Members of Eger’s cultural life given another round of updates

Another professional forum linked to the ECoC2023 tender was hosted on March 16th, 2017. Eger’s Local Government invited representatives of all institutions and associations devoted to art and culture in Eger as well as of Eszterházy Károly University and the Eger Archdiocese to the lavish assembly hall in the City Hall. The city’s decision makers, independent artists and artisans, and members of the press were invited, too.

 

 

Attendees were informed of the details of the tender and Eger’s plans. Deputy Mayor Ildikó Adler Martonné announced that the Kossuth prize-holding cinematographer Lajos Koltai will be spearheading efforts in the art section of the city’s tender application. One of the highlights of the meeting came when the UK city of Leeds joined the proceedings online, as 2023 will see two cities, one from Hungary and one from Britain currently hold the title of European Capital of Culture. Leeds is perhaps the most active of the British candidates; we have already had a chance to meet them at the first ECoC forum in 2016 in Pécs.

 

 

The second highlight of the forum came courtesy of the current ECoC: this year, the twin title holders are Aarhus in Denmark and Paphos in Cyprus. This small town in the western part of Cyprus held its opening ceremony at the end of January 2017, which was also attended by Ildikó Somody, a television editor and host from Eger. It was her who reported on proceedings and the gist of Paphos’ ECoC mission statement.