- European Heritage Days in 2004

As has been the case every year since 1991, hundreds of monuments will be opened to the public during the European Heritage Days this year, which will take place in September and October. This year, the participating countries have organised guided visits to buildings and historical sites, tours, conferences, exhibitions and workshops on subjects as varied as water, food and beverages, sports venues and gardens. The growing success of the event is illustrated by the fact that, during the European Heritage Days in 2003, more than 20 million people visited some 30 000 culturally significant monuments and sites which usually cannot be accessed during the rest of the year.

The European Heritage Days receive cofinancing from the European Union under the Culture 2000 programme (action 3) as part of a measure conducted jointly with the Council of Europe. They were inaugurated this year in Barcelona from 3 to 5 September. A large number of events are scheduled in all the participating countries.
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The opera La Quintrala was performed for the first time in Copenhagen on 2 September. This international work is the result of a cooperative venture between three European opera companies, Den Anden Opera (Denmark), Der Oper an der Leine (Germany) and Pitae Kammer Opera (Sweden), which received funding under action 1 of the Culture 2000 programme. This is a modern and interactive opera combining singers and computer technology which will be performed in several cities in Denmark, Germany and Sweden from September to November.

"GRAVITY - Art Religion Science"
As part of this project, a contemporary art centre in Graz, Kulturzentrum bei den Minoriten, has joined forces with six art and research centres in central and eastern Europe to work on the subject of gravity, in its philosophical, spiritual and physical senses.
The project has made it possible to pool the results of research in this area and organise an exhibition, entitled "Himmelschwer", which was held last year in Graz, European City of Culture for 2003. It illustrated the different aspects of gravity, such as levitation, ascension and fall.

Another exhibition, entitled "Schwere und Schwerelosigkeit" will be held in Graz from 18 September to 1 November, after being shown throughout the summer in Münster (Germany). As part of the same project, the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, which is co-organiser of the project in Slovenia, is in the process of developing a website entitled "Towards Zero Gravity", which will present artists from Slovenia whose work focuses on this subject.

This multiannual project receives funding under action 2 of the Culture 2000 programme for the years 2002-2005.

Are you a participant in a project funded by Culture 2000? If so, we’d like to hear from you (feedback, dates, etc.)! Contact us...

- Study on European cities and capitals of culture
A study which takes stock of the projects "European Capitals of Culture" and "European Cultural Month", mainly between 1995 and 2004, is now available on our website. This study, which was carried out on behalf of the European Commission by the company Palmer/Rae Associates, analyses the major themes of the projects, makes recommendations for the future and presents individual reports on each of the 29 cities covered. Policy decision-makers, researchers and organisers of future European capitals are sure to find it very informative.

The "European Capitals of Culture" initiative is a Community action established by Decision No 1419/1999/EC. The European Union provides a financial contribution for this through its Culture 2000 programme. This contribution, which goes towards actions with a European dimension, varies between EUR 200 000 and EUR 1 million per project.

- Second intermediary evaluation of the Culture 2000 programme
The fifth recital of Decision 626/2004/EC, extending the Culture 2000 programme for 2005 and 2006, stipulates that the European Commission must provide a full and detailed assessment report on the programme by 31 December 2005 at the latest.

To prepare this report on the basis of an independent evaluation, the Commission published a contract notice in the Official Journal of 31 August 2003 (No S 169) with a view to selecting a consultant. The contract will be awarded following an open invitation to tender. For further information, we invite you to read the specifications and other documents relating to this contract, which you can download from our website.

N.B.: you have until 14 October to send us your tenders.

- Call for "special actions"
At the summit between the European Union and Japan in 2002, it was decided that 2005 should be EU-Japan Year of People-to-People Exchanges, with a view to promoting knowledge and mutual understanding between people in Japan and Europe. As part of this project, DG EAC is launching, under action 3 of the Culture 2000 programme, a restricted call for proposals to the competent national authorities in the field of culture in order to select cultural cooperation projects to be held in Japan in 2005. The guidelines will very soon be available on our website.

- New information on the website of the culture unit: new list of cultural operators who took part in Culture 2000 in 2003 and 2004.

- Study on the ties between culture and education
Following an open invitation to tender, the European Commission selected the tender proposed by the University of Lorraine for the completion of a study to produce an inventory of the best practices linking culture with education in the Member States, the 12 candidate countries and the EEA countries.

- Seminar on culture and schools
This seminar, which was organised by the Dutch Presidency with the support of the European Union, brought together a large number of experts and representatives of the Ministries of Education and Culture of the Member States; it was held in The Hague from 8 to 11 September. For three days, the delegates discussed the teaching of the arts and cultural heritage in Europe, the crucial role it plays in the development of European citizens and its contribution to strengthening European citizenship and improving mutual understanding between people in Europe.

At the seminar, Mrs Reding, Member of the Commission responsible for education and culture, gave some encouraging words and pointed out the importance attached by the Commission to strengthening the ties between education and culture. This is reflected in the proposals presented by the Commission on 14 July 2004 for the new generation of programmes in these areas.