"American Capital of Culture" label -- what is it?

Question

"American Capital of Culture" label -- what is it?

A group, perhaps self-appointed in Spain, regularly hands out some sort of a designation called "American Capital of Culture".
It also asks for plenty of money from the designatee.

Is this "American Capital of Culture" designation legitimate? Is it just a ruse to get money from cities and states?

Answer 1

just a way to get a fast buck.

Answer 2

The NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) "American Capital of Culture Organization" selects one city in the Americas annually to serve as the American Capital of Culture for a period of one year. The organization claims the initiative is based closely on the European Capital of Culture programme; it enjoys the backing of the hemisphere-wide Organization of American States, but the OAS is not involved in the selection process.

(There is now an independent Organization of the American Capital of Culture, headquartered in Barcelona, Spain.)

* 2006: Cordoba, Argentina
* 2005: Guadalajara, Mexico
* 2004: Santiago, Chile
* 2003: Panama City, Panama, and Curitiba, Brazil
* 2002: Maceió, Brazil
* 2001: Iquique, Chile
* 2000: Mérida, Mexico

Austin (2004) in the United States, and Regina, Saskatchewan (2005) and Toronto (2002) in Canada were offered the honour, only to decline it when they discovered the financial and personnel commitments the award implied: commentators in Regina, on learning that their provincial government had been asked for USD $500,000 in fees, went as far as to refer to the programme as a "scam". (Wikipedia's words, not mine)

Source: Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Capital_of_Culture

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The organization does seem to have a web site, but it was "under construction" when I went to it.

The web address is:
http://www.cac-acc.org/

Answer 3

it's a ruse