Valletta’s history struck artistic director for Umeå 2014 Fredrik Lindegren. Despite the city’s differences, he tells Veronica Stivala that ambitions are alike.

Umeå is a university town on the East coast of Sweden. The city was the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) in 2014 and this gave it the chance to showcase and develop its cultural life.

It also gave Europe the opportunity to discover the city’s cultural life as well as to establish new bonds with European counterparts.

Indeed, one of the main aims of ECoC is precisely this: to create a cultural environment that continues well beyond the date of when the city has this title.

As Malta’s turn to be capital of culture in 2018 inches ever closer, the artistic director for Umeå 2014 Fredrik Lindegren visited Malta to meet Valletta 2018 Foundation’s staff as well as other cultural operators in order to share experiences and best practice.

This was Lindegren’s first visit to Malta and one which he describes as an “astonishing experience”.

He was particularly sensitive to the strong impact the Mediterranean has on the country, especially so since he came from “way up north”.

Despite being in the same continent, Lindegren found himself being faced with “how vast our continent is”.

But, the ambitions are alike and the familiar and open-minded feeling was what struck him first.

“Valletta’s history that is present wherever you go is something that one cannot leave aside.”

It is this historical aspect that Lindegren finds most attention grabbing in his overview of the cultural programme being developed for Valletta 2018.

“I think the historical connection will be very interesting from a European dimension and since the churches and palaces are involved in the programme,” he says, adding how it will be interesting to see how these venues will be reformed.

The majestic Manoel Theatre, of course, cannot go without mention and Lindegren says this “has great potential”.

His first walk in Valletta led him to Strait Street and he welcomes the idea of making the streets come alive, thus making culture accessible to all.

He admits that one of the difficulties lies in finding a concept that is both easy to communicate and relevant to the cultural capital

He admits that a difficulty is finding a concept that is both easy to communicate and relevant to the cultural capital.

In Umeå they worked with the eight seasons of the Sami calendar as a framework for all the programme spots and pro-jects. It took some time to get there, but when it came into place it allowed the programme and communications team to move ahead concurrently.

While it may still be too early for the longterm results of EcoC on Umeå to show, Lindegren notes the immediate positive repercussions: Umeå is already the city that spends most on culture in Sweden.

What does Lindegren see to be the main similarities between Valletta and Umeå?

“The aim to involve the whole city is similar to how Umeå worked,” he says.

This was one of their toughest challenges as however all-encompassing it tries to be, it is impossible for ECoC to cover each and every event and aspect in a city.

“The cultural life, so to speak, has to take its own responsibility,” he says, adding that getting funding is not the only portal into getting involved.

“My advice, he says, is to widen the realm of participation even when funding is not included.

Lindegren advises Malta to seriously discuss the language issue. “When you produce big events, will the language be English or Maltese?” he wants us to ask.

Malta will have the option to use Maltese but how to use our two official languages needs to be properly decided.

Lindegren’s view is that “the more languages, the merrier”.

One of the aims of Lindegren’s meeting in Malta was to establish links with Valletta.

He says that an exchange of theatre plays and exhibitions was discussed.

But, the best way of nurturing inter-country communication is to allow artists, staff and volunteers to meet and work together, he says.

“The contacts we have now can make it happen,” he says.