Villeurbanne: French Capital of Culture 2022
Villeurbanne , located in the Lyon metropolitan area, has received the seal of French Capital of Culture , awarded by the French Ministry of Culture.
This is the first time such a title has been awarded. whose objective is to promote the "urban cultural project" of the city and which is accompanied by financing of one million euros.
Villeurbanne has 150,000 inhabitants and has been imposed on eight other French municipalities and communities. We have a new excuse (culture) to escape to the neighboring country as soon as possible!
The National Popular Theater (TNP) of Villeurbanne
VILLEURBANNE: YOUTH AS A FORCE
The jury, appointed by the Minister of Culture and chaired by Bernard Faivre'Arcier, pre-selected nine municipalities and groups of municipalities.
These candidates were: Brest, Laval, Le Mans, Metz, Saint-Paul de la Réunion, Sète, Villeurbanne and the communities of GrandAngoulême and Val Briard.
After carrying out its deliberations, on March 30, the jury transmitted its verdict to Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, Minister of Culture, who awarded the label of "French Capital of Culture" for the year 2022 to the city of Villeurbanne.
“First of the 'second cities of France' as it likes to call itself, Villeurbanne, rich in its industrial history, a young and growing city, has chosen youth as the strength and objective of its urban cultural project”, the jury pointed out.
And he stressed: “the city intends to reconnect with its tradition of popular education and innovate in its actions of artistic and cultural education. For it, intends to rely on its little-known heritage, its associative strengths as well as the main cultural institutions and university resources present in its territory”.
THE SEAL “FRENCH CAPITAL OF CULTURE”
“The 'French Capital of Culture' label will provide a horizon for the whole of Villeurbanne and will stimulate public and artistic commissions. It will be a source of pride for its inhabitants and a formidable lever for territorial revitalization”, they affirm from the Ministry of Culture.
The award of this label is accompanied by funding of one million euros, provided in equal parts by the Ministry of Culture and the Caisse des Dépôts for this first edition.
The Caisse des Dépôts is convinced that culture, a sector that generates employment, is one of the engines of recovery: "The cultural economy feeds many other sectors such as tourism, hotels and restaurants, which are currently the sectors most affected by the health crisis."
Thus, the label "French Capital of Culture", they say, will contribute to the territorial renewal of this economy.
Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin thanked all the municipalities or groups of municipalities that participated in this first edition of the "French Capital of Culture" stamp. These communities are carrying out ambitious projects and look to the future by placing arts and culture at the center of their strategies.
In addition, the minister requested her decentralized services as well as the general delegation of Transmission, Territories and Cultural Democracy to support them in the development of their cultural projects.
From now on, this new stamp will honor a cultural project every two years of a municipality or a group of municipalities with 20,000 to 200,000 inhabitants, in line with the European Capitals of Culture.
CULTURE EVERYWHERE
The mayor of Villeurbanne, Cédric Van Styvendael, stated that this distinction is the culmination of "twenty years of commitment to youth cultural policy".
“We had chosen a 'place for young people' bias that could have been unfavorable to us, but the jury trusted us and saw the solid and sincere basis on which our candidacy was based”, added Cédric Van Styvendael.
One of the most famous places in Villeurbanne is the National Popular Theater (TNP), a national theater center created in 1920 in the former Casa del Pueblo building in the heart of the historic Gratte-Ciel district, a modernist utopia of the 1930s.
In addition, the city has a National School of Music, an Institute of Contemporary Art and a House of Books, Image and Sound and every year it hosts the festival Les Invites de Villeurbanne, which, if the situation allows it, will be held from September 16 to 18, 2021.
VILLEURBANNE'S PLANS
Villeurbanne's ambitious program as French Capital of Culture includes an open-air festival designed by young people in the urban park of Feyssine in the framework of which concerts, theatrical and street art performances, walks, etc. will be held.
25 mini-cultural centers will also be deployed, decentralized in the districts, within school groups, as places of contact with books and reading or an exhibition with works by the Municipal Artothèque and the Regional Contemporary Art Fund.
22 heritage walks of more than 100 kilometers will be developed with young people whose common denominator will be the originality of the route (a place, a tree or even a business).
Them Ateliers Frappaz It will host groups of young people who will participate in the different creations planned in the public space.
Le Zola, art and essay cinema, will support the creation, in the street, of several hundred meters of film which, once digitized, will be screened in various places in the city and posted on the Internet.
In addition, the company KompleX KapharnaüM and its multidisciplinary artistic team will initiate “Parliaments of Colleges and High Schools”, to generate a “voice of the first generation of the 21st century”. These parliaments will give rise to plastic creations and posters that will cover the walls of Villeurbanne and will move from one neighborhood to another.
The annual exhibition at the Le Rize center of memory and society, will be dedicated to young people and will carry out numerous mediation activities aimed at school audiences.