The European Commission and Europa Nostra have just announced the 2022 winners of the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards, funded by the EU Creative Europe programme. In its 20th anniversary, this award has recognised 30 heritage achievements from 18 European countries in five categories:

• Conservation and Adaptive Reuse
• Research
• Education, Training and Skills
• Citizen's Engagement and Awareness-raising
• Heritage Champions

The list of winners is available here.

The European Heritage Awards Ceremony, during which the winners will receive their Awards, will take place on 26 September in Prague, Czechia, during the European Cultural Heritage Summit. The Ceremony will be co-hosted by the European Commissioner for Culture and the Executive President of Europa Nostra.

The Call for Entries for the 2023 edition of the Award will be published in October. Stay tuned!

The Culture Summit has become a major event for UCLG. After the success of the Summits previously held (Bilbao in 2015, Jeju in 2017, Buenos Aires in 2019 and Izmir in 2021), and considering the growing importance of culture in the framework of sustainable cities, UCLG has decided to convene a 5th UCLG Culture Summit in 2023. 

The UCLG Culture Summit is a unique global event. It responds to the growing importance of culture in local development, a fact that is being evidenced in all continents at least since the beginning of the 21st century, and more than ever since the recent global crisis generated by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

We invite you to check the Terms of Reference of the 5th UCLG Culture Summit. Direct or indirect members of UCLG can apply by 2 September 2022 in writing to the UCLG World Secretariat: UCLGExBu@uclg.org, putting in copy: culture@uclg.org.

From bottom-up and multi-stakeholders urban acupuncture experiences based on culture and creativity worldwide, to new architectural techniques and participatory city making approaches, cultural connexions, creative skills, foster innovative, inclusive urban regeneration projects through people-centered and sustainable solutions. 

What are the conditions to be put into place to succeed and support those methods of intervention? What are the risks to avoid and how?

To know more, join the brainstorming session on 'Beyond Creative Placemaking' to be held on next 22 June 2022 (14.15-15.00h) in the context of the European Development Days (EDD) 2022 by Culture et Développement, UNESCO, CERAV and the UCLG Committee on Culture.

More information: https://eudevdays.eu/community/agenda

On next 16 to 19 November 2022, the City of Barcelona will organise the International meeting 'Culturopolis: International Days on Cultural Rights'. 

In this context, two calls have been launched:

• Call for projects:  Culturopolis will showcase local and international/European projects working on cultural rights and, more specifically, on the interrelation of the rights of access and participation in cultural life, cultural work, sustainability, diversities, participation and communities, and digital environments. 
  Until 15 July 2022.
• Call for papers: The academic congress will aim at facilitating all types of agents researching on the theme of cultural rights and, above all, the exchange and transfer of knowledge with society.
  Until 15 July 2022.

For more information, please check the dedicated webpage of the meeting here.

An explicit goal in post-2030 frameworks is key to realising the potential of culture to accelerate development.

In the framework of UCLG advocacy activities towards an explicit dedicated Goal on Culture in post-2030 global development frameworks, and towards Mondiacult, UNESCO Global Conference on Cultural Policies (Mexico City, September 2022), the Committee on Culture of UCLG, together with the members of the #culture2030campaign, have launched a survey aiming at gathering visions and inputs on what this Goal should look like. 

The survey is available in English, Spanish and French. It is addresses to anyone interested in the essential role of culture in development and sustainable cities and territories. It will only take 4 to 6 minutes to answer it. 

The deadline to answer was 21 June 2022. The survey is now closed. A proposal for a Culture Goal will be launched during a special event in the context of the Mondiacult Conference in September 2022.

See also the #culture2030goal Declaration towards Mondiacult 2022 here.

The 4th edition of the GYCR took place from 5 to 10 August 2022 in Jeju Island.

Entitled “Islands in Flow 2”, the Residency invited 24 young artists from Jeju and abroad to develop creative proposals with the aim to face the urgent climate crisis, while being consulted by expert mentors. An in-person workshop (9-10 July) and a hybrid exhibition (19 August - 2 September) were held as well.

Click here for more information on the GYCR.

The 9th Africities Summit convened by UCLG Africa will take place in Kisumu (Kenya) between 17-21 May 2022. 

In this context, the UCLG Committee on Culture will take part and organise various sessions, including:

• The role of intermediary cities in the social and cultural transformation
  17 May 2022
  14:30 - 18:00 CEST
  Information here.
• Culture Day. Local cultural policies and sustainable development: threats and opportunities in African Intermediary cities.
  18 May 2022
  09.00-12.30 and 14.30-18.00 CEST
  Information here.
• African Committee on Culture and multiactor partnerships
  19 May 2022
  09.00-12.30 CEST
  Information here.

The city of Malmö will organise on next 21-23 September 2022 a Seminar and Peer-learning session on "Culture and antiracism" in the framework of the activities developed in the context of the Leading City programme.

Cities the world over have begun taking action in this field, with new initiatives, inspirational leadership and a will to change. The seminar and peer learning session in Malmö are designed to connect those cities and to promote exchange and knowledge transmission, and will focus focus on combatting anti-Muslim and anti-black racism. 

For more information, please consult the programme and read the concept note of the session.

The Freiburg Declaration on cultural rights was approuved in 2007. After 15 years of translating, commenting and implementing concrete actions, time has come to learn from these achievements and their limitations.

A colloquium will be organised on 23-24 May 2022 to identify the scope of the work to be developed in terms of observations, experiences, analyses, communication and shared advocacy.  In the face of current short and long term emergencies, can cultural rights be at the heart of human rights?

The programme of the session is available here (in French). Should you wish to take part in this seminar, please register here.

Forty years after UNESCO Global Conference on Cultural Policies in Mexico City and towards UNESCO Mondiacult 2022, to be held also in Mexico City in next September 2022, the members of the #culture2030goal campaign have released a Statement. 

The Statement of the #Culture2030Goal campaign calls for concrete, bold and engaging outcomes to accelerate the shift to a world that puts culture at the core of decision-making. It also calls for a stand-alone Goal on Culture in global agendas for development, including the post-2030 Agenda.

See the full Statement in English here.