Skip to main content

The New Member of Tartu 2024 Supervisory Board Is Kalmar Kurs

The new member of the Tartu 2024 Foundation Supervisory Board is Kalmar Kurs, the current Head of the Foreign Relations Department of the Ministry of Culture.

19. Apr Kaidi-Lisa Kivisalu


Kalmar Kurs. Photo: Kiur Kaasik

Kurs comments: “As a Member of the Board I can contribute
with full commitment, relying on my previous work experience and contacts, to
the best possible preparation and implementation of the European Capital of
Culture Tartu 2024 programme. The international dimension of Tartu 2024 and the
attention to the city’s, Southern Estonia’s and the country’s visibility is
very important.” 

He adds: “The Tartu 2024 artistic concept Arts of Survival
was formulated as a forward-looking message for the European Capital of Culture
programme, but in today’s situation we understand it in a more fundamental way
in the society. This means that we deal in depth with issues, such as the role
of culture in society, the coping of cultural actors and organisations and
their new developments.”

Prior to working as the Head of Foreign Relations
at the Ministry of Culture, Kalmar Kurs was the Head of Public and Foreign
Relations at the Estonian National Museum and for many years the Head of the International Cooperation
Department at the
Ministry of Education and Research

The Tartu 2024 Foundation, leading the preparations
for the title year, has a five-member Board, which includes representatives of
the Tartu City Government and Council, higher education institutions, Southern Estonian
local governments involved in the activities of the European Capital of Culture
and the Ministry of Culture. The members of the Supervisory Board are Urmas
Klaas
, Lemmit Kaplinski, Anneli Saro, Tiit Toots and Kalmar Kurs. Before Kalmar
Kursi, Margus Kasterpalu represented the Ministry of Culture in the Board. 

Tartu was
named the European Capital of Culture of 2024 on August 28, 2019. The selection
was made by a panel of international independent experts selected by European Union institutions. Tartu ran for the European Capital of Culture
title together with 19 Southern Estonian municipalities. Applying for the title
lasted for two years and was initiated by Tartu City Council in 2017.