The Mayor of Jerez de la Frontera, María José García-Pelayo, along with members of the Governing Council of the #Jerez2031 European Capital of Culture bid, held a working meeting with Ramiro Villapadierna, the new technical and artistic coordinator of the bid’s Technical Office.
The meeting, held at Jerez City Hall, was also attended by the Deputy Mayor for the Presidency, Agustín Muñoz, and the Delegate for Culture, Major Events, Historical Heritage, and European Capital of Culture, Francisco Zurita, as well as the President of the Jerez Chamber of Commerce, Javier Sánchez Rojas, and the Rector’s Delegate for the Jerez Campus of the University of Cádiz (UCA), Antonio Rafael Peña.
The Governing Council of #Jerez2031 is the body responsible for coordinating and monitoring the project and is comprised of the Jerez City Council, the Cádiz Provincial Council, the University of Cádiz, and the Jerez Chamber of Commerce. This body is scheduled to hold another meeting soon to address the milestones planned for the coming weeks, in the final stage of preparing the candidacy dossier, which will be officially submitted at the end of December.
The designation of European Capital of Culture is a European Union initiative created in 1985 to highlight the richness and diversity of the continent’s cultures and strengthen ties between its peoples through art and creativity. In 2031, this responsibility will fall to Spain and Malta, and Jerez aspires to become one of the Spanish cities selected to represent European culture that year.
During the meeting, García-Pelayo reiterated the municipal government’s commitment to a candidacy “that is being built openly, with the involvement of all cultural, educational, social and economic sectors of the city” and also highlighted “the valuable work being carried out by the Technical Office together with the citizens, allowing Jerez to move towards a sustainable model of a cultural, participatory city with a solid international dimension.”