News / Articles / San Sebastian 2016 presents cultural project progress

Donostia-San Sebastián applying for European Capital of Culture in 2016 with a cultural project based on culture and public energy as essential tools for living in European cities.


The cultural project of San Sebastian 2016 , also the product of an intense participatory process carried out in laboratories creative and led by the Office of the bid will be handed over officially to the Ministry of Culture the next day on July 9 in Madrid. It will be in late September when conducting the oral defense of the project (30 minutes exposure and 30 minutes of questions) and know which cities pass the first cut.


We need to make this collective challenge posed by the bid, this unique opportunity to promote our own moral and cultural reconstruction and Europe to introduce ourselves as a citizenry and a country away from the images which identify our city almost continuously with terrorism and violence.


Donostia-San Sebastian , above all, has always defended the culture of peace and human rights, committed to the educational culture as a necessary instrument for coexistence, a model of coexistence that underpin, cultural project of the bid and serve as a reference to the rest of Europe.


The city and the territory of Gipuzkoa, Euskadi, now have the opportunity to celebrate the challenge of being European Capital of Culture in 2016, and not only as a reward for citizen engagement with human rights, but as a new impulse to serve as a basis for further research into the ongoing process of civic regeneration.


We have enough confidence and belief we have the responsibility to build a European Capital of Culture for everyone, and we need it now, because time does not pass in vain and European recognition can give us the push we need.


Culture and education help to humanize the conflict and are the best examples of civic rebellion against any form of exclusion, barbarism and violence. The Candidacy of San Sebastian 2016 bet so decided by the coexistence and cooperation among different, to pave the way towards a positive peace, broad and shared.


We want to encourage new social codes for reconciliation, understood as civic harmony, and the coexistence of different, in ways that contribute to the advancement and development of human rights in Europe and worldwide.


Closer to Europe


The draft San Sebastian 2016 Bid offers also a unique opportunity to strengthen our European dimension and to develop cultural Eurocity Basque. We want to share challenges and choices with the rest of Europe and also support the choices of citizens' movements from the exchange of experiences and joint work with European networks.


Participation, creativity and innovation as a factor of social transformation and cultural life as revitalizing the city and the whole Basque territory incorporated into our action plan in the hope of a recovery in social, political, economic and cultural Europe.


We aim to be European Capital of Culture for cultural policy rethink not only the city but also the entire territory of Gipuzkoa and the Basque.


San Sebastian 2016 is an application that will accelerate cultural and social projects sustainable strategic, creative and differentials, which will make Donostia-San Sebastian and the Territory of the Application node in the network of European cities that are committed to culture and education as an engine of coexistence and transformation.


Three verbs capital and seven lighthouses


A firm commitment from the San Sebastian Candidacy for people and their willingness to creatively transform the world, the cultural project of San Sebastian 2016 is articulated around three verbs capital, three fundamental, combined in a common account:


LIVING in the Culture of Peace and Education in Values
DISCUSSION  City of Words, Languages and the Languages
CONVERGE in the Eurocity Basque Cultural


Three statements that can address the central issues of our bid:


• enable a culture of living in the cities of Europe, to help end the violence and expressions of the potential value of channel conflict
• Contribute to regenerate our individual and collective daily life, ensuring the quality of life and full human development for us to be better people
• enable the convergence of one language and cultural expressions from all over Europe from the perspective of open source and do so in a sustainable and responsible to the (bio) diversity of the landscape and the complexity of the territory and the Eurocity that welcomes us.


Under these three main targets, our story is divided into seven large headlights that illuminate our cultural projects.


Lighthouses of the Basque coast, a territory of the bid, which each represent different themes addressed by the project of San Sebastian 2016.


• Biarritz Lighthouse, a beacon of Biodiversity
• Sokoa Lighthouse, a beacon of Languages and Languages
• Lighthouse Higuer (Hondarribia), Lighthouse Border Eurocity
• Faro de la Plata (Pasaia), Beacon of Knowledge Sharing
• Faro de la Isla de Santa Clara, a beacon of Coexistence
• Igeldo Lighthouse, a beacon of Solidarity and Healthy Life
• Zumaia Lighthouse, a beacon of Nature and Urban Development

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