University College Falmouth plays its part in European Region of Culture bid

University College Falmouth (UCF) has played a key role in Cornwall's bid to establish a new European Region of Culture (EROC) initiative.

The University College recently hosted a conference at its Woodlane Campus for the campaign to establish a rural version of the European Capital of Culture (ECOC) scheme that celebrates urban living. The culmination of three cultural exchanges that have formed the bedrock of a pilot scheme, the event considered how culture in Europe's rural, isolated and peripheral regions could be celebrated and harnessed for positive change.

Delegates had previously visited attractions across the county, including the Heartlands Project, Tate St Ives, Port Eliot, The Tolmen Centre, Trebah Garden and Cornish Mines & Engines to witness the rich cultural diversity that Cornwall offers.

"Europe's rural regions make a substantial contribution to the richness and diversity of European culture, but are not eligible to apply for European Capital of Culture (ECOC) status in their own right," explained UCF's Director of Enterprise, Adrian Bossey. "Cornwall has proposed a rural version of the ECOC scheme with the purpose of harnessing rural culture to create a better, more sustainable future for rural regions individually, collectively and in Europe as a whole, so as an internationally-recognised multi-arts university college in a stunning rural location, UCF is ideally placed to make a major contribution to this campaign."

Cornwall Council is leading the campaign and the conference at UCF marked the end of a year-long pilot programme that has seen Cornwall sharing ideas, fostering creative partnerships and creating ongoing intercultural dialogue with teams from the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region of Poland and South Ostrobothnia in Finland, and partners in Bulgaria, Eire, Italy and Denmark. This partnership was designed to establish a prototype for the proposed new EROC network.

Funded by the European Union's Culture Programme, the EROC campaign has already garnered substantial cross-party backing at an EU level, recently indicated when the Education and Culture Commission of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) pledged overwhelmingly to support it. For the bid to progress further, a total of 50 EU regions need to express an interest. To date, 30 have signed up to the scheme.

EROC Campaign Director, Miranda Bird, commented: "This new designation would bring major benefits to rural regions across Europe, many of which - like Cornwall - have been economically deprived and overlooked in terms of their cultural assets. In 2008, Liverpool benefited significantly from the Capitals of Culture scheme and it is time the EU looked beyond the city walls."

For more information, see www.e-r-o-c.com

University College Falmouth is the only independent Higher Education institution in Cornwall with the powers to award degrees in its own name. It has two campuses in Cornwall - at Woodlane in Falmouth and Tremough in Penryn (which it owns, and jointly manages with the University of Exeter) - and a third campus at Totnes in Devon, following its merger with Dartington College of Arts in 2008.

This merger created a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth's expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington's expertise in Choreography, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing. The Devon-based courses will relocate to a new, high-specification Performance Centre at Tremough in 2010, paving the way for a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall by 2012/2013 that will be unique to the South West.

The College is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One and Convergence), the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall Council.

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For further information about University College Falmouth, please contact Jilly Easterby MCIPR, Head of Public Affairs, Telephone: 01326 213792, or email: Jilly.Easterby@falmouth.ac.uk

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