The world congress “Culture: key for sustainable development” is organised by the UNESCO and the PR of China (May 14-17, in Hangzhou). This is the first International Congress specifically focusing on the linkages between culture and sustainable development. As such, the Congress will be the first global forum to discuss the role of culture in sustainable development in view of the post-2015 framework. We celebrate that UNESCO organizes this international congress. We would like to explicitly recognize the leadership of UNESCO in this crucial issue. We have prepared our document with four key messages to assist members of UCLG and partners to contribute to Hangzhou.
“Creation, at the core of sustainable development of municipalities” is the title of the annual congress of Les Arts et la Ville network, which takes place on May 22-24, in Gatineau. Our Co-Presidency Montréal sits in the Executive Bureau of this network and our President Catherine Cullen (Lille-Métropole) will give the keynote speech.
May 22-25, in Nantes, the “World Forum on Human Rights” will take place with the title “Sustainable Development - Human Rights: a common struggle?” and some events are devoted to the relation between culture and human rights. The City Council of Angers (Vice-President of our Committee) will represent us in Nantes, explaining the results of its “Agenda 21 des cultures”.
The conference “Culture in international cooperation” is organised by Cités Unies France and the Mairie de Toulouse. Mr. Patrick Arnoux, Deputy Mayor of the City Council of Aubagne, represents our Committee in this meeting.
We have just uploaded our report “Culture and Rio+20. Advocating for Culture as a Pillar of Sustainability”. This document is a summary of the strategy with which we were aiming to influence the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) which took place in Rio de Janeiro on 20-22 June 2012. The report confirms there is still a gap between the paradigm of development and culture, and asks for a better coordination of those actors that fight for culture as a pillar or dimension of sustainability. Report-6
The Committee on Culture of UCLG meets in Dakar on 5 December 2012, from 12.00 to 13.15 in the Signara 1 room of the Hotel des Almadies. The main topics to be discussed in the meeting can be found in our Circular 63.
The Campus for EuroAmerican Cultural Cooperation takes place in Cuenca (Ecuador), on 28-30 November 2012. The Committee on culture of UCLG is represented with José Luis Perea (Mexico). Our document “Advocating for Culture as a Pillar of Sustainability in the process of Rio+20” is already available. Read more >>
The Summit of Mercociudades, which includes an Iberoamerican Forum on Culture and the meeting of the Thematic Culture Unit of Mercociudades takes place in Quilmes (Argentina) on 27-30 November 2012. These events will count on the participation of Hernán Lombardi and María Victoria Alcaraz (Buenos Aires). Read more >>
The Rendez-vous 2012 - Montréal Cultural Metropolis takes place on 26 November 2012 at TOHU and hundreds of participants from cultural and business communities will exchange views on Montréal's cultural development and recognition, both locally and internationally. Read more >>
International Symposium on Culture and sustainable development. The Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (France) and the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications (Québec) organise this international symposium in la Villette, Paris, on 22-23 November 2012. The main aim of the symposium is to share ideas from around the world and identify possible actions to promote a better integration of culture into sustainable development initiatives. Lille and Montréal will represent the Committee on culture of UCLG. Read more >>
Culture and its invisible spaces. This is the series of conferences that the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) organizes on 19-23 November 2012 in the framework of the adoption of Agenda 21 for culture by this local government. Read more >>
Culture Action Europe organises its Public Conference on 9-11 November 2012, in Brussels. It is a two-day conference debating “the future challenges for European societies and the potential contribution of culture to new and sustainable social models”. We have been invited to share the experience of Agenda 21 for culture, and our reasons to struggle for the role of culture as an explicit pillar of sustainable development. Read more >>
New governance of the Committee. We are pleased to announce the results of the meeting on 20th September 2012 in Barcelona. The Committee agreed on the new Board of the Committee: Lille-Métropole was elected as President; the cities of Buenos Aires, Mexico DF and Montreal were elected as Co-Presidents, and the cities of Angers, Barcelona and Milano were elected as Vice-Presidents. All Board cities will assume responsibilities, with specific portfolios. The Committee formally asked UCLG World Secretariat to host the coordination of the Committee. The new President, Ms Catherine Cullen, thanked all participants for entrusting Lille- Métropole as President of the Committee and pledged to exercise this responsibility in a very active and collegial way; she urged all members to work together in the oncoming months on an agenda based on the relation between cultural policies and sustainable development. Read more >>
Montreal organizes a lunch-discussion on culture and sustainable development on 12 November 2012. Marie-Ève Bonneau, cultural development expert in the City of Montreal, will explain how culture is linked to sustainable development within the municipal policies; Charles Vallerand, executive director of the International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity will present the international context and Valérie Guilmain, head of projects at the Ministry for culture and Communication of Quebec, will present the process of implementation of the Agenda 21 for culture of Quebec. Read more >>
The Ministry for culture of Brazil and United Cities and Local Governments – UCLG are organizing a seminar on “Culture and sustainability in Rio+20”. The seminar will take place on 19 June 2012, in Rio de Janeiro. More information is available here: eng fra spa
UNESCO provides its input on all the Rio+20 key themes and provides a wealth of concrete examples for each theme. Read more >>
The zero-draft of the outcome document of Rio+20 Conference has been released. Culture is in paragraph 16. But we want more. See the amendments of UCLG and use our model letter to lobby national governments and other stakeholders. Act now !
Conference Report released: Culture: A New Way of Thinking for Local Government, Melbourne, October 2011. A great endeavor co-ordinated by Cultural Development Network and UCLG-ASPAC, and partners. Read more >>
The seventh meeting of the Committee on Culture of UCLG will be organised in Florence (Tuscany, Italy) on 9 December 2011. Read more >>
Rio+20: We have drafted the document “Lobbying for Culture as the 4th Pillar of Sustainable Development in the Process of the Rio+20 Summit”, offering ideas to be considered by cultural activists, networks and stakeholders preparing a submission to the Secretariat of the Rio+20 Conference in order to influence the initial documents for the negotiations.. Read more >>
The Cultural Development Network of Victoria (Australia) and UCLG-ASPAC organise the international one-day conference “How does the inclusion of culture with social, environmental and economic policies strengthen local governance?” on Tuesday 4 October at Melbourne Town Hall. Read more >>
The World Summit on Arts and Culture is organized by IFACCA in Melbourne (3-6 October 2011) and we will be there. Read more >>
Eduard Miralles is a keynote speaker in the World Summit on Arts and Culture organised by IFACCA (Melbourne, October 2011). Read more >>
There are several pages on Agenda 21 for culture in Wikipedia. Have a look and upload your content. Read more >>
The sixth meeting of the Committee on Culture of UCLG will be organised in Rabat (Morocco) on 22 June 2011. Read more >>
UCLG is preparing its strategy for the Rio+20 Summit. Making Culture as fourth pillar of sustainable development is one of the key messages put forward by UCLG. Read more >>
UCLG is currently developing an exercise aiming to redefine the priorities of the organization. A survey is available here.
Results of the Call 2010 of our Fund for Local Cultural Governance. Read more >>
We support the Europe-wide arts advocacy campaign we are more Read more >> 
The Policy Statement of UCLG on “Culture: the Fourth Pillar of Sustainable Development” was adopted by the Executive Bureau on 17 November 2010. It represents a very important milestone in the conception of sustainable development and in the elaboration of local cultural policies. Read more >>
The report of the fifth meeting of the Committee on culture, held in the City of Mexico (17 November 2010) is on-line. Read more >>
