Internationalisation, Improved Quality and More Competition

Culture Capital Year enabled the city to hone its international profile on the cultural level, which is bound to yield dividends also in times to come. From the start Linz09 opted for the collaboration with artists on regional, national and international levels and for coproductions that had little or nothing in common with mere guest appearances, workshops or residencies. The hosts of visitors who made their way to Linz from distant countries, speaking a bewildering multitude of languages – some as city tourists, others as conference participants, as people involved in the field of culture from other culture capitals, as members of delegations or travellers from one of Linz’s many partner cities – made the city’s international dimension, which had always been there, visible for all.

An inevitable consequence of all this was more competition, particularly given the smallness of the market and the need to improve quality literally in all areas of life – in artistic production, in cultural life, in the catering industry and in other service industries. What made compettion even more fierce were newly acquired competencies, experiences of concrete project work which had to be on a par with international standards, the pressure of a great number of feasibility studies realised by Linz09-financed pre-projects and the continuing selection process for the programming of Culture Capital Year.

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