Izmir Metropolitan Municipality hosted the Pilot City Izmir Final Conference and Horizon Workshop which was the last event of “Pilot Cities” summit that designs projects launched in several European cities for sustainably speeding up the local cultural development process.

Robert Manchin, the President of Culture Action Europe, delivered a speech on “Local Cultural Governance, Civil Society and International Cooperation: Some Reflections and Opportunities” and Jordi Pascual, the Culture Committee Coordinator of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), made a presentation on “Culture in Sustainable Cities: Izmir Experience from this Perspective” in the meeting organized at the Historic Gas Factory.  

Culture-Art and Izmir Model
Ms. Funda Erkal Öztürk, the Head of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Department of Culture and Arts, gave a speech after the presentations of the Assoc. Prof. Dr. Serhan Ada, the Culture and Arts Coordinator of Izmir Akdeniz Academy, and Gökçe Süvari; “We designed ‘Izmir meets history’ themed projects with a consistent management strategy covering 15 years. Izmir Metropolitan Municipality established a bond between the city and people when it comes to culture and arts. We presented new projects to show the social solidarity” said Ms. Öztürk in her speech. 

At the end of the Conference, Izmir received a positive review with its 3-year efforts and thus the United Cities and Local Governments invited Izmir to start to new process with Lisbon as the “Guiding City”. 

Izmir is the only Turkish city that has joined the 2.5-year program organized by the UN United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) Culture Committee and the Culture Action Europe (CAE).