On 27 September, in the context of the Mondiacul 2022 Global Conference on Cultural Policies organised by UNESCO in Mexico City from 28 to 30 September 2022, the #Culture2030Goal campaign presented a zero-draft for a proposal of an explicit Goal dedicated on Culture in the future agendas and framework for sustainable development.
This draft is based on a large consultation and a survey launched in last June 2022.
The press-release of the launch event is available here.
Read the zero-draft here.
On next 16-19 November 2022, the City of Barcelona will organise the Culturopolis Conference.
CULTUROPOLIS is a meeting space for reflecting on and discussing cultural rights, for thinking about how they are defined and for imagining and finding mechanisms that promote and guarantee that they are respected. All of the activities that form part of the sessions are linked to at least one of the following lines of work:
Digital environments
The full programme is available here.
The sessions are open to everyone. Participation is free, although prior booking is required. Registration gives access to all the scheduled activities.
For more information, please consult the dedicated website of the event.
On last 27 September 2022, from 18.00-20.00 (GMT-5), the UCLG Committee on Culture together with Mexico City organised the Award Ceremony of the 5th edition of the International Award UCLG - Mexico City - Culture 21 at the Teatro de la Ciudad "Esperanza Iris", in Mexico City.
On the occasion, winning cities (Buenos Aires and Dublin) as well as some of the special mentions of the 5th edition took part in the Ceremony. Individual winners (Dr. Lourdes Arizpe and Dr. Daisy Fancourt) also intervened.
The Ceremony was followed by a debate entitled "Dialogue on Cultural Rights in Cities", which included the participation of several active cities of the Committee, including Barcelona, Bilbao, Bogotá, and Buenos Aires.
You can find the concept note and agenda of the session here.
The video recording of the Ceremony will be available soon.
The Committee on Culture of UCLG had an active role in Mondiacult 2022, the UNESCO Global Conference on Cultural Policies organised in Mexico City from 28 to 30 Septembre 2022, forty years after the first conference of this kind.
In particular, we successfully coorganised in the following side-events:
The two sessions offered interpretation in English and Spanish and were live-streamed on this website. The recordings of the events will be available soon.
Additionnally, during Mondiacult 2022, the UCLG Committee on Culture also organised the Award Ceremony of the 5th edition of the International Award UCLG - Mexico City - Culture 21, in close collaboration with the City of Mexico; and the side-event 'A Culture Goal is essential for Our Common Future', in close collaboration with the #Culture2030Goal campaign.
Gathered in the Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights (UCLG-CISDPDH) of United Cities and Local Governments, the cities of Barcelona, Grigny, Gwangju, Mexico City, Utrecht and Vienna launched an international call to invite pioneer cities and territories across the world to commit to human rights through the Global Campaign "10, 100, 1000 Human Rights Cities and Territories by 2030".
This campaign recognises that cultural rights are an essential dimension of human rights and aims at bringing together local and regional governments wishing to advance on this issue. The promotion of the right to fully and freely participate in cultural life is interconnected with building sustainable and more democratic societies and a driver for transformation and empowerment against inequalities, discrimination, or climate change.
The campaign will build an active community of cities and territories promoting human rights to guide their action and ensure dignity for all.
Should your city or local or regional government wish to join the campaign, we invite you to fill this form and to send it to the secretariat of the UCLG- CSIPDHR, (cisdp1@uclg.org) before September 15, 2022.
More information on the campaign on this page.
The City of Belo Horizonte, winner of the 1st edition of the International Award UCLG - Mexico City - Culture 21 in 2014 with the programme "Arena da Cultura" recently released the book "Arena da Cultura".
The book presents the 'Escola Livre de Artes Arena da Cultura', including its history, guidelines, and its 10 artistic areas of action: Visual Arts, Audiovisual, Behind the Scenes of the Arts, Circus, Dance, Popular Design, Cultural Management and Production, Music, Cultural Heritage and Theatre.
The 111-page publication is divided into three chapters and also addresses the School's cultural decentralization program, and the importance of the initiative in training, democratizing access and promoting Cultural Rights.
All information here.
The British Council in Mexico commissioned a regional Atlas Report of Cultural Policies for Sustainable Development with the focus to benchmark a set of cultural policies in Latin America and the Caribbean. This forum will see LATAC (Latin America and the Caribbean) experts and policymakers reflect on cultural trends, insights, and analysis on the latest policies and initiatives in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Jamaica, México Perú, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela. The report will be launched during the Road to #MONDIACULT2022.
Join the online Launch of the Atlas Report of Cultural Policies for Sustainable Development on next 31 August 2022 (09:00-10:00 CDT / 4.00-5.00PM CEST). Event in Spanish and English.
More information and registrations here.
The Committee on Culture of UCLG is an outreach partner in a new European project on culture and creative industries in non-urban areas of the EU.
The project “IN SITU - Place-based innovation of cultural and creative industries in non-urban areas” was launched on July 1, 2022, with a 48-month duration. Coordinated by the Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, the €4 million project is funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme.
Despite the increased visibility and importance of cultural and creative industries (CCIs) based in non-urban areas of the European Union in the last decade, there is a noticeable lack of research and policy attention to their specific needs, characteristics, and potential. IN SITU brings together leading research approaches to economic evolution and diversification, processes of innovation, non-urban place-based planning, and entrepreneurship in CCIs. The project aims to contribute to increasing the capacity of CCIs to act as drivers of innovation, competitiveness, and sustainability in their local context.
