On 23 and 24 May 2013, Ljubljana hosts an international conference entitled ’The Creative Economy as a Bond between Culture and Development’.

The conference is organised by the City of Ljubljana as a part of the AWARD Project, which is co-financed by the European Commission within the ’EuropeAid‘ Programme.

The two-day conference focuses on the issue of the relationship between culture and development in general, and it aims to find concrete answers to the question of how cities place the creative economy in the context of their own urban development. The conference, which will be held at the City Museum of Ljubljana, hosts foreign guests and Slovenian experts from various areas of culture and cultural and creative industries. The programme also includes the WHEEL 5,200 years (KOLO 5200 let) exhibition, which is now on show to the public at the City Museum of Ljubljana for the first time.

The City of Ljubljana is a partner of the AWARD Project, which is co-financed by the European Commission within the ’EuropeAid‘ Programme. The main objective of the AWARD Project – ’Awareness Raising and Education for Development and Culture‘ is to raise awareness about the importance of culture in the development of local communities. In this sense, the project includes research, conferences, seminars and workshops, as well as setting up a website and publishing an online publication.

The City of Ljubljana joined the project with the aim of contributing through its knowledge and examples of good practice to discussions about the issue of urban development through the support of culture. At the same time, an exchange of such experience also enables comparisons with other European cities in the area of the development of the so-called ’cultural and creative industries’.

The AWARD Project runs from 1 September 2011 to 29 August 2014, and in addition to the City of Ljubljana it includes six other partners.

The budget of the overall AWARD project is €390,000, while the contribution of the City of Ljubljana is €22,372. The EU’s share of co-financing totals €16,606, and Ljubljana’s share of co-financing is €5,766.