November 3 – 10Chris Gatt and Toni Attard visited Utrecht. Chris (director) and Toni work at St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity and are involved in the inter ministerial committee on cultural capital. They were dipped into the cultural life of Utrecht in a tightly scheduled programme. Gertrud van Dam, Hans Sakkers en Christa Stoop accompanied them to several sites, cultural entrepreneurs and colleagues working in the cultural field.
The main reason to come to Utrecht was the Yo! Opera Festival where they met Saskia van de Ree and Anthony Heidweiller. They ran into Aleid Wolfsen, mayor, and had dinner with Floris de Gelder, vice-mayor for culture (second picture). They met Peter de Haan, 'intendant' for European Cultural Capital and took part in a forum at the SICA course for cultural entrepreneurs who want to work internationally. Charles van Zanten (dep. Cultural Affairs) took them to Leidsche Rijn where they visited Roodnoot, an artist in residence project. With Rien Sprenger and Paul Feld they discussed community art and with Quinten Peelen they discussed the idea of Maltese ambassadors abroad. They even ride a bike!
Back in Malta Chris and Toni will work out all ideas and smart connections to a draft of a creative road map for our cooperation. As they wrote they have been 'truly inspired' and they find 'the strong motivation of the City of Utrecht to facilitate cooperation between Utrecht and Malta very encouraging!'
To be continued!
