The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released the latest update on UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) recently. The updates list has added 55 new cities including 2 Indian cities, Gwalior and Kozhikode for ‘Music’ and ‘Literature’ category respectively.
As per the official statement, the new cities have been awarded with the title for their commitment to preserve the heritage as it says, “their strong commitment to harnessing culture and creativity as part of their development strategies, and displaying innovative practices in human-centred urban planning.”
The updated list carries the recognition of 350 cities from around 100 countries, out of which 8 of them are Indian from different parts of the country that includes Srinagar for Crafts and Folk Arts category (2021), Mumbai for Film category (2019), Hyderabad for Gastronomy category (2019), Chennai for Creative city of Music category (2017), Jaipur for Crafts and Folk Arts (2015) and Varanasi for Creative city of Music category (2015).
According to a statement from Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, “the cities in our Creative Cities Network are leading the way when it comes to enhancing access to culture and galvanizing the power of creativity for urban resilience and development.”
Each year, UNESCO invites submissions for seven categories—Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts, and Music—from cities all over the world in order to include them in its UCCN project. In India, the Ministry of Culture is the intermediary for applications.
With the theme “Bringing Youth to the table for the next decade,” the UCCN Annual Conference will be held in Braga, Portugal from July 1–5, 2024, and the newly designated Creative Cities are invited to attend.