In a previous article the Culture Working Group said that 2012 would be a very important and very challenging year for them as they would be celebrating 15 years of activity. They said they needed an idea for a celebration, because this way they could highlight the multicultural potential that AEGEE has and that can be found everywhere. So the team came up with a competition titled “The AEGEE Capital of Culture”. Culture is everywhere as they so eloquently put it!
Now that the competition is over, we are sure a lot of people want to know what happened. Therefore, we asked Alexandra Vilcu, the Speaker of the Culture Working Group, about the new Capital of Culture.
The AEGEEan: How was competition for AEGEE’s Capital of Culture?
Alexandra: It went better than expected. When we started to think about it, we didn’t even dream that we would have these results. It started off more like a game. But when we started promoting the competition, writing about it in various mailing lists, and afterwards in The AEGEEan, or sending updates in the Working Groups’ monthly newsletter, we realized we were very committed to the competition and that we wanted to make it happen. In the end, receiving nine applications from all parts of Europe, each of them special in their own way, proved that the competition was a success.
The AEGEEan: So how will you celebrate the 15 years of the Culture Working Group?
Alexandra: The Capital of Culture competition ended in May, and now we are preparing the anniversary event together with the Antenna that was picked as AEGEE Capital of Culture. The event will take place in the month of October, more specifically between the 10th and the 15th 2012.
The AEGEEan: Have you had any similar events in the past?
Alexandra: This event is something totally new for everyone, so it may not be particularly familiar. The only things that may have been encountered during other events, especially the ones that the Culture Working Group collaborated with, and which will be present during our event, are some activities that are meant to highlight cultural diversity, making the participants discover new aspects of the cultures of their international friends. We are talking about games, workshops, and thematic meetings. Otherwise, it will be an event that mixes learning and fun, the international cultures with the local one, in a place that is already famous for its cultural heritage.
The AEGEEan: And the most important question: What were the results of the competition?
Alexandra: Reaching a final result was not easy. We had nine applications and I would like to thank all of these Antennas. They were: Athina, Beograd, Bilbao, Kiev, Leipzig, Salerno, Sibiu, Sofia and Tbilisi. Each of them put a lot of effort into creating a good application and highlighting their local culture and the beauty of their city. In the end, the winner was the Romanian Antenna of Sibiu, with whom we already have a very good collaboration in the organizing process.
The AEGEEan: What is going to happen next?
Alexandra: Last month, the members of the Culture Working Group had a Skype meeting with AEGEE-Sibiu, and we established the basis for the event and its programme. The formalities for approval have already started, and now we are just expecting the event to be published online on www.aegee.org, so those who would like to participate will have to stay tuned this summer and…apply!
The AEGEEan: How will this event affect us, AEGEE members, in the long and in the short term?
Alexandra: In the short term, we are committing ourselves to organising an event that should be one of a kind: we want our participants to have fun celebrating with us, and to discover other cultures. I am not only talking about the hosts’ culture and Romanian traditions, but also each other’s cultures, as we are expecting a variety of nationalities at our event. In the long term, I hope that future members and board members of the Culture Working Group challenge their own creativity towards future actions and events to be organized, understanding that culture embraces various forms, and its resources are unlimited, especially in an environment like AEGEE.
The AEGEEan: Do your plans for the next year involve making not just AEGEE members, but youth in genereal more interested in culture?
Alexandra: I believe that people are interested in culture, and are practising it with or without realizing. It is reflected in our willingness to learn, to travel, and to discover what the “other” is all about. Also, whatever creation comes from a person’s heart, such as a work of art, and which we discover, counts as culture. So, this year, next year, and…always, people are discovering and creating culture all the time, and all we have to do is to make them aware of that, through various methods. On the AEGEE level, I want to mention that this autumn we will start preparing another event, which will be completed in the first part of next year, under a new board, but…everything is going to be revealed when the time is right!
The AEGEEan: Is there anything else you care to share with our readers about your lovely Working Group?
Alexandra: Exactly, “lovely” is the right word. Being the Speaker of the Culture Working Group is an awesome AEGEE experience. I had the chance to work with amazing people from different countries and backgrounds, with an endless desire to learn, and who have different abilities, so that we complete each other. I am very thankful for having met them (even if some of them just online), and for working with them.
Thank you, Culture Working Group, and best of luck for the future!
Written by Andra Toma, AEGEE-Bucuresti
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