UCLG Culture Summit 2015 - Bilbao

The first UCLG Culture Summit was hosted by the City of Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain) from the 18-20 March 2015, with the title "Culture and Sustainable Cities".

It is an event to promote knowledge-sharing and networking of cities and local governments, recognizing the important place of culture in sustainable cities. It gathered all key stakholders in the promotion of cultural policies, with special emphasis on cities, local governments and urban actors. The following documents are the results of the Summit:

The first UCLG Culture Summit offered the members of the Committee on Culture of UCLG the opportunity to present, approve and adopt "Culture 21: Actions", and it showcased the best projects of the first edition of the International Award "UCLG - Mexico City - Culture 21". Additionally, the results of the Pilot Cities porgramme were presented. The Summit also connected the UN Post-2015 Development Agenda and culture, building on the work carried out in the process of defining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly #culture2015goal and #UrbanSDG. It was an occasion to exchange with the international community and UN Agencies as well as civil society organizations.

The Summit also held the 12th meeting of the Committee on Culture of UCLG.

Check out the key speeches that Ms. Catherine Cullen, President of the Committee on Culture of UCLG ; Mr. Daniel Innerarity, profesor of social and political philosophy and Inkerbasque researcher at the University of Basque Country, Ms. Farida Shaheed, Special Rapporteur of United Nations on Cultural Rights gave during the Summit, and Mr. Ibon Areso, former Mayor of Bilbao:

UCLG Culture Summit 2017 - Jeju

Following the success of the first UCLG Culture Summit, and considering the growing importance of culture in the framework of sustainable cities, the Executive Bureau of UCLG decided to convene a second UCLG Culture Summit in Jeju (Jeju-do, Republic of Korea) on 10-13 May 2017, entitled “Commitments and Actions for Culture in Sustainable Cities”. The UCLG Culture Summit is the main meeting point at global level of cities, local governments and other stakeholders that are committed to the effective implementation of policies and programmes on culture and sustainability. 

Over three days, the 2nd UCLG Culture Summit combined plenary sessions, smaller, thematic parallel sessions, project presentations and networking spaces. Discover the key moments of this great meeting: Storify, Flickr, Twitter, Youtube and our Communiqués.

Additional information about the Summit themes and structure is available on the Summit website. You can also find here the Terms of Reference for the organization of the "UCLG Culture Summit".

Check out the key speeches that Ms. María Victoria Alcáraz, Head of International relations and Networks, Ministry for Culture of the City of Buenos Aires and representing the copresidence of UCLG Committee on culture ; Ms. Karima Bennoune, UN Special Rapporteur for Cultural Rights ; Mr. WON Hee-ryong, Governor of Jeju's Self-governing Special Province ; Mr. KO Un, distinguished poet from Jeju ; Mr. Josep Roig, Secretary General of UCLG ; Mr. Mpho Parks Tau, President of UCLG:

Background

The first UCLG Culture Summit was hosted by the City of Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain) from the 18-20 March 2015, with the title "Culture and Sustainable Cities". It was a new event aiming to promote knowledge-sharing and networking of cities and local governments, recognizing the important place of culture in sustainable cities. It gathered all key stakholders in the promotion of cultural policies, with special emphasis on cities, local governments and urban actors.

DUBLIN HOSTED THE UCLG CULTURE SUMMIT 2023!

From 28 November to 1 December 2023, Dublin, Ireland, hosted the 5th UCLG Culture Summit, under the title Culture. Future. Goal. We Act to Bring Local Voices to Global Tables.

The Summit emphasised that culture is an integral part of sustainable cities, and promoted the sharing of experiences and innovations from cities across the world. The programme of the Summit ensured that special attention was paid to the relation between cultural policies and the climate emergency, the connection between culture and gender equality; as well as the role that cultural rights play in addressing the growing inequalities in our societies. The Summit discussed the “Culture Goal” proposal, championed by the #culture2030goal global campaign, and included in the final declaration of UNESCO’s Mondiacult 2022 Conference held in Mexico City on last 28-30 September 2022.

Dublin was the perfect host of the Summit. Dublin has demonstrated its ongoing commitment to being an active and visible part of a global movement working to ensure human rights, cultural diversity, sustainability and participatory democracy, placing culture at the heart of development. For Dublin to host this Summit has been a major boost for all those involved in cultural work and local government across the city, not only to feel part of a worldwide movement but in creating a lasting legacy for citizens and local partners. It gave international visibility to the city and offered the possibility for participants to discover the cultural assets of the city.

CHECK OUT THE FINAL VIDEO

To know more about the Summit you can consult the coverage of Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 of the meeting. Three video recaps are also available for Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3. as well as a Flickr gallery with the pictures of the Summit! 

Read the background document here and the full Press Release here.

Read the speech delivered by Dublin's Councillor Cat O'Driscoll at the 2023 UCLG Retreat & Campus here.

The 6th UCLG Culture Summit was held in Barcelona from 26 to 28 September 2025, in the context of the 3rd Global Conference on Cultural Policies convened by UNESCO, Mondiacult 2025.

This Summit was particularly exceptional. 

• A high-level session was devoted to convey the key messages from the constituency to UNESCO for Mondiacult 2025. It is a fact that cities and local governments are leading the global action on cultural rights and people-centred policies.
• UCLG is a global leader in advocating for a Culture Goal in development agendas. We are proud to see this issue gaining increasing recognition in international discussions, culminating in its prominence as the main theme of Mondiacult 2025. Thus, the Summit explored how and when UCLG can continue to drive this agenda forward globally.

• Also, the UCLG Culture Summit served to present Culture 21 Plus , the new framework document developed by the UCLG Committee on Culture, which reinforces the role of culture in sustainable development and a society based on care and wellbeing.

