The Women Writers Route, which links seven countries and is dedicated to women authors from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and their inspiring life and literary stories, was awarded the Council of Europe’s Cultural Routes certificate last year, becoming the 48th European cultural route to be awarded this prestigious title and the first to be based in Slovenia.
On Tuesday 12 September, the Women Writers Route will officially receive the Council of Europe Cultural Routes Certificate, presented by Dr. Stefano Dominioni, Director of the European Institute of Cultural Routes and Executive Secretary of the Extended Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe. At the ceremony, which will take place in the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, the guests – members of the Women Writers Routes, political and diplomatic representatives, representatives of the cultural routes and other guests – will be addressed by Dr. Andreja Rihter, President of the Women Writers Routes Cultural Tourism Association, Tamara Vonta, Chairperson of the Committee on Culture of the National Assembly and Head of the National Assembly Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Secretariat, Špela Spanžel, General Director of the Cultural Heritage Directorate at the Slovenian Ministry of Culture, and Mag. Urška Klakočar Zupančič, President of the National Assembly. The programme will be enlivened by musicians Aleksandra Naumovski Potisk and Martina Burger, who will perform samosongs on the poetry of 19th century Slovenian women poets.
On the sidelines of the award ceremony, the working part of the programme will include meetings with the Director of the European Institute, which will be aimed at familiarising Slovenia with and increasing its active participation in the Council of Europe’s Cultural Routes programme. Stefano Dominioni will meet with State Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Matevž Čelik Vidmar, and General Director, Špela Spanžel, as well as with Member of the European Parliament Tamara Vonta, who is the head of Slovenia’s parliamentary delegation in the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly.
He will also meet with representatives of the 11 cultural routes crossing Slovenia and Dr. Maja Turnšek from the Faculty of Tourism at the University of Maribor, a member of the European Cultural Routes Institute’s academic network. They will present their activities and efforts to increase the integration and cooperation between the routes and to exploit synergies between them, as well as to improve the visibility of the Council of Europe Cultural Routes programme in Slovenia. The formalisation of the cooperation of the Council of Europe Cultural Routes in individual countries and their visibility have been at the centre of discussions at international meetings for some time now on the future and development of this important European programme, which intertwines culture and tourism and imbues them with European values and lifestyles.
