The quote is taken from the foreword to the proposal for a new cultural policy in Helsingør Municipality, which the culture committee has sent for consultation. The deadline for consultation responses ends today, April 14, 2030. Elsinore 2032 has just submitted the association's consultation response. You can download the municipality's proposal by clicking the button. Below, you can read the consultation response.
Helsingør, April 14, 2023
To Helsingør Municipality
Center for Culture, Business, Politics, and Organization
Feedback on the Proposed Culture Policy 2030
The Helsingør European Capital of Culture 2032 association (or Elsinore 2032, as we're often called) has read Helsingør Municipality's draft for the upcoming culture policy with great interest. We really appreciate the policy's general invitation to collaborate with civil society and businesses, as that's the very same core idea behind our own association.
Helsingør's cultural scene is rich, diverse, and ambitious, and it needs a policy that can both support and develop it. Since our association has a long-term focus – actually even longer than both the culture policy and the municipality's Vision 2030 – we're submitting our feedback, which we hope can help set the direction for many years to come.
Let's Support Commercial Cultural Players
Even though a policy can't and shouldn't mention everyone, we believe that commercial and semi-commercial players should be highlighted. It should also clearly state how the culture policy, which is all about collaboration between sectors, will specifically outline how the municipality plans to promote their activities.
Players like Marienlyst Hotel, Album Bar, Karosserifabrikken, Café Divino, Hornbækhus, Soul Garden Festival, and Helsingør Chamber Opera all have ambitious cultural programs. These privately-initiated efforts contribute to Helsingør's unique range of cultural offerings, bringing life and revenue to the municipality. We think this work should not just be recognized, but actively promoted.
We suggest the policy aims to set up a formal business collaboration with initiatives that help the private cultural sector grow.
Integration and Diversity
We welcome the explicit mention of residential areas in the culture policy. We also believe that Helsingør's ethnic and demographic diversity should be highlighted as an asset for integrating all citizens into the local community. As a maritime city, Helsingør has historically developed a cosmopolitan profile, and a policy that aims to be inclusive and for everyone should definitely build upon this.
We think diversity and ethnicity should be clearly highlighted as a key focus area, making them a natural part of the municipality's culture policy.
Culture as an Investment and Business
We believe this is a great chance to clearly highlight the shift in how we see culture. It's no longer just a recreational area that needs support, but a real sector where the municipality invests. This means emphasizing that culture isn't primarily a cost, but an investment. We're talking about actual money, branding value, and earning potential, plus the fact that culture creates jobs and revenue – not just for tourism, but as a thriving industry and business in its own right.
As an association, we've already embraced the idea of creating culture with funding options beyond just municipal support. Building on this, it needs to be clearer what kind of collaboration opportunities between the municipality and private players, associations, businesses, and so on, are envisioned. This will help strengthen the ongoing development of Helsingør's cultural scene, no matter what happens with the municipality's economy.
We think culture and event grants should always be talked about as investments, and that we should work with the players to create a clear ROI (Return on Investment) index.
Cross-sectoral Collaboration
To put it a bit bluntly, the proposed new culture policy aims to tackle both the climate crisis and the well-being pandemic. We agree with the idea that culture, besides its own intrinsic value, should also help support other administrative areas like education, mental health and quality of life, and business development. Naturally, this calls for more collaboration between the municipality's own departments, especially since the culture budget is the smallest of all municipal areas. So, the municipality needs to create administrative structures that think about policies, strategies, and budgets across all areas. To put it a bit playfully, culture should have a seat at the main table and be able to actively participate in things like climate and welfare investments, if it's truly meant to support and develop other administrative areas.
We think we should introduce an interdisciplinary way of working in administration that will systematically help integrate culture into welfare, education, and climate initiatives.
European Dimension
Helsingør's cultural scene has long had an international flair, and we think this should be given more weight going forward. The proposed new culture policy aims to be local, national, and international. By focusing our efforts on the European perspective within the international dimension, we can open up many more collaborations and funding opportunities.
We suggest the municipality works to boost the European dimension – for instance, by setting aside resources to help both municipal and non-municipal cultural players apply for EU funds or other international funding opportunities.
Elsinore 2032 looks forward to the implementation of the culture policy and to future collaboration on Helsingør's cultural life.
On behalf of the board
Aslak Gottlieb, Chairman
Elsinore 2032 is working to ensure that Helsingør is awarded the title of European Capital of Culture in 2029, when it's Denmark's turn again in 2032.
The association was founded at the end of 2021, and citizens, associations, and businesses are welcome to join.
As of early April 2023, the association has 60 private members and the following associations and businesses:
- a-round
- Boliggaarden
- Chaplin
- DanBolig
- The International Folk High School
- Døssing & Partners
- Espergærde Music Association
- Frederiksborg County Newspaper
- Helsingør Daily Newspaper
- Helsingør Trade
- Helsingør Theatre
- Kildehøj
- KNUD E. HANSEN
- Magnae Vitae
- Spar Nord
- Sport Direct – Helsingør
- Strejf Restaurant & Bar
- We bring all of Helsingør together
- The Shipyard Food Market
