200 participants in the Rouen 2028 participatory workshops

Across four workshops, 200 inhabitants of the candidate territory imagined some projects that could find a place in the candidacy dossier to be a European Capital of Culture.

On Friday 6 and Saturday 7 May, four groups of inhabitants got together to conceive cultural projects. In this way, almost 200 people expressed their desires and wishes. The objective? To nourish the candidacy dossier of Rouen Seine Normande 2028 to be a European Capital of Culture.

The participants met in roundtables of five or six. The profiles were varied so as to exchange points of view and mix perspectives. For example, around a single table could be found an archivist, a start-up manager, a climate warming militant, a pensioner and an artist… This provides the assurance of seeing an original and surprising project emerge, enriched by the most varied experiences.

The groups were invited to project themselves into 2028 and to report on an event during the European Capital of Culture which they had attended. After five missions, which made them travel through time and specify the nature of their project, each group could then display its idea on the wall of projects, which had been nourished over the past two days.

“I didn’t imagine that we’d be able to propose such a precise idea in under three hours when we didn’t know each other at the beginning”, one of participants exclaimed, before leaving with the contact details of her neighbours around the table. As well as European Capital of Culture projects, relationships were formed. This is another way to advance towards 2028.

While some projects overlap, others are completely original and, by synthesising each of these group’s ideas, the team of Rouen Seine Normande 2028 now has at its disposal a rich material to boost the candidacy dossier which will be submitted to the European Jury in November 2022.

The Friday morning group in front of its projects.