   

The photo Gallery of the meeting is now available:

• Day 1 here.
• Day 2 here.

We invite you to check the background document, the programme, and the Final Declaration of the 6th UCLG Culture Summit:

The UCLG Committee on Culture works with several experts, who are contributing either to our publications and/or our key working programmes on culture and sustainable cities such as Leading Cities, Pilot Cities, Culture 21 Lab and 7 keys:

The Agenda 21 for culture promotes the design of cultural policies concerned with sustainable development. Culture 21 Actions can be used as a self-evaluation tool for free in order to assess the place culture in sustainable development. This questionnaire is open both to local governments and to individuals and organisations (academics, activists, civil society etc.) interested in using it.

At the end of this exercise, you will be able to obtain a document summarising you responses. This document will also be sent to the Secretariat of the Agenda 21 for culture. The questionnaire includes 10 pages. The estimated time to respond is approximately 10 minutes.

Culture 21 Actions: Global Panel 2015

Following the adoption in March 2015 of Culture 21 Actions, the Committee on Culture of UCLG has launched a Global Panel of 34 experts to produce a snapshot of the way in which cities around the world are advancing an integrated vision of culture in sustainable development. Results depict a very interesting landscape, with regional differences as well as varying degrees of development in each of the 9 thematic areas or ‘commitments’ considered in Culture 21 Actions:

In the context of the development of our training, peer-learning and capacity-building activities, the Committee on Culture of UCLG has developed an online specific offer aiming at building capacities in local and regional governments interested in deepening their understanding of cultural policies for local sustainable development. This includes webinars and Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) on specific issues. Please see below. 

Building on the report entitled "The Role of Culture in Climate Resilient Development", coordinated by Andrew Potts, coordinator of the Climate Heritage Network, and published in late 2021, the UCLG Committee on Culture have elaborated a MOOC to explore and learn about these issues.

Hosted on the UCLG Learning platform known as #LearningWithUCLG, our MOOC explores the fundamental role of Culture in Climate Resilient Development, and focuses on the perspective of local and regional governments, as well as cultural actors and institutions from all continents. 

The MOOC showcases a wide variety of case studies from all over the world drawn from an open call for contributions for the elaboration of the report, a good practice from UCLG Learning peer-learning notes, and audio-visual resources within the modules, as well as complementary in-depth materials, which you will find at the end of the course. Moreover, it offers the opportunity to test your own knowledge in the field.

What will you learn in this MOOC?

• How to make arts, culture and heritage take part as key factors for imagining new resilient futures; desirable ways of living neither wedded to the carbon economy nor dependent on unsustainable narratives.
• How to engage with climate change profiles and vulnerability scenarios.
• How cultural actors are and should be further involved in the emissions of their communities.
• How to further engage with interdisciplinary work towards tackling climate change, intertwining cultural actors with a wide range of different sectors.
• How to identify potential tensions or synergies that may arise between climate action and culture, thus reconciling trade-offs and maximising synergies.
• How to address the challenges of climate change through a cultural lens and from a perspective of equity and justice.

The MOOC is open to anyone interested in learning on the relation between culture, local public policies and climate resilient development. It is free of charge, available in English, and it includes a completion certificate.

You can access the MOOC at: https://learningwith.uclg.org/p/culture-and-climate

Building on the extensive experience of working with cities and local and regional governments on the development of cultural policies for local sustainable development throughout the years and through our learning and capacity-building programmes – namely Leading Cities, Pilot Cities, Culture 21 Lab and The Seven Keys, the Committee on Culture of UCLG has developed a series of thematic webinars, including the following:

• Culture in the Sustainable Development Goals
• Culture, cities and the COVID19 pandemic
• Using the Full Potential of Culture in the Local Achievement of the SDGs

All our webinars are facilitated by experts from the Committee through Zoom platform.

They are available in English, French and Spanish upon prior registration on the #LearningWithUCLG dedicated website.

Our webinars are open to local and regional governments, and especially to officials and officers working in teams in charge of Planning, Community Development, Culture, Education, Heritage, Inclusion and Public Spaces.

The UCLG Culture Committee shapes these webinars according to the needs expressed by members. In other words, the webinars can be specifically prepared as a capacity-building activity for a group of key actors working in the same government, or it can be designed as a peer-learning activity involving representatives of several governments.

The Seven Keys is a workshop to integrate the cultural dimension in the localisation of the SDGs.

The workshop is designed by UCLG for cities, local and regional governments all around the world.

The workshop related municipal challenges with cultural assets, activities, and policies with the leneses of our Guide for Local Action on Culture in the SDGs. The participants will discuss until reaching seven "keys" that local actors can commit to localize the SDGs through culture policymaking. The most essential and concrete objective of the programme is that the seven keys are locally identified: each city / territory will have their own seven keys.

The Seven Keys is especially suitable for cities, municipalities and regions that are not familiar in analysing the relation between and the implementation of the SDGs with local Cultural Policies. After the workshop, all participants will have a shared understanding of what the SDGs are and how can they be localized from different perspectives, as well as a concrete list of achievable actions that will contribute significantly to the localization of SDGs in their municipalities.

Culture 21 Lab is a capacity-building programme on culture in sustainable cities.

On the basis of Culture 21 Actions, the Committee on Culture of UCLG has established a short-term programme of capacity-buildingand peer-learning, along with the Leading Cities programme, and the Pilot Cities programme. Culture 21 Lab takes the form of a 1.5-day workshop, involving a group of 12-30 local stakeholders: different ares of local government, civil society actors, academics, private bodies...

You can find here the Terms of Reference of the Culture 21 Lab workshop: