55 cities join UNESCO Creative Cities Network

On World Cities Day, 55 cities join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), following their designation by UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. New cities were acknowledged for their strong commitment to harnessing culture and creativity as part of their development strategies, and displaying innovative practices in human-centred urban planning. With the latest additions, the Network now counts 350 cities in more than one hundred countries, representing seven creative fields: Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts and Music. Shutterstock31 October 2023The new members of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network are:

The new members of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network are:

Asaba – Film

Ashgabat – Design

Banja Luka – Music

Battambang – Gastronomy

Bissau – Music

Bolzano – Music

Bremen – Literature

Buffalo City – Literature

Bukhara – Crafts and Folk Art

Bydgoszcz – Music

Caen – Media Arts

Caracas – Music

Casablanca – Media Arts

Castelo Branco – Crafts and Folk Art

Cetinje – Design

Chaozhou – Gastronomy

Chiang Rai – Design

Chongqing – Design

Concepción – Music

Da Lat – Music

Fribourg – Gastronomy

Gangneung – Gastronomy

Granada[1] – Design

Gwalior – Music

Herakleion – Gastronomy

Hobart – Literature

Hoi An – Crafts and Folk Art

Iasi – Literature

Iloilo City – Gastronomy

Ipoh – Music

Kathmandu – Film

Kozhikode – Literature

Kutaisi – Literature

Mexicali – Music

Montecristi – Crafts and Folk Art

Montreux – Music

Nkongsamba – Gastronomy

Novi Sad – Media Arts

Okayama – Literature

Ouarzazate – Film

Oulu – Media Arts

Penedo – Film

Rio de Janeiro – Literature

Şanlıurfa – Music

Suphanburi – Music

Surakarta – Crafts and Folk Art

Taif – Literature

Toulouse – Music

Tukums – Literature

Ulaanbaatar – Crafts and Folk Art

Umngeni Howick – Crafts and Folk Art

Valencia – Design

Varaždin – Music

Veliky Novgorod – Music

Vicente Lopez – Film

The city of Lyon, Creative City of Media Arts since 2008, has been granted a status of a Creative City of Literature, following its request to change creative field.

Newly designated cities will cooperate with Network members to strengthen their resilience the face of evolving threats such as climate change, rising inequality, as well as rapid urbanization, with 68% of the world's population projected to live in urban areas by 2050[2].

"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," says Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General.

An upcoming policy paper – "The added value of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network at local, national and international level" – will testify to the leading role played by cities towards the achievement of the 2030 Agenda, while demonstrating ways in which UNESCO supports the UCCN members by fostering dialogue, peer-to-peer learning and collaboration.

The newly designated Creative Cities are invited to participate in the 2024 UCCN Annual Conference (1 - 5 July 2024) in Braga, Portugal, under the theme "Bringing Youth to the table for the next decade"