Three Turkish cities join UNESCO Creative Cities Network
ISTANBUL
Three cities from Turkey have joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, alongside 64 cities from 44 countries.
Turkey’s largest city Istanbul, the southern province of Hatay and the western province of Kütahya are among the cities designated as UNESCO Creative Cities by Director-General Irina Bokova.
Since 2004, the UNESCO Creative Cities Network highlights its members’ creativity within seven fields: Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts and Music. It now counts a total of 180 cities in 72 countries.
While Istanbul joined the list in the field of Design, Hatay joined in the field of Gastronomy and Kütahya – famous for its production of tiles - in the category of Crafts and Folk Art.
In 2015, the southeastern province of Gaziantep was also designated as a UNESCO Creative City in the category of Gastronomy.
The cities join a Network at the frontline of UNESCO’s efforts to foster innovation and creativity as key drivers for a more sustainable and inclusive urban development.
Bokova said that the newly added cities “showcase an enhanced diversity.”
“These new designations showcase an enhanced diversity in city profiles and geographical balance, with 19 cities from countries not previously represented in the network” she said, adding that “the cooperation framework proposed to foster candidate cities from the Africa region – a UNESCO Global Priority – has been a true success with nine African cities now joining the network.”
While differing geographically, demographically or economically, all Creative Cities commit to develop and exchange innovative best practices to promote creative industries, strengthen participation in cultural life, and integrate culture into sustainable urban development policies.
Within the framework of the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda, the Creative Cities Network provides a platform for cities to demonstrate culture’s role as an enabler for building sustainable cities.
The next Annual Meeting of the Creative Cities Network is scheduled to take place in Krakow and Katowice in June 2018.