Picture: Alan Place/FusionShooters
by Rose Rushe
LIMERICK is through to European Capital of Culture 2020 shortlist with the Three Sisters of the Southeast and Galway.
The fourth of the Irish venue applicants, Dublin, lost out on their 2020 bid.
The Limerick2020 team led by director Mike Fitzpatrick and Limerick arts and culture officer Sheila Deegan designed the 80 page documentation and presentation for this Friday’s 90 minute session with question and answer section from an international judging panel.
An elated posse confirmed the encouraging news from Dublin and forward bounce to the next funnel.
Croatia will be Ireland’s co-capital in five years.
The recommendation to the shortlist of the three bids was made by a panel of independent experts evaluating applications from the competing Irish cities.
Once this recommendation has been confirmed by Ireland, the shortlisted cities have until mid-2016 to complete their applications.
The judging panel will again meet in Dublin during the second half of 2016 to recommend which Irish city will be the European Capital of Culture 2020.
In 2020, Ireland will host the European Capital of Culture for the third time, after Dublin in 1991 and Cork in 2005.
European Capitals of Culture have grown into one of the most ambitious cultural projects in Europe and one of the best known – and most appreciated – activities of the EU.
It is viewed that cities shortlisted for the title can result in significant cultural, economic and social benefits for the cities concerned, provided that their bid is part of a longer-term culture-led development strategy.
Ireland and Croatia are the EU countries hosting the event in 2020.
The pre-selection round in Croatia took place in May 2015 and four cities were shortlisted (Dubrovnik, Osijek, Pula and Rijeka).
The final selection in Croatia will take place in March 2016.
Following Mons (Belgium) and Plzen (Czech Republic) this year, Wrocław (Poland) and Donostia-San Sebastián (Spain) will be European Capitals of Culture in 2016, Aarhus (Denmark) and Paphos (Cyprus) in 2017, Leeuwarden (Netherlands) and Valletta (Malta) in 2018, and Matera (Italy) and Plovdiv (Bulgaria) in 2019.
