Skip to main content

Tartu 2024 legacy

The European Capital of Culture will live on!

Tartu 2024 bestows the Arts of Survival on everyone in Europe.

The Final Celebration of Tartu 2024 “Jää ja loo” on 30 November, will provide a sparkling culmination to the European Capital of Culture year in Tartu and Southern Estonia. Over the year, more than 1600 events have surprised visitors from near and far.

The mix of customs and idiosyncrasies of Tartu, Põlva, Võru and Valga counties and the city of Viljandi resulted in a rich cultural celebration. It is also the biggest ever joint project in Southern Estonia, with an impact reaching well beyond this region and this year.

The title of Final Celebration “Jää ja loo” symbolises longevity and continuous creation. Allow us to share a slice of which Arts of Survival the Tartu 2024 programme is giving Estonia and Europe for the future.

Events Knowledge Cooperation

Events

The events that have been brought to life will carry on at home and abroad.

Estonia

  • The VARES architectural residency invites you to continue to rethink Valga's urban space.

  • Taevapark on the roof of Põlva Cultural Centre welcomes visitors with new events.

  • Visitors to Toomemägi Hill in Tartu will be delighted by the ‘Dawn and Dusk’ light installation in the cathedral.

  • Ryoji Ikeda's solo exhibition at the Estonian National Museum will be open until March 2025.

  • Curated Biodiversity will continue to make the city a more pleasant place for plants, insects, animals, and people alike.

  • The Estonian Drama Theatre's production "Business as Usual" will return for additional performances in Tartu in the summer of 2025

  • The sub-exhibition "Ingenuity on the Road" from the project Washing Machine Made of Beetroot is open at the Estonian Road Museum until September 28, 2025.

  • The sub-exhibition "Resourcefulness in the Countryside” from the project "Washing Machine Made of Beetroot" is open at the Estonian Agricultural Museum until September 21, 2025.

  • The exhibition“The Secrets of the Leaning Building” from the project "Creative Connections" is open until February 2, 2025.

  • Performances of the joint production "Cosmopolitan" by Ugala Theatre and Valmiera Drama Theatre will continue in both theatres in 2025.

  • The children's production "Tartu's Cat Stories" enhances children's interest in theatre through direct experience.

  • The anthology "Estonian Nature Folklore" from the project "Enter Woodland Spirits" will continue to be available for reading in three languages online.

  • The exhibition "Portraits of Tartu Residents Made from Recycled Materials: Euroopa kultuuripealinna tähtKUJUD" will be on display in 2025 as well.

  • The community-directed theatre hike "Periphery" in the Piusa River Gorge will take place in 2025 as well.

  • The permanent sculptures "Three Pekos" can be explored in Uusvada Cultural Village in Setomaa.

  • Many community events from the South Estonia Community Programme will continue, such as the Winter Trails Festival in the Emajõgi-Moorland, the Tartu County food event series "Tirin", the Kodavere Laalupido, and others.

Europe

  • The ‘Wild South’ series of documentaries is already gaining recognition at foreign festivals.

  • The short film ‘The Unstruck Sound’, a collaboration between the British film group Blast Theory and Estonian youngsters is also set to conquer foreign stages.

  • Selected works from the joint exhibition ‘Secrets of the Leaning Building’ by renowned artists and children are travelling to the Children's Museum in Berlin.

  • The hit play "Business as Usual", which explores the bank money laundering scandal, is being translated into French and Romanian. In addition to translations, a staged reading of "Business as Usual" will be performed in English at The Rehearsal for Truth festival in New York in spring 2025.

  • The works of Pärt and Handel, interwoven with Concerto Copenhagen and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, will be performed in Belgium, Denmark and Sweden in 2025 and elsewhere in Europe in spring 2026.

  • Ryoji Ikeda's composition, created for the opening event of his solo exhibition, will be performed with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir on the stage of the Paris Philharmonic in December 2025.

Events that took place previously, which we empowered this year and that will continue in the future:

Knowledge

The knowledge generated will support future cultural organisers.

Environmentally sustainable organising

After Tartu’s year as European Capital of Culture, Guidelines for Organising Environmentally Friendly Events will remain available. It sets out the green principles that are followed in the organisation of all European Capital of Culture events. In Tartu, the guide will remain valid for future events and activities supported by the city.

Tartu is the first European Capital of Culture to place such emphasis on the environment in its events.

