | Travel | Culinary arts | # Flagship Project 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

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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.

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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

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.

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ACTIVATE 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

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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.

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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

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.

TRUST 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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Cultural and artistic content

_________________________________________________________________ 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.

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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.

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Cultural and artistic content

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.

Cultural and artistic content

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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 dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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 SomeČ&#x2122; - 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

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Cultural and artistic content

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 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 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 cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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.

Capacity to deliver

4.

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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.

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Capacity to deliver

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.

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.

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

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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).

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Capacity to deliver

Regular and charter flights

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 BraĹ&#x;ov 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 cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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.

Capacity to deliver

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

#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 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.

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.

Outreach

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

Outreach

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

Outreach

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

Management

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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.

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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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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Source of income for operating expenditure EU* National Government City Region Sponsors Other

2016 -

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

+

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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.

Income from the private sector: What is the fund-raising strategy to seek support from private sponsors? What is the plan for involving sponsors in the event?

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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•• 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:

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 partners in our projects: Ensure qualitative brand activation opportunities for 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.

Partnerships with the existing business clusters and associations in Cluj-Napoca: Cluj IT Cluster, Tetarom Industrial Park and foreign business clubs.

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Â&#x192;Â&#x192; Donations Since our aim is to ensure the active participation of private sponsors in our project we do not put emphasis on

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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?

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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

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.

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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 Implementation period

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 Implementation period

Destination Estimated budget Funding source Current Status Implementation period

Destination Estimated budget Funding source Current Status Implementation period

Destination Estimated budget Funding source Current Status Implementation period

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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.

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Destination Estimated budget Funding source Current Status Implementation period

Destination Estimated budget Funding source Current Status Implementation period

Destination Estimated budget Funding source Current Status Implementation period

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 Implementation period

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 Implementation period

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

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b) Organisational structure What kind of governance and delivery structure is envisaged for the implementation of the European Capital of Culture year?

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.

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CLUJ-NAPOCA 2021 EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE ASSOCIATION Bodies Steering Committee

Responsible Steering Committee Chairman â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 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

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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.

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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 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: 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 Represents the Association outside the organisation in all essential matters regarding the programme Date of appointment: July 2016

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 Interest and availability to commit to the assignment for the entire period (2017-2022)

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 Represents the Association outside the organisation in all essential matters regarding the responsibilities mentioned above Date of appointment: July 2016

If Cluj-Napoca is awarded the title the statute of the association will be updated to reflect the new structure and attributions described above.

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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 â&#x20AC;&#x153;breakthroughâ&#x20AC;?.

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.

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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

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, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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.

Management

”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

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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.

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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 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the country we are sharing the title year with â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 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.

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Additional information

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 Szabó Tamás p. 6 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 / Deac Daniela Anca / Georgescu Marius Bogdan / Maneses Enikő Other Contributors: Horea Avram / Șerban Țigănaș / Maria Rus Bojan / 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 / Daniel Homorodean / Ion Indolean 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 office@clujnapoca2021.ro, www.clujnapoca2021.ro