Linz 2009 Meets Luxembourg 2007
19.06.2007The Linz City Council’s Cultural Affairs Committee visited Luxembourg, 2007 European Capital of Culture.
Members of the Cultural Affairs Committee and representatives of local and regional media outlets spent June 8-11 in Luxembourg, one of the 2007 capitals of culture. Municipal officials and political leaders had an opportunity to meet with organizers of the Capital of Culture year program there and to sample some of the offerings. They visited a number of exhibitions, including some outside of town since, in addition to the City of Luxembourg, the entire Grand Duchy and nearby German-speaking communities in Belgium, Lorraine (France), Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland (Germany) are also involved. For one thing, the Linz delegation could get a feel for how a relatively small city (population: 82,000) can succeed in becoming a center of European culture; on the other hand, this glimpse behind the scenes enabled the visitors to better assess the progress they’ve made thus far, little more than a year and a half before it’s Linz’s turn. Agreement prevailed on one point: a major event like this involves enthusiasm—among the organizers as well as among the inhabitants of the city and the outlying region.