A UNIQUE art project has linked up Carlisle with the city of Thessaloniki in Greece.

The city was selected to represent the UK in a European cultural exchange at the weekend, named the ‘Freiraum’ project.

Funded by the Goethe Institut in Germany, the project links 32 cities across Europe.

Among the events, representatives from the city welcomed the Secretary General of Goethe Institut (the German equivalent of British Council), held a spoken word event involving Carlisle and Greek artists, and provided German journalists with a tour of the area.

During their visit, the reporters also met with Carlisle MP John Stevenson and attended an art exhibition at the Old Fire Station, on Peter Street.

On Saturday evening, an exhibition was opened by Mayor Jessica Riddle at the city’s Youth Zone, displaying collages and sculptures created by young people in Carlisle and Thessaloniki.

Sophia Hammond, eight, had her work on display in the exhibition and took pride in showing it to Johannes Ebert, secretary general of the Goethe Institute.

Jessica Cunningham, 11, of Thirlwell Avenue, Carlisle, found herself being interviewed by a German radio station during the exhibition opening.

“It was a bit overwhelming to have people interviewing me about my picture, but it was good to tell them how we had been exploring how we can connect to people with art,” she said.

Mark Gibbs, arts co-ordinator at the Youth Zone, said: “We had been exploring solitude which for young people today who connected to people online is a hard concept to understand and realise that it can be OK to be on your own and think about things.

“And we’ve all enjoyed building a bridge of friendship with young people in Thessaloniki some of whom were refugees.”

On Sunday afternoon, the Speakeasy, at the University of Cumbria’s Brampton Road campus, held a live link-up with Thessaloniki, featuring a mix of music and poems, including a discussion on various topics.

Johannes Ebert, secretary general of the Goethe Institut, created the Freiraum project to link Carlisle with over 40 other European cities.

He said: “Through this project we have people in Carlisle and all over Europe discussing issues such as tolerance and freedom - things that are under pressure with all the uncertainties across Europe - and bringing people together like this to co-operate is more important than ever.”