What is culture in your city? A map of gems

Last updated on Monday, 21/06/2021

Culture in all its forms enriches our lives and is present in many ways. Discover a different way to get closer to European culture(s) no matter where you are.

Culture encompasses a wide array of activities, art expressions and sites that reflect heritage and help to look towards the horizon and think of the future we want. But it’s way more than that!

While we wait for the opportunity and conditions to visit in person the museums that we proposed in the article Cultural roots: a treat for museum lovers in Europe to arrive soon, we want to present you a different alternative to discover cultural novelties from home. 

This builds on previous initiatives we have talked about before such as Europeana: aimed at expanding the accessibility of paintings and museum pieces but also millions of books and archival records that have been digitised throughout Europe. 

This time you are going to be able to actively engage in sharing cultural activities and opportunities thanks to the interactive map which is the basis of Cultural Gems.

Cultural gems: what is culture in your city?

This is the smart question launched by Cultural gems! 

Luckily, they propose an answer “Culture in a city is not only represented by museums, cinemas, theatres, art galleries, and other institutional places. Culture is heritage, with memorials, historic and religious sites, but it is also very much alive, with informal cultural spaces, meeting places where artistic creation happens, and places where music is played”.  

In a nutshell, Cultural Gems is a free open-source web app, conceived by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, to map cultural and creative places in European cities. The main purpose is to capture diversity in culture and creativity among European cities.

One of the best parts is that everybody can contribute to the map! This is key to widen our perspectives on how culture is understood, plus it is really easy to do, as explained here step-by-step.

For cultural and artsy experts…

Did you ever wonder how to measure the cultural richness of European cities? Don’t think twice! Cultural gems is actually a spin-off by the Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor. 

This tool allows you to assess and benchmark European cities vis-à-vis their peers, using both quantitative and qualitative data. 

To do so, the evaluation is categorised in: 

• Cultural Vibrancy measures the cultural pulse of a city in terms of cultural infrastructure and participation in culture;
• Creative Economy captures how the cultural and creative sectors contribute to a city's employment, job creation, and innovative capacity;
• Enabling Environment identifies the tangible and intangible assets that help cities attract creative talent and stimulate cultural engagement.

Become a City Ambassador for Culture, other than using data to challenge friends and colleagues to discover the position in the list of your preferred cities, the tool can serve to inspire you for future trips and check out before you embark on your #DiscoverEU, for example. 

Enjoy, learn and share with others using #EUCulturalGems