The city of Gdańsk has played an important role in the transformation of Europe. But the same thing that today makes us proud about our past, could very well be what makes us a monument in the future. A legacy enacted solely through commemoration does not constitute a creative starting-point for adapting to contemporary challenges. Gdańskian, Polish, or European. Gdańsk needs to transform. And Europe will play an important role in the transformation of Gdańsk.
The future of Gdańsk, like the future of Poland, and of Europe, is decided by how we take responsibility for the freedom that we’ve conquered. Freedom should not be taken for granted. A democratic society only survives if we question, express opinions and have meaningful discussions. If culture is a driving force.
The main idea of this project is to use the unique historical position and legacy of Gdańsk to promote significant European discussions on freedom and solidarity through culture. In doing so we develop Gdańsk into a future-oriented city of culture, where citizens participate and exercise their freedom.
We aspire to become European Capital of Culture to enable and celebrate the start of a new era in Gdańsk. An era where the citizens engage in culture and where culture is the instigator that transforms a city currently known for political events, to a city associated with the culture of freedom and the freedom of culture.
What are the city’s objectives for the year in question?
The title European Capital of Culture will change Gdańsk forever. It will permeate and transform the city on many levels, and lead to a change in how the city is perceived. It will give us the opportunity to realise our vision for Gdańsk as a city of culture.
Gdańsk in 2017 will b...
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Gdansk is a place where questions about freedom are asked – current, crucial and difficult ones. The citizens of Gdańsk and the artists creating here pose these questions and search for new models, redefining a contemporary meaning of freedom. This is why Gdańsk is the place where critical art is thriving.
We will engage in current discussions on European culture, in questions that are relevant for all of Europe. We view culture as a barometer, and as a vanguard of changes and development. We will use the culture’s capacity to transform an individual experience into a universal experience.
Our obligation deriving from the legacy of Solidarity is to remember the importance of culture for oppressed societies, how culture may be a catalyst for change.
We will promote the idea of everyday solidarity, that is, to practice the idea of solidarity on a daily basis.
In conclusion, Solidarity was a movement that helped change the course of two continents. It was a movement by the people and for the people. The iron grip of communism was destroyed, and democracy was born throughout Eastern Europe. Solidarity will always be remembered as the revolution that succeeded where so many others had failed. Today in Polish politics Solidarity's role is somewhat limited, and it has reverted back more toward the role of a more traditional trade union than a political party. The summer of 2005 marked the 25th anniversary of the Solidarity movement, and was a time to remember the hardships of its humble beginnings and to celebrate the changes those hardships inspired across the continent” (Local Life 1). Many of those changes are still being felt today across Eastern Europe.
This book left me with a deeper sense of the horrors experienced by the Polish people, especially the Jews and the gypsies, at the hands of the Germans, while illustrating the combination of hope and incredible resilience that kept them going.
The broad topic that will be addressed will be the Holocaust, but more importantly, I will scrutinize the issue of the Warsaw Ghetto. Since students are learning less about the Holocaust, I want to learn more about the Holocaust in general. I specifically want to discover what it was like inside the Warsaw Ghetto. I will discuss what the conditions were like and tell some horrific stories that happened inside the walls.
The Warsaw Ghetto was a Jewish-populated ghetto in the largest city of Poland, Warsaw. A ghetto can be defined as a part of a city in which large quantities of members of a minority group live, especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure. Ghettos were commonly attributed to a location where there was a large Jewish population. In fact, the word Ghetto originated from the name of the Jewish quarter in Venice, Italy, in 16th century.The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest Ghetto, as a part of the Holocaust, and as an early stage of it, played a very significant role. Today, in our museum exhibit, we have several artifacts, including primary evidence relating to the Warsaw ghetto. We will be discussing how and why it was created, the lifestyle
satisfied and in doing so, they created a new and improved Poland. Previous to the formation of
As their days were limited in Czechoslovakia, Joyce and her family left all of their belongings and fled to Budapest, where their brother lived and was planning to get married. Joyce explained that the family returned to their hometown in Czechoslovakia as thi...
The investigation explores why the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the most important ghetto resistance during the Holocaust. In order to analyze why the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was significant, research has to be done to study the elements of the Warsaw ghetto that made it successful. The main sources for this investigation are Ghetto Fights: Warsaw 1941-43 by Marek Edelman because it is a study to examine the political and ideological background of the Warsaw Rising and Daring to Resist: Jewish Defiance in the Holocaust by David Engel because it covers uprisings in other ghettos than in Warsaw.
Considering the facts that the essays discussed here were written at different times and encompass various subjects, we have torn them into pieces and used the pieces to complete one puzzle. Upon completion of the puzzle, we now have a picture of culture. Furthermore, the essays have given us a common thread that we can now use to tie our puzzle pieces together. This common thread is our culture.
Pobóg-Malinowski Władysław, Najnowsza Historia Polityczna Polski Okres 1939-1945 [Recent Political History of Poland Period 1939-1945] Gdansk: Graf, 1990.
Competition has increased extensively as the ideology of a ‘global village’ has grown in support and has become a goal that many cities are attempting to achieve. This has resulted in cities adopting ingenious and original strategies in order to remain ahead of the game and these strategies have ensued cities to grow into creative cities. But what exactly is a creative city? Sire Peter Hall, an English professor, wrote in his book “Cities in Civilisation” that the phenomenon of the creative city is one that belongs to every age and no city constantly displays creativity.
Influences Polish MEPs' Perceptions of Poland's place in Europe’, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, vol.11, no.4, pp.358-375.
Culture has a big impact on how we all fit in as individuals in today’s society, and since this assignment is about that I decided to include some of my own experiences to illustrate my point of view and compare it with those of my classmates and some of the readings.
The story of Europe is a story that is worth telling for the simple fact that without the background of Europe, people will not understand the complexities in the creation of the Europe of yesterday and creation of the Europe today. This rich history cannot be ignored because of the close ties to the creation of the nations and the supranational institutions that have become the European Union and its trade partners. Without the background on the history of Europe the creation of this larger organization or supranational organization would be nearly impossible to understand the complexities of the current political, social and economic qualities within the EU. The history of a country, state or organization also helps us to understand the some aspects of the future of the EU.
Therborn, Göran: European Modernity and Beyond: The Trajectory of European Societies, 1945 - 2000, London (Sage) 1995.
Culture. As a society, we’re surrounded by it every day, whether we are aware of it or not. It affects what we do each day and how it lives our lives as everyone, everywhere has their own culture, their own set of beliefs and traditions that shape them, their actions, and the environment around them. Because of cultures large role in the lives of people, culture also has a large role in human geography. But there are lot of questions surrounding culture, like what exactly is culture, why are their differences in culture and what arises from those differences, and how exactly does culture interact with society to shape someone’s worldview? It is in this essay I will be answering these questions.