The NGO "American Capital of Culture Organization" selects one American city 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 hemispheric-wide Organization of American States, but the OAS is not involved in the selection process.
American Capitals of Culture
However, Austin (2004) in the United States, and Saskatchewan (2005) and Toronto (2002) in Canada were also 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".
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