Accessibility of culture

Tartu 2024 showed that accessibility is a natural part of cultural life. The Capital of Culture provided accessible events for audiences with special needs in all participating counties and provided organisers with practical training and materials. Disabled people were creators and promoters of events, such as the exhibition of outsider art ‘Hidden Worlds Expanding’ and the festivals ‘Diversity Enriches’ and experience festival “Special life”.

The expanded sustainability guide, to be completed in 2025, will bring together existing eco-design guidelines and advice to ensure better accessibility. It will support anyone who wishes to organise more inclusive and sustainable events.

Youth Programme Extended

The Youth Programme Extended is set to continue to its fourth year. So far, young people between the ages of 14 and 19 have organised 28 events, attracting almost 17,000 visitors. Future promoters of culture will also be supported by an elective course for primary and secondary schools and the methodology guide of the Tartu 2024 youth programme, which will be completed next year.

Tartu Tamme High School has already twice run a cultural management course.

Volunteers

Since 2022, a total of 5720 volunteers have contributed to Capital of Culture activities. To give a boost to the involvement of volunteers in cultural life, Tartu 2024 will continue to make strategy and training materials available online. Together with the state and local governments, a vision for the voluntary sector in Southern Estonia will be created.

Since the year 2022, volunteers have contributed more than 65,000 hours to Tartu 2024.

Tartu 2024’s final report

Tartu 2024’s final report highlights the ins and outs of organising such an event. A summary, to be published in autumn 2025, will provide an overview of the Tartu 2024 journey – from idea to execution. It will also analyse the successes and lessons to be learned from the Capital of Culture year and how Tartu 2024 has impacted the cultural sector and economy of Southern Estonia. The report will be published on the Tartu 2024 website in both Estonian and English.

A data-gathering exercise will be carried out for the final report, surveying the impact of the European Capital of Culture on people, businesses and policy-makers in Southern Estonia. In addition, information from Statistics Estonia and mobile operators will be used and project reports will be analysed.

Kultuurikompass

Kultuurikompass (Culture Compass) will continue to point the way forward. Bringing together cultural organisers, creatives and decision-makers, a cultural forum will be hosted by the City of Tartu. On 18 & 19 September 2025, the international Kultuurikompass event will be held to present the final report of Tartu 2024.

To date, Kultuurikompass has taken place 20 times, empowering nearly 3000 cultural organisers.

Cooperation

Helping to shape the future of Tartu and Southern Estonia

Tartu together with Southern Estonia

A total of 19 local governments partnered with Tartu in organising the Capital of Culture year: Antsla, Elva, Kambja, Kanepi, Kastre, Luunja, Nõo, Otepää, Peipsiääre, Põlva, Rõuge, Räpina, Setomaa, Tõrva, Valga, Võru and Tartu municipalities and the cities of Võru and Viljandi. The Southern Estonian Local Government Network will continue its work after the Capital of Culture year. 

Around 260,000 people live in the European Capital of Culture region. This is the largest ever instance of cooperation seen in Southern Estonia.

International Relations

We will further develop international relations in cooperation with foreign embassies and cultural organisations. Tartu 2024 will remain a member of the Capital of Culture network and will support cultural organisers in Tartu and Southern Estonia in finding foreign partners and sharing experience. Cooperation with Bodø in Norway will continue under the Duo Network, while in Latvia we will support Liepāja (European Capital of Culture 2027) through the ESTLAT ECoCs Together project. Tartu 2024 will join the expanded Culture Next network of Capitals of Culture and will continue to share its experience with future Capital of Culture teams.

In 2024, the European Capital of Culture was visited by the Ministers of Culture of Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Poland, the Czech Vice-Minister for Culture and the Finnish and Latvian heads of state Alexander Stubb and Edgars Rinkēvičs. 

Hospitality Network

The Tartu 2024 Hospitality Network has the opportunity to join the Southern Estonian Tourism Cluster. This network includes more than 350 companies in the region. We invite everyone to join in promoting hospitality across the region and to participate in the development programme, which will commence early in the new year.

In January, the Southern Estonian Tourism Cluster will be launching a development programme designed to help businesses raise their service standards and provide an even better experience for customers.

Window of Culture

During the Capital of Culture year, the Window of Culture events portal became an important cultural gateway to Southern Estonia as a whole. The number of users increased significantly with the support of Tartu 2024, and we encourage everyone to continue adding their events to it. The portal has also been enhanced in that it now describes the accessibility of events.

The European Capital of Culture calendar is linked to the Window of Culture calendar. Tartu 2024 and the Window of Culture calendar promoted over 1600 European Capital of Culture events.

News