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

From 9 September 2019 onwards, INSITU and FAI-AR are proposing a 4-week MOOC on Creation in Public Space, packed with tools and inspiration to help understand and play a role in artistic creation in public space.

The MOOC is oriented to artists, students in art, architecture or town planning, programmers and cultural planners, elected officials and staff working in collectivities, festivals’ audiences… It is open to anyone who is interested in creating and learning more about art in public space.
No prerequisite is necessary except your good will to learn.

Detailed programme entails:

Create in Public Space takes you on a 4-week and 4-chapter journey, with a specific theme covered each week:

Week 1 – Introduction to aesthetics, history and institutions
Week 2 – Specific dramaturgical issues
Week 3 – Site-visit and in situ writing methodology
Week 4 – Understanding issues related to the relationship with the audience

Know more and join the MOOC: https://createinpublicspace.com/

• Sustainable creative tourism;
• Approaches linking community-based and creative tourism; 
• Creative travellers and responsible travel; 
• Creative/cultural tourism as a responsible consumption and production practice; 
• Decent work through creative tourism; 
• Culture-led local development and local creative tourism entrepreneurs; 
• Contribution of creative/cultural tourism to creating sustainable cities and communities; 
• Development models for creative tourism activities; 
• Marketing approaches for creative tourism; 
• Creative tourism extensions of cultural tourism and heritage tourism; 
• Creative/cultural tourism in small cities and rural areas; 
• Stakeholders involved in creative/cultural tourism development: ‘Open doors’ and participatory approaches; 
• Impacts of creative/cultural tourism on local residents’ lives; 
• Creative tourism networks. 

On 8 October, the European Commission released the second edition of its Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor, a tool designed to benchmark and boost the creative and cultural potential of European cities, which is vital to driving economic growth and social cohesion.

After the success of the first edition in 2017, the 2019 release presents an updated portrait of Europe's cultural and creative richness in an extended sample of 190 cities in 30 countries, including Norway and Switzerland.

The Monitor was created by the Joint Research Centre, the Commission's science and knowledge service, and is accompanied by a revamped online tool which enables cities to add their own data for more in-depth coverage and bench marking.

More information: https://composite-indicators.jrc.ec.europa.eu/cultural-creative-cities-m....

The UN Special Rapporteur in the field of Cultural Rights just released a new report entitled "Promotion and protection of human rights: human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms".

The report will be presented to the UN General Assembly on October 22, 2019 on the occasion of an interactive dialogue (10 AM EST).

The report is available here: https://undocs.org/A/74/255

The question of how to transition to more sustainable societies hasn’t lost any urgency, on the contrary. While many people in arts and culture are keen to contribute positively to this change, too many people simply assume a positive relationship between culture and sustainable development.

Published by Nancy Duxbury, Anita Kangas and Christiaan De Beukelaer in 2017, this paper challenges this uncritical view, but constructively propose four “strategic paths” through which cultural policy and people and organisations in arts and culture can take action. 

The article is temporarily freely accessible, until October, 31st 2019, through this link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10286632.2017.1280789

In the context of its participation in the Pilot Cities Europe programme of the UCLG Committee on Culture and Culture Action Europe, the Swansea Council’s Cultural Services will hold a peer-learning event entitled ‘Pledging Diversity’ on Friday 4 October between 10am and 3.30pm at
the Swansea Guildhall.

This event tells the story of what Swansea’s Cultural services are doing to put equality and diversity at the heart of Cultural Planning in the City.

Admission Free but please register with kate.wood@swansea.gov.uk

For further information about Swansea’s work as a Pilot City, please visit this page.