UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network

About UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network

• The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) was created in 2004.
• To promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development.
• Almost 300 cities around the world currently make up this network.
• Objective: Placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level.
• UNESCO designates the creative cities in seven fields — Craft, Folk Art, Media Arts, Film Design, Gastronomy, Literature and Music.
• Every year, UNESCO seeks applications for various cities across the globe for putting them under its UCCN project.
• The applications in India are routed through the Ministry of Culture.
• Kozhikode is a permanent venue for the annual Kerala Literature Festival and hosts several other book festivals.
• Gwalior has a rich and diverse musical heritage encompassing classical Hindustani music, folk music, and devotional music. The city also has some prestigious music institutes and hosts popular festivals.
• Other Indian cities which are added to this network
  • Srinagar and Jaipur: In the field of Crafts and Folk Arts.
  • Mumbai :Film category
  • Chennai and Varanasi : Music category
  • Hyderabad: Gastronomy category.

Q1) What is UNESCO?

It stands for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. It is a specialized agency of the United Nations that was established on November 16, 1945. UNESCO's primary mission is to promote international collaboration in the fields of education, science, culture, and communication.

Source: Kozhikode, Gwalior added to UNESCO creative cities list