The Jerez 2031 European Capital of Culture candidacy held another meeting of its Cultural Council today to review and assess the Strategic Plan for Culture and Creativity. During the session, which was attended by the city’s mayor, María José García Pelayo, the assessment of both the diagnostic assessment and the proposed intervention measures in the Plan was carried out through two participatory sessions that incorporated input from Council members before the final evaluation.
This new working meeting followed a participatory methodology for reviewing and evaluating both the diagnostic assessment of Jerez’s Strategic Plan for Culture and Creativity and the intervention measures and proposals within it. These were then put to a vote to receive the endorsement of a key advisory body in the #Jerez2031 European Capital of Culture bid process.
This second working session follows the one held a couple of weeks ago and served to analyze and participate in the review of Jerez’s Strategic Plan for Culture and Creativity; to compare and validate the main conclusions drawn from the diagnostic assessment of the Strategic Plan for Culture and Creativity; to prioritize and reach a consensus on the intervention measures and proposals of the Strategic Plan for Culture and Creativity; and finally, to identify new proposals to incorporate into the Strategic Plan for Culture and Creativity.
The mayor of Jerez emphasized the involvement of all the entities, highlighting the importance of their contributions to updating the strategic document, stressing that “the candidacy is a shared project, born from Jerez’s collective conviction and enthusiasm for achieving the European title.” Regarding the revision of the Strategic Cultural and Creativity Plan, María José García-Pelayo emphasized the value of updating this tool, key to aligning the city’s cultural activities with Jerez’s 2031 candidacy.
During the meeting, the mayor reported on the steps being taken by the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) to strengthen communication with the Ministry of Culture and address issues affecting all the Spanish candidate cities in a competitive process, but one guided by a message of unity and commitment to culture.
Along these lines, she emphasized the importance of having a common framework that allows for defending the interests of all candidates and ensuring that the effort made has continuity beyond the final result. In this regard, the mayor affirmed that the Jerez 2031 candidacy is, above all, “an opportunity to strengthen the cohesion of Jerez and the province through cultural identity, enhance coordination between institutions and stakeholders, and open new avenues of cooperation with other European cities and institutions.”
The Jerez 2031 Cultural Council is an advisory body that represents the city’s cultural and institutional fabric at the provincial level, and its commitment is key to the candidacy process, thus ensuring that the observations and proposals of cultural stakeholders in Jerez and the province of Cádiz are taken into account at all times.
The meeting of the Cultural Council included the participation, both in person and online, of representatives from the entities that make up this advisory body, as well as the presence of the Deputy Mayor for the Presidency, Agustín Muñoz; the Delegate for Culture, Major Events, Historical Heritage and European Capital of Culture, Francisco Zurita; and the teams from the Technical Office of the Candidacy and the Technical Assistance of Daleph.