IN SITU seeks to provide in-depth knowledge on the effects of cross-sectoral connections, innovative strategies and systems, and the needs of CCIs' practitioners in non-urban areas, complementing this with proposals for cultural and innovation policies and frameworks. IN SITU includes also capacity-building programme to enable CCIs to address some of the key issues in their communities/regions.
The core defining aspect of IN SITU is the interlinking of research and practice through place-based IN SITU Labs - hubs for networking, capacity building, and monitoring case studies in six non-urban regions across Europe, located in Portugal, Ireland, Iceland, Finland, Latvia, and Croatia.
The project Consortium brings together 13 institutional partners in 12 countries: the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra (coordinator); National University of Ireland Galway (Ireland); European Network of Cultural Centres (Belgium); Utrecht University (Netherlands); National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment(France); MONDRAGON Innovation & Knowledge(Spain); Kultura Nova Foundation(Croatia); University of the Azores (Portugal); University of Turku (Finland); Latvian Academy of Culture (Latvia); Bifröst University (Iceland); National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts “Kr. Sarafov” (Bulgaria); and University of Hildesheim (Germany).
The IN SITU project is also accompanied by an array of Outreach Partners within Europe and internationally: Culture Action Europe, DigitalMeetsCulture.eu, EMES - Research Network for Social Enterprise, Creative Scotland, United Cities and Local Governments - Committee on Culture, Cultural Development Network (Australia), Creative City Network of Canada, SPARC: Supporting Performing Arts in Rural and Remote Communities (Canada), and Sustaining Theatre and Dance (STAND) Foundation (South Africa). In addition, the project has an International Advisory Board of seven leading international experts working on CCIs and culture-based work in non-urban areas.
For further information, please contact Nancy Duxbury (IN SITU Principal Investigator, Centre of Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal): duxbury@ces.uc.pt, or the UCLG Committee on Culture: culture@uclg.org.
From Local Practice to Global Principles: Recording of HLPF Side-Event Available
You can now watch again the side-event organised by the Culture 2030 Goal campaign at the 2022 United NationsHigh Level Political Forum (HLPF), highlighting how cultural actors, institutions and considerations are being integrated into local development strategies, and the lessons this offers for efforts to deliver sustainable development by 2030 and beyond.
In publishing its report on the place of culture in Voluntary Local Reviews in September 2021, the Culture 2030 Goal campaign shone a light on the good practice in many local and regional governments concerning the integration of culture into comprehensive development strategies.
While there is of course room for improvement, there is also a huge amount of experience at the local level that can inform actions at the national and global levels, and so allow for greater policy effectiveness and inclusiveness, as well of course as promoting cultural rights, the cultural sector and the people who work there.
This was the focus of the side-event organised by the Culture 2030 Goal campaign at the 2022 UN HLPF, the key event in the annual sustainable development calendar bringing together UN agencies, governments at all levels, NGOs and experts.
Ege Yildirim, independent cultural heritage consultant, presented the Culture 2030 Goal report on Voluntary Local Reviews, underlining the clear evidence that local and regional governments are more advanced than national counterparts in their work with culture. She also pointed to the diversity of ways in which culture features in reviews of SDG implementation, from being a source of pride and identity to an enabler of policy success across the board.
Enrique Avogadro, Minister of Culture of Buenos Aires, highlighted three strong examples of initiatives that underlined how cultural policy, when applied smartly, can make a difference to development. Through building up relationships and respecting the independence of both creators and audiences alike, Buenos Aires had been able to encourage a flourishing cultural ecosystem that made the city as a whole stronger.
Stefan Volkmann, consultant at KPMG, drew on his experience of working with Medellin, Colombia and Hume, Australia, both places which struggled with inequality, poverty and insecurity. In both cases, libraries had formed an important part of regeneration efforts, providing communities not only with a new focal point, but also a space for activity and interaction. These projects had been successful, but had required visionary leadership and a commitment over time to succeed.
Loida Garcia Febo, international library consultant, drew on experiences from New York and Los Angeles in the United States, where libraries, as part of the wider cultural infrastructure of cities, had been inventive and proactive in identifying development needs and actions that could respond to them. In particular, they had looked to make the most of their position at the local level, and accessibility to all members of communities.
Ayanda Lebele, Director of Library Services at Botswana International University of Science and Technology highlighted how libraries in the country drew in parallel on centralised support from the national library service, aligned with national development goals, and a responsiveness to needs and strategies at the local level. She also highlighted the particular role of libraries in safeguarding and promoting local and indigenous cultures.
In terms of overall recommendations from the session, participants reiterated the importance of the meaningful inclusion of cultural actors not just in the implementation but also the planning of policies, of visionary leadership and of a readiness to plan for the long term.
There was also agreement on the need to set out clearly what is already being achieved, thanks to the integration of culture, across the 2030 Agenda. Crucially, it was important to make these benefits clear not only to people within the cultural field, but also outside. To this end, ensuring that culture is explicitly seen as a goal in future development agendas will be key.
View the session again on YouTube here.
The European Commission and Europa Nostra have named the HOMEE Project (Heritage Opportunities/threat within Mega-Events in Europe) as one of the 2022 winners of the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards in the Research category.
The European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards are an important heritage recognition in Europe, and they have been a key tool to promote the multiple values of cultural and natural heritage for Europe's society, economy and environment for the last 20 years.
"HOMEE has established an important quality framework to help strike the balance when organising mega-events in heritage cities. The project promotes dialogue and innovation in the sphere of European cultural heritage in relation to urban planning, involving academia, cultural actors, local leaders, private enterprises and communities for the resolution of emerging challenges in rapidly changing contexts, with a view on the post-pandemic era."
More information here.
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