International conferences in Chemnitz

"International Week" in Chemnitz: The City of Chemnitz is welcoming delegations from nine countries to our city for the first twin city conference on Wednesday and Thursday, 10 and 11 April under the motto "Twinning in challenging times".

The organisers are expecting the twin cities of Düsseldorf, Ljubljana, Lodz, Manchester, Mulhouse, Tampere, Timbuktu, Usti nad Labem and Volgograd.

At the same time, the EUROCITIES Cultural Forum will be held in Chemnitz from Wednesday to Saturday, 10 to 13 April - more than 110 participants from 59 European cities have confirmed their attendance.

Mayor Sven Schulze announced both conferences to the city council with these expectations: "Talking to each other, learning from each other, networking for future tasks and new projects - that is the aim of these conferences."

Twin Cities Conference: "Town twinning in challenging times"

The partner city conference in the town hall is dedicated to the key topics of urban development, culture and, of course, the Capital of Culture bid. The aim is to exchange ideas with the partner cities on how public space is experienced, how it can be staged, developed and designed, what promotes urbanity and what impetus cities can provide. Best practice examples and valuable process experiences are expected.

Davor Buinjac, project coordinator for Ljubljana's 2025 European Capital of Culture bid, will report on the Slovenian capital's strategy for art in public spaces.

A second focus will be on strategies for the city of the future: It will be possible to find out how Volgograd has changed or which path Manchester is pursuing or how mobility issues are being addressed in Usti nad Labem. Mayor Thomas Geisel, for example, will report on how the development of a cultural mile is being driven forward in Düsseldorf under the title "Blue-Green Ring".

The following programme items are open to the press; media representatives should apply for accreditation using the enclosed form:

Wednesday, 10 April:

9 a.m., City Hall - City Council Chamber:

Opening of the conference

Panel: Staging public spaces

Public space is urban space, space for everyone. Whether temporary or permanent, art and culture play a central role in shaping and staging this space. In the panel, the partner cities present strategies and projects on how they tackle this task. They will show how public space can be designed in a contemporary, sustainable and inclusive way, what challenges exist in project development, how dialogue with urban society succeeds and what lessons can be learned from the projects.

Chemnitz: "Urban development through culture: interventions for 2025"
Michael Stötzer and Ralph Burghart, Mayor

Düsseldorf: "Düsseldorf's blue-green ring"
Thomas Geisel, Lord Mayor

Ljubljana: "A city strategy for art in public space"
Davor Buinjac, Project Coordinator Ljubljana 2025

Lodz: "Application as Capital of Culture / Expo 2022 and impulses"
Daria Głowcka, Culture Department, City of Lodz

Tampere: "Art in public space in Tampere"
Aki Silvennoinen, Curator Collections, Tampere Art Museum

Afterwards there will be an opportunity for discussion with the speakers.

7 pm, City Hall - Wandelhalle:

Welcome Reception

Meeting of the participants of the Twin Cities Conference and the EUROCITIES Cultural Forum. Guest of honour at the evening event is Katharina Witt, honorary citizen of Chemnitz. The legendary Olympic figure skating champion is visiting Chemnitz for the conference and will once again prove herself not only as an ambassador for her sport, but also for her long-standing home town.

Thursday, 11 April:

9 a.m., City Hall - City Council Chamber:

Panel: strategy, visions, innovations for the city of the future

Against the backdrop of global and local challenges, cities and municipalities around the world are being asked to think about future development prospects. Urban strategies and city-wide visions have established themselves as an instrument for this. As an informal, i.e. preparatory instrument for integrated and future-orientated urban development, they have an orientation, motivating and coordinating function. Mission statements can take very different forms. They can be programmes or manifestos, contain principles and master plans (spatial model), define quality standards and procedural concepts. They emerge from a planning policy discourse between social actors and must be negotiated with the broad participation of all social actors. The workshop will focus on the exchange of experience on city-wide model and strategy processes. What experiences and good examples are there in other cities?

Impulses from the partner cities:

Chemnitz: "Work in progress - the Chemnitz strategy"
Anna Galda, Head of the Strategy Development Unit, Morgenstadt

Volgograd: "Transformation of an industrial city"
Andrey Kosolapov, Chairman of the Volgograd Duma

Mulhouse: "Diagonale Mulhouse and the participation process"
Maryvonne Buchert, Mayor for Urban Environmental Policy

Usti n. L.: "Feasibility study for vehicles with autonomous drive systems"
Jiří Starý, Head of the ITI Management Department and Deputy Head of the
Head of the Strategic Development Department

Manchester: "Our Manchester"
Luthfur Rahman, Executive Member of the Council for Schools, Culture and Leisure
Leisure

This will be followed by an opportunity for discussion with the speakers.

12.30pm, Town Hall - Council Chamber:
Final press conference

The heads of delegation of the partner cities will present the key results of the two-day conference and will be available for discussion.

Other topics of the conference

In addition, the conference guests will get to know Chemnitz on a city tour with Mayor of Construction Michael Stötzer.

These topics, among others, will be discussed in in-depth workshops: How can open spaces be given, brownfield sites activated and potential utilised? How can citizen participation and communication accompany urban development processes? How can culture act as a mediator for urban society and what is the way forward for a successful bid to become European Capital of Culture?

EUROCITIES Culture Forum meets in Chemnitz: "Cities developing and supporting networks of local cultural organisations"

From Wednesday to Saturday, 10 to 13 April 2019, over 100 representatives of European cities will come together in Chemnitz for the EUROCITIES Culture Forum. The cultural management department of Chemnitz City Council, which has been actively involved in EUROCITIES since 2007, applied for Chemnitz to host the cultural forum of the city network.

In Chemnitz, the delegates from major European cities will discuss how culture is conquering urban space. They want to look at the role that culture plays in the city of Chemnitz in developing and supporting networks of local cultural organisations.

In view of Chemnitz's bid to become European Capital of Culture 2025, the Chemnitz organisers of the EUROCITIES Culture Forum invite you to discuss how city administrations bring together cultural and creative organisations to develop local networks of cultural and creative spaces and actors. The Chemnitz organisers are looking forward to showcasing good practice examples in study visits.

Background: EUROCITIES is an informal network of larger European cities that exchanges information on municipal matters - also in order to support projects vis-à-vis the European Union, e.g. with regard to the utilisation of EU structural funds. EUROCITIES is dedicated to various areas of urban policy, including cultural, environmental, urban development and social policy. In forums such as the "Culture Forum", the "Social Forum" or the "Knowledge Society Forum", city representatives meet several times a year at a different location in Europe to discuss issues of common interest. There are also working groups on specific topics in all forums. In the Culture Forum, for example, there are currently working groups on the topics of "Access to Culture", "Young People and Culture", "Resources for Culture" and "Creative Industries".

The conference programme on Thursday, 11 April is open to the press:

Thursday 11 April:

9am to 12.30pm, Stadthalle - Small Hall:

Plenary Session

1.30 p.m. to 5 p.m., meeting point Stadthalle - Foyer:

exchange visits

The exchange visits will give European cultural experts an insight into the diversity of Chemnitz's cultural scene and show examples of the implementation of the conference theme "Developing and supporting local networks of cultural organisations". The Chemnitz organisations will also have the opportunity to ask the guests technical questions and initiate new collaborations at European level.

• industry culture exchange visit
• youth culture exchange visit
• urban development exchange visit
• art, culture and education exchange visit

Media representatives are requested to register using the enclosed form by Monday, 8 April, 4 pm.