Jordan Times
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Irbid named 2007 Jordanian
Cultural Capital
By Hana Namrouqa
AMMAN — The Ministry of Culture on Tuesday announced Irbid as the 2007 Jordanian
Cultural Capital.
“The ministry launched the JD5 million project late last year in an attempt to
encourage creativity and support cultural activities in less privileged parts of
the country, by decentralising arts and cultural events,” Minister of Culture
Adel Tweisi said yesterday.
After announcing the project in local newspapers, the ministry received eight
applications from Irbid, Karak, Maan, Mafraq, Madaba, Petra, Salt and Tafileh.
A committee comprising seven experts in the field of culture formed to study the
nomination proposals and after three weeks decided the winning city and came up
with recommendations in this regard, Tweisi added
In its selection process, the panel depended on the standards the ministry
identified as criteria for applying to the competition, including the existence
of infrastructure that facilitates organising cultural events such as theatres,
cinemas, lecture halls and galleries.
The panel also nominated both Karak and Salt to complete for the position next
year, after reviewing the two cities’ potentials. The ministry will allocate a
budget for improving the infrastructure of the nominated city in preparation for
hosting cultural events in 2008.
President of the Union of Jordanian Publishers Farouq Majdalawi commended the
initiative and voiced his willingness to support the project.
“The union will donate 1,000 books to Irbid Municipality, while the union’s
annual book fair will be held this year in Irbid instead of Amman,” Majdalawi
said.
Various cultural activities will take place in Irbid during the year, the
minister said, including organising Arab and foreign cultural weeks,
establishing twinning projects between Irbid and other regional and
international cities to activate cultural exchange in addition to 20 other
events.
Irbid, located 80km north of Amman, has a population of nearly 978,556
inhabitants.