The European Cultural Foundation, Rijeka 2020 European Capital of Culture, Krytyka Polityczna and ZEMO98 invite you to apply for participation in Culture Lab Europe, which will take place from 16-18 April 2020 In Rijeka, Croatia. The call is looking for cultural activists and mediators who are engaged in initiatives that create spaces for solidarity and public debate, and who are keen on European collaboration.

All across Europe, citizens (including those who are not formally recognised as such) are realising they are not alone and are organising their communities. They are creating new online and offline spaces where working together and generating solidarity is what matters. In these spaces culture functions as a language to describe reality, to express feelings and opinions. Culture works to strengthen social ties and helps to imagine alternative ways of living and engaging with others in understanding, trust and peace. Connecting these spaces will provide a crucial infrastructure for a cultural movement that can reclaim European democracy.

Culture Lab Europe has been set up as a live platform to strengthen this movement. Cultural activists and mediators will establish connections with colleagues from across Europe and work on common initiatives that can strengthen European Pulic Space. Culture Lab Europe provides a safe and inspirational working environment based on principles of free and open culture.

You can find all information on the application procedure here: https://www.culturalfoundation.eu/culture-lab-europe

Deadline for application is 31st of january 2020, 12:00 CET.

Culture at Work Africa consortium has launched a contest to select a song that addresses the themes of intercultural dialogue and cultural diversity.

The Contest is open to songwriters/performers (minimum age 18 years) from the following countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

People interested must comply with the contest guidelines and can submit their songs along with the participation form.

Deadline for submission: February 3, 2020 at 12:00 (GMT)

Culture at Work Africa is co-funded by the European Union and is implemented by a consortium led by Interarts.

• Culture at Work Africa: Songwriting contest guidelines

The CIDOB (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs) has recently published a report entitled "Advancing urban rights. Equality and diversity in the city", coordinated by Eva Garcia-Chueca, investigadora senior y coordinadora científica del programa ciudades globales, CIDOB, y Lorenzo Vidal , investigador, y gestor de proyectos, CIDOB (Eds.), and including some contribution of Jordi Baltá Portolès, expert on culture and sustainable cities of the Committee on Culture of UCLG.

The monograph engages with issues, related to the Right to the City, urban and human right, the promotion of diversity, and guaranteeing equality for all as responsibilities of cities and local governments. It focuses, in particular, on identifying and analysing redistribution and recognition policies, especially at local level, institutional change and social production of the city in an increasingly urban world.

Download the report and/or get more information here.

The International Women Photographers Association (IWPA) is a non profit association in France acting on a global scale. Their main missions are the promotion of women photographers of all origins and nationalities, and working for Parity and Equality through photography in the World.

Every year, they organize the International Women Photographers Award.

The IWPA award was created to provide a global platform for international women photographers increasing the visibility of women’s work every year thanks to a traveling show in several international key cities.

The Award aims to encourage and support women photographers on the path of reaffirming their personal voice and their vision. It creates an unique opportunity to improve their prominence as they are still highly underrepresented in the world of photography and lack access to platforms and institutions willing to show their works.

Since 2016 the exhibition has travelled to Dubai, Riyadh, Tokyo, Singapore, New Delhi, Beirut, Saida, Zahleh, Amman, Paris, Toulouse, Marseille, Bangalore, Hyderabad, where 33 photographers from all over the world exhibited their works. In three years, IWPA has received more than 1700 applications from over 80 different countries.

IWPA is interested in collaborating with potential partners and exhibition halls.

For more info, please see this presentation.

Seongbuk's "Common Artist Roundtablte: Local Culture Governance" winning programme of the 3rd edition of the International Award UCLG - Mexico City - Culture 21 will the central theme of a Forum which will be organised in Seongbuk on next 12 -13 December 2019.

The Forum is entitled "Coexistence, sharing and symbiosis" and will mainly tackle the relation that exists between cultural cooperation and sustainable cities, as well as the social value of arts and culture. 

More information here. and on the Facebook page of the programme.

Sound Diplomacy and Legal and General recently launched a new report called "This Must Be the Place: the Role of Music and Cultural Infrastructure in Creating Better Future Cities for all of Us".

This is the first in-depth report on the role of music and culture across the future cities debate and a landmark report linking creativity with construction. With it, the authors aim to develop a new Future Cities model, one that builds music and culture in to the core of a place, rather than bolt it on after its design, development and implementation. Cities are cities of communities and creators. They must be cities of agency, cities of diversity and cities of experience. But they must also be viable. Bringing music and culture to the forefront of the development process and envisaging its impact on places in 5, 10 and 15 years will make places better. To do this, this report provides 10 key core values for any architect, planner, urbanist, developer, city council member or citizen as a guide.

Click here to see the full report (only available in English).

The cultural debates at the UCLG World Congress

On last 11-15 November 2019, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) held its World Congress in Durban, South Africa. The place of cultural policies in local development were discussed throughout various momentum.

On the occasion of the 6th UCLG World Congress, the Committee on Culture of UCLG has worked to guarantee that the cultural dimension of sustainable development is well represented in the global debates on development, and in particular in the largest gathering of Mayors and local leaders in the world, by organizing several sessions in relation with culture during the event and providing support to the organisation of several others.

On Tuesday 12th November 2019, a first session called “Culture Driven Public Policies” gathered a large number of participants in order to introduce the capacity-building and learning programmes of UCLG regarding culture and sustainability, such as the Leading City programme, the Pilot City programme, the Culture 21 Lab workshop and the brand-new Seven Keys initiative.

