For the next five months, Galway must up its game “phenomenally” to build key partnerships, create a superlative 2020 European City of Culture programme and push the boat out in all aspects of culture to win over the judges, according to the City’s Chief Executive.
Galway City and County must throw everything at this designation – akin to the city winning the Olympics – as they will not be allowed to reapply until 2035, Brendan McGrath points out.
There is no room for complacency in what is a mammoth task ahead before completing the second bid book in May and lodging it by mid-2016. After that the judging panel will visit Galway by early July before another presentation is delivered by the 2020 team. An announcement on who takes the title is expected by late July or early August.
The figures are dizzying. Research has shown that visitor numbers in the decade that followed the designation went up by a quarter. In the year of the designation, visitor numbers to a city the size of Galway could jump by a million.
If successful, the Government will spend €15m on direct investment, topped up by €1.5m from the EU. Other sources of income could see another €5m being directed to the cultural infrastructure.
The benefits are beyond doubt. But the title comes at a significant cost – successful bids at the lowest scale have cost cities €20m – all the way up to €150m in some Spanish citadels.
“It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to make something and bring something transformation to Galway,” reflected Mr McGrath.
So far, the team have been blown away by the “tsunami of goodwill” shown by the wider community in getting through the first stage of the judging process.
“I think it’s very important it’s a united bid between the city and county – there will be as much gained for the county as the city and allows Galway City to be the true regional capital. The benefits will permeate every nook and cranny and beyond – as far Clare Island, Mayo and Roscommon.”
Building projects the city will focus on include a new civic library, a visual arts space and a modern flexible performance space, capable of accommodating various artistic bodies with seating of between 800 and 1,500 – depending on the business case.
“We don’t want a white elephant that costs a fortune to run that you can’t fill every night of the week. It has to be big enough to fill for gigs but not too big that intimate events don’t work,” he explained.
“It’s not just about bricks and mortar for the sake of it, we’d all love to build big and brash but there has to be a business case. We have to reimagine and revise existing spaces, using what we have and making the best of it.”
The programme will be created within the current infrastructural footprint as the judging panel must be convinced that it can realistically be delivered and is not dependent on Government election promises that may never be realised.
One of the most important aspects of the bid will be the joint cultural strategy currently being drawn up which is a key requirement of the EU.
The bid book will also emphasise the cultural legacy of the designation, explained Mr McGrath.
“How can we use culture to deal with social inclusiveness, help remedy democratic deficiencies, giving people a voice in their city so the legacy part of the bid is phenomenally important,” he said.
“Europe wants to see in the bid how to make Galway in 2020 relevant to 500m-plus Europeans so that some of the aspects of the programme deal with modern issues like migrants, minority languages – the Irish language is our USP [Unique Selling Point], Roma – we have the Travelling community – food, floods and climate change – these are all major European issues.”
The theme of the bid is making waves – and that’s all types of waves that are culturally constructive, he points out.
“Whether that’s digital, technological or brain waves, it could be disruptive, in terms of tackling some of the sacred cows out there, or constructive in bringing out the next wave of Galwegians to become the cultural ambassadors for the next generation.”
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