Celebrating Culture in Leeds's Twin City Brno

Image caption: At Spilberk Castle with the flags of Brno and Leeds! From left to right: David Hopes, Zbyněk Solc, Beata Zapletalová (Foreign Relations, Brno Municipality), Fran Coard (Creative Health, University of Leeds)

Last month, our Czech twin city Brno hosted the prestigious Eurocities Culture Forum, where 147 participants from 61 cities and 21 European countries came together to reflect on how culture reshapes cities physically, socially and imaginatively, by turning places into hubs of community, creativity and resilience.

Brno kindly supported two Leeds delegates to attend, David Hopes, Head of Leeds Museums and Galleries, and Fran Coard, Creative Development Manager for Leeds Arts Health and Wellbeing Network (LAHWN).

In this guest blog, they share their experiences from the event.

David says: "The forum is a great opportunity to meet colleagues from across the continent to discuss latest practice, to share ideas, and to raise the profile of the work that’s happening in over 200 member cities.

"One initiative that’s current in Leeds is the formation of a heritage framework for the city. This is a vision, narrative and set of priorities which sets out what makes the cultural heritage of our city special and how this might be protected, enhanced and utilised at a time of great change for Leeds.

"With this in mind, I visited Špilberk Castle and Villa Tugendhat, learning more about the city’s amazing cultural heritage and how it is recognised and run from the director of Brnӧ’s civic museums, Zbyněk Solc.

"The civic museums service also manage Villa Arnoldova which, as well as celebrating its historic and architectural importance, is a centre for dialogue especially among Czech, German, and Jewish people in the city. Villa Arnoldova is an excellent example of heritage conservation with a social purpose. It represents a bringing together of tangible and intangible heritage while putting the former at the service of the city.

"I also led a ‘speed networking’ workshop on the heritage framework. During this session, delegates from Düsseldorf, Leeuwarden, Oeiras, and Ghent asked questions about which forms of culture were within scope of the framework, shared insights on what kinds of heritage are of value to different people within their cities, and described how this is expressed in a coherent and compelling way. For example, the city of Oeiras near Lisbon had a golden era in the 17^th and 18^th centuries and this has helped weave their ‘golden thread’ to the future as a city that positions itself as a centre of innovation.

"These ideas will feed into Leeds’s own framework which will be published, following an opportunity for the public to have their view, in summary 2026."

Read more about the Leeds heritage framework here.

Fran learned about about how Brno is making itself an age-friendly and inclusive city in its approach to culture: "It was my first time in Brno, and I found it to be a beautiful city. The centre was a joy to explore, with public art around every corner, historic buildings (many of which served as venues for the forum), a vibrant atmosphere, and excellent cafés and restaurants.

"The forum offered valuable insights into key initiatives in the city that are of interest to Leeds. Brno is also an age-friendly city. In public spaces such as the library, I noticed Family Points — welcoming areas for families to rest and feed their children, stocked with books and toys. There are 20 of these spaces across the city. Some are unstaffed, while others have dedicated workers who offer support and signposting. This felt like a genuinely family-friendly initiative and appeared to be well used.

"On the first day of the forum, I attended a talk about the Brnox Project by visual artist Kateřina Šedá. She mapped the assets of a diverse suburb with residents, co-producing a website and physical map of services (map.brnox.cz). Public art and murals were installed throughout the area, helping to create new identities and visibility. This was particularly interesting in thinking about how artist-led projects could support key initiatives in Leeds, such as Neighbourhood Health or mapping our creative health offers.

"I also attended the session on Cultural Services for Inclusive Cities, where we heard in depth from Brno about their age-friendly projects. These included an applied theatre initiative for older adults that challenges ageism and stereotypes, genealogy walks for seniors to explore their heritage, and a VR version for those with limited mobility — which has proved incredibly popular. The city library also shared how they support digital inclusion for older adults through regular sessions. There were many parallels with work happening in Leeds under our Age Friendly Leeds Strategy.

"Finally, we visited several museum sites, including Villa Tugendhat — a stunning modernist house designed by Mies van der Rohe, with a fascinating history and now a key site for the city’s museum service.

"We also experienced a thought-provoking and sensitively curated audiovisual installation in the chapel of Špilberk Castle, representing different periods of occupation. The exhibit was accompanied by a display of work by anti-fascist artist John Heartfield, which feels as relevant today as ever — a powerful reminder of the role art plays in helping us reflect on the present and connect with the past.

"Brno was the birthplace of author Milan Kundera. In his book the The Unbearable Lightness of Being he talks a lot about compassion, another reflective takeaway for Leeds as a Compassionate City  

"‘To have compassion (co-feeling) means not only to be able to live with the other’s misfortune but also to feel with him any emotion- joy, anxiety, happiness, pain. This kind of compassion…therefore signifies the maximal capacity of affective imagination, the art of emotional telepathy. In the hierarchy of sentiments, then, it is supreme.’"

Eurocities is the largest network of European cities. It counts over 200 large cities among its membership, representing more than 150 million people across 38 countries, from within and outside the European Union, to exchange, learn, and collaborate on shared challenges.