Creative Cities Network

The Creative Cities Network is a project under the patronage of UNESCO. With the aim of celebrating and maintaining cultural diversity, the alliance formed by member cities share their experiences in promoting the local heritage, as well as discuss plans on how to cope with the influx of globalization. The Creative Cities Network aims to find and enrich a member city’s cultural identity in the midst of a growing trend towards internationalism.

The project focuses on the main product of excellence of these cities, and finds ways to maintain its relevance in city life, local economy and social development. The fields of excellence is classified among: Literature, Cinema, Music, Folk Art, Design, Media Arts, and Gastronomy.

Despite the general knowledge that change (towards modernity) is generated from the city, what the Network aims to do is to take advantage of adapting and harnessing the proliferation of technology and social development in order to further a city’s product of excellence. In doing so, the cities, in as much as being the catalyst in sailing to the future, also becomes the center for the protection of a past industry and its eventual protection.

RELEVANT REFERENCES

Allen J. Scott, “Creative Cities: Conceptual Issues and Policy Questions,” Journal of Urban Affairs, 28, 2006, 1 – 17.

Members

To be a member, interested cities must apply to the network, and meet the criteria set by UNESCO.

Current members of the Creative Cities Network are:

Literature

• Edinburgh, Scotland

Cinema

Music

• Bologna, Italy
• Seville, Spain
• Glasgow, Scotland

Folk Art

• Aswan, Egypt
• Santa Fe, U.S.A.

Design

• Berlin, Germany
• Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Montreal, Canada

Media Arts

• Lyon, France

Gastronomy

• Popayán, Colombia

External links

• Official website

Creative Cities Documentary