Vision

Vision

'The true capital of the world is the human ability for creativity, freedom and self-determination.'
Joseph Beuys.

As UK City of Culture 2013, Norwich will explore, interrogate and celebrate the human capacity to engage with, describe and change our world for the better. We will make Norwich a crucible for experiment, play and debate about how to live creatively and sustainably in the 21^st century.

If the major conflicts of the last millennium were between nations over territory and religion, the major potential conflict of this millennium is between mankind and the natural world.

Thanks to native and internationally fostered talents, we do not believe that we are powerless in the face of this conflict – we believe that everyone can make a contribution to the debate and that the nature of our individual contributions is characterised by our capacity to be creative, innovative and self-determining.

Thanks to our precarious coastline, our unique natural and man made environments, our extraordinary built heritage and above all the presence of some of the world’s most influential centres for climate change study, environmental and food sciences at UEA and in Norwich Research Park, Norwich, with its world class strengths in street arts and festivals, literature, visual arts and new media - is in a unique position to lead the artistic and creative exploration of this debate.

The Norwich UKCC bid will engage world-leading artists, nationally recognised experts, local communities and the existing and visiting populations of the city to increase our ‘human capital’ in ways that will enrich us all. Together we will open up the city and its venues and institutions to the world, bring our residents from the locality into the heart of the city, invigorate their neighbourhoods, share the value of what we have and what we can achieve together with creativity and create a vision across the year that will describe a world leading model of sustainable and creative city living for the digital age.