Leiria Portuguese Capital of Culture wants to react to Kristin and have impact

A candidacy of Leiria the Portuguese Capital of Culture wants to be reaction to storm Kristin and impact beyond 2028, today announced the municipality at a conference of NEXXT Leiria.

With the motto “Take care of others, of us, of nature”, Leiria bets on a project with artistic direction of the cultural manager Tânia Alves and external consulting of the researcher, essayist and programmer António Pinto Ribeiro.

The municipality explained, in a statement, that it intends to create a “lasting cultural system, capable of strengthening relations between artistic creation, education, communities and territory”.

In line with the candidacy for the European Capital of Culture 2027 that Leiria undertook, the municipality attempts to be Portuguese Capital with the focus on “diversity of an ecosystem built over decades by artists, associations, philharmonics, schools, cultural equipment and institutions”.

“More than creating a new cultural reality or concentrating your ambition on a single year’s programming”, the strategy is to “recognize and strengthen existing relationships, stimulate new forms of collaboration and create conditions for culture to play a structuring and ongoing role in the life of the county”.

In a county with 11 philharmonics, 20 folk ranches, seven theater groups, 16 dance schools, 13 choirs and 32 cultural programmers, he invests to “take this opportunity to value the work that has been developed, strengthen our ability to create and host cultural projects and design Leiria at the national level”, said the mayor, Gonçalo Lopes, quoted in the statement.

The experience after storm Kristin was “an increased reason to reflect on the role of culture”.

The motto “Caring for others, for us, for nature” concentrates “an idea of care understood as a continuous practice of attention and responsibility to people, communities and territory”.

“ In Leiria we learn that in the face of adversity we can only rebuild what we have lost or take advantage of this experience in order to imagine new paths – and new paths together”, stressed this morning the Councilwoman of Education and Culture, Anabela Graça, in one of the panels of NEXXT Leiria.

As for the coordinator of the application, “care begins by paying attention to people, places and relationships that give life to a territory”.

“ We want to build an artistic project that recognizes this diversity, values listening and creates new forms of participation and collaboration. Our ambition is to transform care into a collective commitment, capable of generating new possibilities for the future of Leiria”, Tânia Alves said.

With the Portuguese Capital of Culture 2028, Leiria proposes to create “a project that puts culture at the center of the way our future is thought”, added Anabela Graça.

More than building equipment or planning events, the ambition to “approach the city of parishes and rural territories, cross heritage and contemporary creation, strengthen the link between culture and education and promote new forms of participation and collaboration”, to establish “a closer, cooperative and lasting cultural system” beyond 2028.

Anabela Graça said today that “2028 is a horizon, not a destination”.

“ The most important thing is not just what happens in 2028, it's what we can build and it'll be later. We will certainly be a winning candidacy, because we are building a territory that is and will be more able to take care of others, us and nature ", concluded the councilwoman.

The municipality plans to deliver the project dossier on December 3, 2026.