Crossing National and Local Boundaries of Cultural Policies to Ensure the Successful Implementation and Extension of Timișoara 2023 Cultural Programme
摘要
The paper summarises the development of the Romanian national cultural policy between 2016 and 2023 and the innovations in local institutional and project funding practices in Timișoara for the implementation of the Cultural Programme “Timișoara—European Capital of Culture in 2023”. It highlights how leadership and institutional cooperation overcame political and legal challenges to successfully implement and extend the Timișoara 2023 Cultural Programme. Moreover, the paper underlines the good practices that can be transferred to future ECCs and other cities aiming at developing strong cultural programmes based on local strengths and community engagement: using open calls for projects to foster community engagement and ownership among cultural entities. Public policy analysis and the realist evaluation of the call for projects are the methods used for analysing data collected from documents and through a large number of interviews and focus groups.