Jyväskylä-Tartu city-to-city exchange for improved social inclusion via culture

Jyväskylä wishes to apply to be a European Capital of Culture in 2024. In order to do that, but also to tackle other challenges the city os facing related to culture, inclusion, city centre revitalisation or spatial development, they turned to a city-to-city exchange with the city of Tartu in Estonia, European Capital of Culture in 2024.Tartu and Jyväskylä share similar environmental and social problems. Tartu has successfully leveraged the European Capital of Culture application process to solve some of these problems. This is evident from the Tartu European Capital of Culture 2024 programme, which focuses on co-creation and sustainability. Jyväskylä thus seeks to learn from Tartu and receive operational advice on how a city can successfully prepare itself for the European Capital of Culture competition and use the application process as a catalyst for fostering long-term social inclusion and environmental initiatives.

Through the exchange, Jyväskylä learned how we can use European Capital of Culture competition as the driver to support long-term socially inclusive processes and environmentally friendly measures i.e. through engagement and consultation and the development of a clear vision. The exchange was particularly useful in providing Jyväskylä operational recommendations to address the challenges related to the European Capital of Culture application process.