Timisoara 2023. A year as long as a moment: memorable and unrepeatable
Art that connects communities, ideas that open up the world, memorable performances, visitors from all over Europe. We are living together an unrepeatable year: the year in which Timișoara is the European Capital of Culture, with thousands of events of unprecedented diversity, at an unprecedented pace.
These thousands of events exist because the incredible people of the cultural sector work incredibly hard for them, with a perseverance that says a lot about the spirit of this city. We are inspired and honoured to support their projects, convinced that many of them will remain in the history of the city as a legacy of the European Capital of Culture.
This year alone, with a historic funding of more than 50 million lei, the Municipality of Timișoara has massively supported, through the Center for Projects, the implementation of the Timișoara 2023 cultural programme. In addition, with a total budget of over 33 million lei, allocated by the Ministry of Culture, we have launched funding programmes for new projects which have enriched Timișoara 2023.
In addition to the consistent and stable support to organisations, we understood that creators need a direct support mechanism. That is how the Energy! Creative Fellowships was launched. In the first 2 editions of the programme, 97 artists and cultural journalists enjoyed the opportunity to create in the unique context of the European Capital of Culture, as Energy! fellows.
We at the Center for Projects team also work for three major components of the programme: theTimișoara 2023 Opening, the City Celebration of this autumn, and the Timișoara 2023 Closing at the end of the year, funded by the Municipality of Timișoara, coordinated and organised by the Center for Projects. The Timișoara 2023 Opening, in February, the big celebration that kicked off this sensational year, gathered more than 17,000 people in Unirii Square. Let’s meet again, even more of us, at the City Celebration, along the Bega riverside, on 6-8 October. Now’s the time to invite all your friends to Timișoara.
The streets, the squares, the river banks – the whole city is open for culture. For Timișoara 2023 and the years to come, the Municipality of Timișoara, through the Center for Projects, has opened up a number of highly attractive spaces to the city’s creative communities: the Corneliu Mikloși Museum, the Ștefania Palace, the eastern part of the Maria Theresia Bastion and others. Opened last autumn, the Victoria Cinema has become a popular landmark on the city’s cultural map, and this autumn we will also open the Timiș Cinema. From unconventional spaces to historic buildings and former industrial buildings, these #SpacesForCommunity have quickly become good hosts for exhibitions, screenings, debates, book launches, and various performances.
The Center for Projects was founded in 2021, as a public institution under the City Council. We have been at the service of the people of Timișoara for two years now and we are even more proud to have the opportunity to do so in the year in which Timișoara is European Capital of Culture.
We hope you enjoy the remaining months of Timișoara 2023 to the fullest. We hope that these months will offer you unexpected encounters – with art, with ideas, with Timișoara seen in a new light: yours.
Who, if not Timișoara, is the first to celebrate freedom of thought through debates that open minds and bridges of collaboration? Which city, if not Timișoara, is home to the art that intrigues you, the art that experiments? Who is the first one, if not you, to celebrate with the one next to you, may them be an old neighbour or a newcomer?
With joy, from the heart of Timișoara 2023,
Alexandra Rigler
Director of the Center for Projects of the Timișoara Municipality