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Linz - Host City to Europe
That’s why Linz with all its charms and unique characteristics is looking forward to being Europe’s host city as the 2009 Capital of Culture. And there’s also great enthusiasm for giving Upper Austria’s guests a warm welcome and making them feel at home.
A city of possibilities
Linz: 190,000 inhabitants; the hub of an economically thriving province; set amidst a lovely landscape on the banks of the Danube an hour and a half from Vienna.
But Linz is much more than that. It is a city whose recent history is made up of chapters as diverse as the dark times of National Socialism and the unparalleled upswing of the last 20 years. It is also a city with a present, one that is unmistakably stamped by its vitality and selfconfidence. And, finally, it is also a city in which the future is taken seriously - in the planning that’s done and the action that follows.
And it’s for this very reason that the Capital of Culture year isn’t just pyrotechnics but a milestone on the road to the future. Changes are in the air and they are being greeted by an eagerness for innovation and experimentation. After all, a Capital of Culture initiative that is averse to risk-taking isn’t worth its salt.
Culture - a genuine part of people’s lives
That culture is not something completely divorced from the rest of one’s life is part of the self-awareness of people in a former predominantly blue-collar town. In Linz, music, theatre, visual arts, film and the innovative ideas of a thriving underground scene are soaked up by appreciative audiences. At the Ars Electronica Festival and the Museum of the Future, in the Lentos Museum of Art, the Brucknerhaus, the Landestheater, the OK Center for Contemporary Art and the Landesgalerie, the Landesmuseum and the Schlossmuseum, the StifterHaus, at the Festival of the Regions and the Crossing Europe film festival–there are many venues dedicated to culture in Linz. But culture is also played out on the city’s streets and squares, in its green spaces, and up and down the river that runs through it.
The people behind Linz 2009
A European Capital of Culture involves the heads, hands and hearts of a wide variety of men and women. And people’s readiness to get involved has been a joy to behold. After all, having Europe visiting is a unique opportunity for Linz to show what makes it such a special place. To orchestrate this effort, a thoroughly professional staff has been assembled. Martin Heller is artistic director of Linz 2009 and ultimately responsible for the programme and its impact. This choice of someone from outside was a deliberate one: Heller is a Swiss citizen with extensive international experience implementing major projects of this kind. He knows that Linz will rise to the occasion and come through with flying colours.
Tremendous sense of anticipation
Linz 2009 is already under way. The preparations going on about town are already evident: construction sites, renovations, enhancement, makeover. Joint projects are beginning to emerge in an atmosphere of fruitful reciprocity and mutual support. And they make it possible to share the thrill of anticipation: with the Linz public, with associates in cultural life, government and the private sector, with tourists and even the cultural guests.
For Europe, Linz is where it’s happening in 2009.
www.linz09.at
A city of possibilities
Linz: 190,000 inhabitants; the hub of an economically thriving province; set amidst a lovely landscape on the banks of the Danube an hour and a half from Vienna.
But Linz is much more than that. It is a city whose recent history is made up of chapters as diverse as the dark times of National Socialism and the unparalleled upswing of the last 20 years. It is also a city with a present, one that is unmistakably stamped by its vitality and selfconfidence. And, finally, it is also a city in which the future is taken seriously - in the planning that’s done and the action that follows.
And it’s for this very reason that the Capital of Culture year isn’t just pyrotechnics but a milestone on the road to the future. Changes are in the air and they are being greeted by an eagerness for innovation and experimentation. After all, a Capital of Culture initiative that is averse to risk-taking isn’t worth its salt.
Culture - a genuine part of people’s lives
That culture is not something completely divorced from the rest of one’s life is part of the self-awareness of people in a former predominantly blue-collar town. In Linz, music, theatre, visual arts, film and the innovative ideas of a thriving underground scene are soaked up by appreciative audiences. At the Ars Electronica Festival and the Museum of the Future, in the Lentos Museum of Art, the Brucknerhaus, the Landestheater, the OK Center for Contemporary Art and the Landesgalerie, the Landesmuseum and the Schlossmuseum, the StifterHaus, at the Festival of the Regions and the Crossing Europe film festival–there are many venues dedicated to culture in Linz. But culture is also played out on the city’s streets and squares, in its green spaces, and up and down the river that runs through it.
The people behind Linz 2009
A European Capital of Culture involves the heads, hands and hearts of a wide variety of men and women. And people’s readiness to get involved has been a joy to behold. After all, having Europe visiting is a unique opportunity for Linz to show what makes it such a special place. To orchestrate this effort, a thoroughly professional staff has been assembled. Martin Heller is artistic director of Linz 2009 and ultimately responsible for the programme and its impact. This choice of someone from outside was a deliberate one: Heller is a Swiss citizen with extensive international experience implementing major projects of this kind. He knows that Linz will rise to the occasion and come through with flying colours.
Tremendous sense of anticipation
Linz 2009 is already under way. The preparations going on about town are already evident: construction sites, renovations, enhancement, makeover. Joint projects are beginning to emerge in an atmosphere of fruitful reciprocity and mutual support. And they make it possible to share the thrill of anticipation: with the Linz public, with associates in cultural life, government and the private sector, with tourists and even the cultural guests.
For Europe, Linz is where it’s happening in 2009.
www.linz09.at
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