Ms Soham El Wardini, Mayor of Dakar, chaired this session, with speeches from the importance of cultural rights in local development, by Ms Mariana Flores representing Mexico City, the results of the Pilot Cities programme in the City of Izmir, by Mr Onur Eryüce, and the Global Youth Culture Forum of Jeju, by Ms Chae Jong Hyub. This session was also the occasion for Mr Jean-Pierre Elong Mbassi, Secretary General of the African section of UCLG, UCLG Africa, to introduce and present the new initiative of African Capitals of Culture And its founding programme in Marrakech 2020.

On the next day, a Special Session was held below the title “The Future of Culture”. The session provided the opportunity to discuss cultural rights, and to introduce key cultural policies of some of the UCLG member cities and/or local and regional governments which have been working in close collaboration with the Committee.

Representatives from key cities of the Committee, such as Ms. Catarina Vaz-Pinto, Councillor for Culture from Lisbon and Mr Luca Bergamo, Vice Mayor in charge of cultural development from Rome, respectively, Co-President and Vice-President of the Committee; or Mr Marc Villarubias, in charge of the Charter for Cultural Cooperation from Lyon, winner of the International Award UCLG – Mexico City – Culture 21, took the floor in order to explain how the Agenda 21 for Culture and the practical toolkit Culture 21 Actions had contributed to the elaboration and/or development of cultural policies in their cities. The Deputy Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs of South Africa, Mr Obed Bapela, took the floor to explain the cultural policies of the country that hosted the Congress.

During this session, global civil society networks and cultural organisations were also invited to take part to the conversation. Representatives from some of the key partners of the Committee took the floor to discuss the critical role of cultural rights in regards with development, such as the President of the International Federation of Library Association (IFLA), Ms Christine Mackenzie. Also, the session included a keynote speech by Ms Farida Shaheed, member of UCLG-UBUNTU, and former UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights, who unfortunately could not give her speech in person.

The UCLG Congress also organized sessions on Culture Mobilities, with the presence of its founder and director, Ms Valeria Marcolin and the cultural policies of Donostia – San Sebastián, by Mr Imanol Galdós.

The “Town Hall” track hosted a session on “the Right to the City”, in which several speakers developed how the “cultural component” should be shaped, the “Assembly track” discussed the place of heritage in local resilience and development policies, mainly in Asia – Pacific and Eurasia. Also, the Learning Forum invited UCLG Culture Committee representatives to explain its capacity-building and learning programmes and the session devoted to Voluntary Local Reviews discussed how the cultural dimension of local development deserves to be more explicit in the localization of the SDGs and the UN 2030 Agenda. The Congress also witnessed the importance granted to cultural programmes in peace-building, as the winners and the finalists of the UCLG Peace Award prove.

Two important documents were approved in the UCLG Congress: the Culture Manifesto and the Political Declaration of the Congress, which includes a very nice paragraph on cultural policies.

Finally, the UCLG World Congress marked an important momentum regarding international cultural development: the next city to host a UCLG Culture Summit in 2021 will be Izmir, and the 4th edition of the International Award UCLG – Mexico City – Culture 21 was launched, whose call will be open for cities, local and regional governments until 18 March 2020.

We thank you all those that work to promote culture and as a key component of our societies. This includes the teams in Durban, as well as all members and partners of the UCLG Culture Committee.

The Interarts Foundation, together with the UCLG Committee on Culture will organize the 2019 edition of the 'Eduard Miralles dialogues' in Barcelona on next 28 November 2019 at 5.30pm. This will be the opportunity to focus the debate on the role of cultural aspects in the UN 2030 Agenda.

More information: https://www.interarts.net/recursos-ca/cyberkaris/dialegs-eduard-miralles...

The UCLG Committee on Culture was set up in 2004 in order to improve knowledge and exchanges on culture and development. The work of the Committee is guided by conceptual documents such as the “Agenda 21 for culture”, “Culture is the Fourth Pillar of Sustainable Development” and the declaration “Culture and Peace”, which understand cultural policies to be based in human rights and to be co-created with the people and for the people. The approval of the toolkit “Culture 21 Actions” in 2015 and “Culture in the SDGs: A Guide for Local Action” in 2018 has given interesting advice on localisation and implementation of culture in local policies.

The theme has gained momentum in the global conversation on development. Culture is felt by UCLG members, cities and local governments and their associations and sections, to be at the core of local identity and freedoms of citizens, a strand of global fraternity, a vector for peace and human rights and a key asset in any strategy for local development. A UCLG Culture Strategy is in the making to better serve our members and to improve the impact of the UCLG work in the global conversation on sustainable development.

The UCLG World Congress in Durban is a perfect opportunity to make this conversation happen:

      -  The Special Session on Culture will discuss cultural rights, introduce cultural policies of UCLG cities
         and invite global civil society networks. The UCLG Mexico City Culture 21 Award will be introduced
         as a unique initiative.e.
        Wednesday 13 November 2019
        9.00am - 10.30am

       - The session “Culture Driven Public Policies” will introduce the capacity-building and learning
         programmes of UCLG (“Leading Cities”, “Pilot Cities”, “Culture 21 Lab” and “The Seven Keys”)
         and the new initiative of African Capital of Culture.
         Tuesday 12 November 2019
        9.00am - 10.30am

More information on the World Congress: https://www.durban2019.uclg.org/en
See the detailed programme: https://www.durban2019.uclg.org/sites/default/files/enPROGRAMME_det.pdf