Malta, Valletta - European Capital of Culture in 2018
Valletta will proudly host 2018 European Capital of Culture
The concept of European Capital of Culture was conceived in 1985 on the initiative of Greece’s Minister of Culture at the time Melina Mercouri and her French counterpart Jack Lang. Their common goal was to bring the citizens of Europe closer to each other by increasing awareness and understanding of their common values, history and heritage.
Malta together with the Netherlands, is a very proud host of the 2018 European Capital of Culture. This means that the UNESCO world heritage city Valletta will be a city designated by the European Union for a period of one calendar year. Therefore, during 2018, Malta will be organizing a series of interesting and exciting cultural events for the public to enjoy.
For Malta and Valletta becoming a European Capital of Culture is a great opportunity to gain awareness and visibility throughout the world as well as create and derive a considerable amount of cultural, social and economical benefits. This event will also directly employ around 9,000 workers in Malta and will also bring large amount of tourists to the Island.
Maltese artists and cultural stakeholders are encouraged to cooperate with other European Union countries as one of the criteria established to becoming the European Capital of Culture 2018. Malta will also have to highlight riches of cultural diversity in Europe and to bring to the fore the aspects of European culture that are common to all of Europe. This will be very interesting as Malta is very rich in history, heritage, religions and traditions.
For the past 26 years over 40 cities have hosted European Capital for culture such as Athens, Stockholm, Sibiu, Tallinn and in seven years’ time Malta will join them. This is an extremely exciting and fun event for Malta that we are looking forward to with great anticipation.
Summary:
Past European Capitals of Culture
1985: Athens (Greece)
1986: Florence (Italy)
1987: Amsterdam (Netherlands)
1988: West Berlin (West Germany)
1989: Paris (France)
1990: Glasgow (United Kingdom)
1991: Dublin (Ireland)
1992: Madrid (Spain)
1993: Antwerp (Belgium)
1994: Lisbon (Portugal)
1995: Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
1996: Copenhagen (Denmark)
1997: Thessaloniki (Greece)
1998: Stockholm (Sweden)
1999: Weimar (Germany)
2000: Reykjavík (Iceland), Bergen (Norway), Helsinki (Finland), Brussels (Belgium), Prague (Czech Republic), Krakow (Poland), Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain), Avignon (France), Bologna (Italy)
2001: Rotterdam (Netherlands), Porto (Portugal)
2002: Bruges (Belgium), Salamanca (Spain)
2003: Graz (Austria)
2004: Genoa (Italy), Lille (France)
2005: Cork (Ireland)
2006: Patras (Greece)
2007: Luxembourg (Luxembourg) — Sibiu (Romania)
2008: Liverpool (United Kingdom) — Stavanger (Norway)
2009: Linz (Austria) — Vilnius (Lithuania)
2010: Essen (Germany) — Pécs (Hungary) — Istanbul (Turkey)
Current European Capital of Culture
2011: Turku (Finland) — Tallinn (Estonia)
Future European Capitals of Culture
2012: Guimarães (Portugal) — Maribor (Slovenia)
2013: Marseille (France) — Kosice (Slovakia)
2014: Umea (Sweden) — Riga (Latvia)
2015: Mons (Belgium) — Plzen (Czech Republic )
2016: Spain — Poland
2017: Denmark — Cyprus
2018: Netherlands — Malta
2019: Italy