The Journal of Urban Affairs just released the following call for papers on "Journal of Urban Affairs (JUA) Special Issue: The Arts and the City" on the role of the arts in the city.

This special issue will contribute to debates focused on:

1. Analyzing how the arts are defined in specific projects in cities around the world

2. Considering the contributions of the arts and creativity to urban revitalization placemaking;

3. Probing the complexity of the arts, including considering any negative impacts the use of art may have on place identity;

4. Examining the role of the arts and culture in building equitable communities and robust local economies.

Interested authors should submit their manuscript first to the guest editors by email (redaelli@uoregon.edu) by November 15, 2019.

More info here.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls on us to imagine more sustainable, more human, more creative cities.

Responding to its mission of stimulating collective and creative intelligence, the UNESCO recently released "Voices of the City", a compendium of concrete experiences that highlights the essential links between culture and sustainable development. These experiences are taken from the Culture LAB.2030 initative, a platform for experimentation and exchange to support the 2030 Agenda.

Read more here.

As foreseen by the 2019 annual work programme for the implementation of the Creative Europe programme and as announced in the EU strategic documents Work Plan for Culture 2019-2022 and European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage, the objective of the present action is to propose a peer-learning scheme for cities and regions on three topics related to cultural heritage policies:

• Participatory governance of cultural heritage;
• Adaptive reuse of built heritage;
• Quality of interventions on cultural heritage.
   

The project foresees to compile a catalogue of at least 30 good practices from EU cities/regions on these topics. Furthermore, based on this selection, at least 12 peer-learning visits to selected European Union cities/regions shall be organised, bringing 20+ participants per visit (urban, rural and regional policy-makers as well as individual experts with thoroughly demonstrated interest and expertise).

More information here.

The Thirteenth International Conference on the Inclusive Museum will take place in Lisbon on next 3-5 September 2020 and will feature research addressing the following annual themes: "2020 Special Focus: Museums & Historical Urban Landscapes: Visitors, Collections, Representations".

A call for papers has been launched with the aim to receive proposals for paper presentations, workshops/interactive sessions, posters/exhibits, virtual lightening talks, virtual posters, or colloquia addressing one of the themes mentionned above. The deadline for contributions is 3 September 2019.

More information here.

As winning city of the International Award UCLG - Mexico City - Culture 21 (ex-aequo with Seongbuk, Republic of Korea), and given its extensive experience on culture and sustainable development, the city of Lyon together with the Committee on Culture of UCLG will organize a study visit on"Culture, Governance and Sustainable Cities" in Lyon on next 25-27 September 2019.

This visit will be a peer-learning event, and will aim at:

(a) introduce the main cultural policies of the City, including key elements, as well as the various programmes and projects, and

(b) foster exchanges and learning among different cities and local or regional governments from across the world.

The visit will already count with the participation of a cultural delegation from the cities of Esch-sur-Alzette and Terrassa, the Isle of Tenerife, as well as with a delegation from the Konya Metropolitan Municipality.

It is open to any other city of the Committee on Culture of UCLG according to a limited number of places.

We invite all cities of the Committee interested in participating in this peer-learning meeting to contact the Secretariat of the UCLG Committee on Culture before Wednesday, 4 September 2019.

Michel Vallée, Director of Culture of Vaudreuil-Dorion, recently published the book "If We Were to Meet! - Cultural Mediation, the Vaudreuil-Dorion Model", A guide, an essay, a portrait, a manifesto… “whatever you want it to be”. The book is available in English, French and Spanish.

This book will be accessible for free until 31 August 2019. To get the book for free, follow the following steps:

      - Connect to the platform:  [English]

      - When buying the book, just before filling up the payment information, click on
        "+ Add the promotion code".

      - Enter the promotion code: "Cultura".

      - Click on "next" and finalise the purchase which is now free.

Do you have an idea to change your city? Do you want to work together with partners from different sectors and discilplines? Would you like to learn from, exchange with and be inspired by changemakers from other European cities?

If the answer is yes, you are invited to apply to become an Actor of Urban Change!

The call for applications will be open until 21 September 2019: check it out here.

Since the founding Congress of Paris, culture has been at the heart of UCLG's policy agenda.

Since 2015, UCLG has convened three editions of the UCLG Culture Summit, which were respectively hosted by the City of Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain, March 2015), the Jeju Self-Governing Special Province (Jeju-do, Republic of Korea, May 2017), and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (Argentina, April 2019). Following the success of the three first Culture Summit of UCLG, and considering the growing importance of culture in the framework of sustainable cities, the Executive Bureau of UCLG has decided to convene a fourth UCLG Culture Summit in 2021.

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. The Summit is the meeting point of cities, local governments, national governments, civil society organizations and international organizations to discuss the current position of culture in the global agendas. Participants to the Summit are very committed to the successful implementation of policies and programmes on culture and sustainability.

The Summit send very strong messages on the role of culture in development and provides a remarkable international visibility to the city / region / local government that hosts the event. The programme of the Summit, to be elaborated between the UCLG Committee on culture and the host city, will emphasise that culture is an integral part of sustainable cities, and will promote the sharing of experiences and innovations from cities across the world.

The Committee on Culture of UCLG has officially launched an open call to all UCLG city and local governments members who wish to host the next edition of the Summit.

Terms of Reference for the organization of the Summit are now available.

The deadline for submitting a candidacy to host the Summit is set on 15 October 2019.

On next 11-13 July 2019, the Directorate-Regional for Culture of the Centre of Portugal is organising an international conference on "Culture, Territory and Development" with the aim to promote a broad discussion on the role of culture in regards to the development of territories, within the context of the upcoming competition in Portugal to select the European Capital of Culture 2027 (ECoC).

The conference aims at sharing perspectives for the territory on an international scale, placing culture at the centre of the debate. The following themes will be addressed:
       - Cultural policies at local and regional level;
       - Strategies and visions for the development of cities;
       - Audience development and participatory engagement;
       - European dimension and internationalisation of territories;
       - The impact and sustainability of cultural policies.

The conference will take place in Igreja de Idanha-a-Velha from 11 to 13 July 2019.

More info available here.

This year, at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival, the European Commission launched the first edition of the “Women on the Move” day.

To mark this, Creative Europe has collated information and good practice on gender parity from industry and policy makers in the EU, and published an overview of them into this brochure.

More information here.