Turku’s message to the rest of Europe

Culture and well-being hand in hand

The Turku Capital of Culture year 2011 is one of the largest efforts for Finnish culture in decades. With the 2011 programme, Turku wants to especially highlight the importance of culture to the well-being of people and the environment.

The programme consists of approximately 150 individual projects that will be realised by a great number of Finnish and international contributors. There will be thousands of individual events during the year. The majority of the programme events are free of charge.

With the 2011 programme, Turku wants to especially highlight the importance of culture to the well-being of people and the environment. This is also Turku’s message to the rest of Europe.

- Our starting point is that the entire Capital of Culture year programme will increase people’s well-being. Culture increases both mental and physical well-being, as studies show, says Cay Sevón, CEO for the Turku 2011 Foundation responsible for preparing the Capital of Culture year.

The Turku 2011 programme includes a number of projects that relate directly to well-being or that help to increase well-being. This includes creating cultural plans for homes for the elderly as well as for schools and daycares, for example. The new practises created in the projects can also be easily adopted elsewhere in Finland and Europe.

Open-minded combination of various cultural domains

Capital of Culture Turku has adopted a wide definition of culture and has open-mindedly combined various cultural domains. The programme includes poetry portraits, cultural exercise, story-based rag weaving, accordion wrestling, heavy-metal musicals and various other novel combinations.

- It is essential that the Turku 2011 programme is easy to approach and that it provides experiences for all Turku residents, as well as all Finns, Europeans and visitors from around the world. The programme breaks boundaries, supports the community and co-operation and attracts new groups of people to experience culture, says Programme Director Suvi Innilä.

Culture and well-being hand in hand

Culture and well-being will be combined in a musical starring ordinary people, for example. The participators’ state of health will be monitored with different measurements throughout the entire process. General well-being will also be increased with projects that create poetry portraits for prisoners or that revitalise downtown Turku parks with works of art that also provide the possibility for sports and stretching.

Capital of Culture year events will take place in downtown Turku, different city neighbourhoods and elsewhere in the overall Southwest Finland region. The main stage for major performances and exhibitions is Logomo, an old engineering workshop for train cars located close to the city centre. The renovation of the Logomo building for cultural use is a key example of the development of the creative economy in Turku.