European Capital of Culture on the Periphery

The aim of the ECoC project has undergone a sea-change, the cosy notion of bonding through cultural awareness yielding to efforts to change the face, character and economic base of a city and to re-define its image as a place to live in. The regional role of the city became the focus and the links between city and civic organisations the relationship between city and region. The main concerns of Cultural Capitals today relate to displaying through culture a power to mould the visible character of the city, influence its economic structure, underpin its spatial development and show the ability of culture to create jobs. The aim is to accelerate development and to create the image of a regional capital for the long-term. The Cultural Capital is not only a place where “the arts ” are to be found in abundance, but a city which provides cultural value-added. The traditional arts festival is inappropriate; its replacement by a prudent mixture of the use of public space, sculpture, new arts media and different forms of R & D is needed. Consequently, expectations of ECC projects are based on infrastructural development, on the visible transformation of the urban environment, on innovation, on culture and on the development of a rational tourism policy. This paper examines the current and future status of Pécs, an ECoC title-holder for 2010. Obviously, th