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July 5, 2018
UNESCO Creative Cities Network Reaffirms Commitment to Cultural Cooperation for Sustainable Development
Photo: Sydney Opera House. The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts center in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the 20th century’s most famous and distinctive buildings. Sydney is a UNESCO Creative City of Film.
UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) Annual Meeting 2018 held in Krakow (Poland) from 12 to 15 June 2018 adopted a “Mayors’ Declaration” on how to advance the implementation of the United Nations Agenda 2030 in cities through culture. Over 350 participants, including 50 mayors and deputy mayors from across the globe, reaffirmed their cities’ commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
The UCCN currently has 180 member cities, from 72 different countries. They work together to place creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level and actively cooperate at the international level across seven creative fields: Crafts and Folk Arts, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts, and Music.
“In MedellÃn we understand that cultural and creative industries can generate decent work and economic growth that impacts the entire city, helping to reduce poverty and improving the quality of life. Through art, we can better communicate with the communities and make necessary changes,” declared Lina Botero Villa, Secretary of Culture of Medellin (Colombia).
Spurred on by this year’s theme “Creative Crossroads” the Creative Cities explored new cooperation prospects. Cities of Joao Pessoa (Brazil), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) and Porto-Novo (Benin) envisaged linking their crafts sectors to expand opportunities for their artisans at the international level. “Our role is to promote, guide and enable the emergence of creative forces. This meeting represents a unique opportunity for my city to broaden its international outreach and exchange with my peers,” said Nathanaël Ouedraogo, Deputy Mayor of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso).
Five thematic workshops and networking sessions allowed cities to advance the role of culture, mainly through creativity, as an enabler of sustainable development. Among the topics addressed were the need for reliable data collection, measurement, and monitoring processes for culture, the impact of digital technologies in shaping the city of tomorrow, urban regeneration, and youth.
The Annual Meeting provided an opportunity to showcase the UCCN LAB.2030 Initiative, which demonstrates diverse ways in which the Creative Cities embrace innovation and culture in their local policies.
The UNESCO Creative Cities Network is working towards strengthening cooperation on creativity and heritage as a foundation for making cities more inclusive, resilient and sustainable.
The city of Fabriano (Italy) will host the next Annual Meeting in 2019 with the focus on the theme of “The Ideal City.”
|GlobalGiants.Com|
Edited & Posted by the Editor | 2:42 PM | Link to this Post
