for children (and adults) at the home theatre as well as all over Slovenia and abroad. In	383
the 2010/2011 season, they played 20 different productions (266 performances). The Puppet Theatre Maribor also organises Summer Puppet Pier (Poletni lutkovni pristan), an international puppet festival whose slogan is "filled with playfulness and sensitivity".
The Narodni dom Maribor cultural centre is a public institution founded in September 1992 by the Municipality of Maribor. It first started working in the historic building of the Rotovz (City Hall), but later moved to the premises of the Narodni dom (built in 1899). It offers a varied cultural programme for all ages and tastes: classical concerts, contemporary music events, theatre programme for children, youth and adults, and in particular, "light" forms of entertainment (stand-up comedy, etc.). The Narodni dom also organises the Lent Festival. The international multi-cultural festival takes place at the beginning of summer and offers a varied selection of events: jazz, rock, pop, classical and world music concerts, evenings with singers-songwriters, spoken theatre, puppet and dance performances, creative workshops for children, etc.
TARTU
Hedi-Liis Toome
History and general information
Situated in the southern part of the Estonia, Tartu, with approximately 100,000 inhabitants, is the second biggest city in a country of 1.29 million inhabitants. With the biggest and oldest university in Estonia, the University of Tartu (about 20,000 students), as well as with several other higher education institutions, Tartu is the centre of educational life of Estonia. It is also the cultural centre of the southern part of the country and most important in offering services and commercial facilities in the region. The slogan of Tartu is "the city of good thoughts" which points to the university and the large amount of young people who bring new and fresh ideas and to a city that offers a peaceful and youthful living environment.
Tartu is 187 km away from the capital city Tallinn (population 450,000) and 245 km from Riga, the capital of Latvia. There has always been some joking between the two biggest Estonian cities. The people living in Tallinn find Tartu small and boring, the people living in Tartu find the capital too busy and stressful.
Tartu was first mentioned in 1030 after Jaroslav the Wise conquered it; already in 1061 the locals, that is, The people living in this area conquered Tartu back. From the 13th century until 1918, the city was occupied by the German Order, Kings of Poland, Kings of Sweden and Russian tsars. During the so-called "good old Swedish time" of the 17th century, the University of Tartu was founded in 1632 by the Swedish King Gustav
Tartu's Old Town. Photo: Jaak Nilson, used with permission.
384	II Adolf. The university has been one the landmarks of Tartu ever since. During the
Swedish-Russian war the university was moved away from Tartu and was also closed down for some time, but it was reopened as a German-speaking university in 1802. Tartu became an important science centre of the Russian Empire - the new observatory was built as well as the medical clinic, library and botanical garden. Tartu was dubbed the Athens of Emajogi (after the river going through Tartu); in the 19th century, Tartu was the centre of intellectual life in Estonia.
In 1918 the Republic of Estonia was announced. It lasted until 1940, when Estonia was occupied by Russia. During the Soviet Occupation, Tartu was a closed city because of the aerodrome for Russian bombers at the outskirts of the city, which also inhibited the development of the city.
Cultural infrastructure
The main cultural organisations located in Tartu are the Estonian National Museum (Eesti raahva muuseum), the Vanemuine Concert Hall (the biggest in the southern part of the country), the AHHAA Science Centre and the Vanemuine Theatre. There are also other museums, several theatre venues, nightclubs and discos, more alternative clubs for small live music concerts and cinemas for both mainstream movies and arthouse films.
Almost all the cultural venues (also many of the university buildings as well as working	385
offices) and most of other entertainment facilities (bars, pubs, restaurants) are located in the centre or around it, so the streets are always lively, full of small cafés and bars for eating during the day and for having a drink in the evening, creating a lively and youthful atmosphere in the city.
Being the centre of the southern part of the country, Tartu offers all types of cultural activities. In the years 2009-2010 the people living in the Tartu county were the most active in going to the theatre, opera and ballet in the entire country.
The table below shows the participation in cultural activities in Tartu. Cinema has become the most visited art form because of its reasonable ticket price (average EUR 4.10) and the variety of the film genres (from Hollywood to European art house). There is also a high number of visits to the museums, also due to the fact that the Estonian National Museum is located in Tartu and visited by people from all over Estonia as well as tourists. There is hardly any data on the events in the popular art field (pop music concerts, etc.).
The cultural supply and demand of Tartu in 2011
Artistic activities	Number of providers	Visits
Theatre visits [professional and amateur)	8 organisations (10 venues)	159,113**
Classical music concerts	1 organisation* (4 venues)	60,2
Museums	18	170,627
Galleries	4	46,756
Libraries	4	2,454,850 books borrowed
Cinemas	4 organisations (9 halls)	497,665
Notes. *There is no data on popular music concerts or other organisations that produce classical music concerts. **Only visits to professional theatre are included.
The high attendance of cultural events could be the seen as a result of Tartu as a relatively youthful city with lot of students and highly educated people.
Theatre infrastructure
Tartu is the cradle of Estonian theatre, both amateur and professional. The première of Saaremaa onupoeg [Cousin from Saaremaa], the first play performed in Estonian by amateurs in 1870 is considered the birth of Estonian national theatre. Beforehand,
386	theatre had mostly been performed in German. Likewise, the first professional theatre
in Estonia - Vanemuine - was founded in 1906. For this reason, Tartu and Vanemuine have always been important factors in the theatre life of Estonia. During the Soviet occupation, Vanemuine was the only theatre in the Soviet Union to keep performing three types of theatre (spoken, musical, dance) and is still the only three-type theatre in Estonia. At the end of 1960s, theatre innovation took place in Vanemuine.
Tartu is a home for three professional theatres: 1) Vanemuine: as stated, the only theatre in Estonia that produces music, dance and spoken theatre and is the most subsidised theatre after the National Opera in Tallinn, the only national theatre in Estonia; 2) Tartu New Theatre (TNT), a small private project theatre with its own venue but without a permanent troupe; Emajoe Summer Theatre (ESM), a project theatre without a troupe or a venue which produces sporadically, mainly summer performances in open air. There are also two amateur theatres, which do not have their own venue. They are mainly supported by the municipality and apply for project-based funds to produce performances.
The city also supports the annual national theatre festival DRAAMA because this is considered as one of the image building events of Tartu. Whereas the state supports the theatres in general, the municipality only subsidises local theatrical events that have direct economic value for the city.
The theatres in Tartu mainly use guest directors - even Vanemuine, which has permanent troupes for three theatre types but only two official directors (both for spoken theatre). The relationship between the theatres is co-operational, which is also possible because Vanemuine, having the leading position, does not see the others as competitors.
TYNESIDE
Natalie Querol
Tyneside sits within the county of Tyne & Wear in the north-east of England. It comprises four local authority areas bordering the River Tyne: Newcastle upon Tyne and North Tyneside to the north, and Gateshead and South Tyneside to the south. With a total population of 829,300 (in the 2011 census), Tyneside accounts for 80% of the population of Tyne & Wear. Tyneside has been considered as a whole for this study because its four urban areas are continuous and form a single conurbation. Across the Tyne, Newcastle and Gateshead are connected by ten bridges, eight of which are nestled along a one-mile stretch of river. North Tyneside and South Tyneside are connected by a traffic tunnel, a pedestrian tunnel and a ferry.