The Committee on Culture of UCLG recently released its 7th report, entitled "Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development. Key themes and examples in European Cities", and elaborated by Jordi Batlà Portolés, expert on local cultural policies and sustainable cities.

Since the adoption of the Agenda 21 for Culture in 2004, the Committee on Culture of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) promotes the understanding of culture as a fundamental dimension in sustainable development. This nexus gains particular importance at the local level, as reflected in the cultural policies of local governments and in the cultural values and practices of individuals, groups, civil society organisations and other stakeholders. Cultural heritage, including its tangible and intangible aspects, is a testament to human creativity, as well as a resource for the construction of the identities of people and communities. As with other components of cultural life, the aspects that make up cultural heritage, including memory and knowledge, pertain to the core of human dignity, and respecting, protecting and enhancing them requires appropriate rights-based, people-centred policies. The latter should recognise that cultural heritage is alive, diverse and constantly changing, and that its components and meaning evolve and interplay with the other dimensions of sustainable development, including social, environmental and economic aspects.

More reports from the Committee on Culture of UCLG here.

We invite you to revize our work!

The Committee on culture of UCLG recently released a new publication called "Culture 21 [re]view. Building together a global platform of cities for culture", aiming at summarizing two years of activities of the Committee.

The first edition of this new publication covers years 2014 and 2015, and is available in English, French and Spanish.

We hope you like it!

Organized annually by the African regional section of UCLG, UCLG Africa, Africities is the most important democratic gathering in Africa. This year, it will be organized in Marrakech, from 20-24 November 2018, and will convene various sessions under the title "The transition to Sustainable Cities and Territories, the Role of Local and Subnational Governments of Africa".

The Committee on Culture of UCLG will be present at this big event, and will organise two sessions in close collaboration with the regional section:

     - Session on the transition. (STA5) "Culture & Communicational Transition"
       20 November 2018, 2.30pm - 5.30pm
       Marrakech, Morocco

     - Open session. (SOU86) "Sustainable Development, Cultural Policies and Cities. Towards a long-term
       Learning and Policy Development programme on "Culture in Sustainable Cities": in Africa"
       22 November 2018, 2.30pm - 5.30pm
       Marrakech, Morocco

4 more sessions on culture as a dimension of sustainable development will be organized:

     - Open session. (SOU6) "Cooperation between the African cities or creative industries and European
       Capitals of Culture"
       22 November 2018, 9.30am - 12.30pm
       Marrakech, Morocco

     - Open session. (SOU35) "African Capital of Culture"
       22 November 2018, 2.30pm - 5.30pm
       Marrakech, Morocco

     - Open session. (SOU38) "International Day of African Culture"
       22 November 2018, 2.30pm - 5.30pm
       Marrakech, Morocco

     - Open session. (SOU54) "World Heritage as a builder of peace and inclusion"
       22 November 2018, 2.30pm - 5.30pm
       Marrakech, Morocco

In the context of the Award Ceremony of the 3rd edition of the International Award 'UCLG - Mexico City - Culture 21' held on last 18-20 October 2018 in Mexico City, an International Seminar on 'Cultural Rights and Peace in the City' was organised.

The programme of this high-level seminar is still available and included presentations and speeches from key actors from cities, local and regional governments, academics and activists coming from across the world, as well as debates with the four winners of the 3rd edition of the Award (2017-2018), and with some of the former winning cities from the previous editions.

These events were also the occasion to celebrate the 15th annual meeting of the Committee on Culture of UCLG. The agenda of the meeting is still available here. It was also the occasion to present the City of Mexico Declaration, available below.

In the context of the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) 5th Valletta 2018 conference entitled ”Sharing the Legacy”, a first workshop will permit to formally launch the "Valletta Network for Cultural and Nature-based Public Space Interventions" (also known as MUNIN network), with participation of Growing Pathways and the Valletta Design Cluster.

The UCLG Committee on Culture would like to express its sadness following the demise of Eduard Miralles i Ventimilla. Eduard Miralles has for many years been a fundamental voice in reflections on local cultural policies and on culture and development in Catalonia, Spain and at international level.

He was, among other roles, the Director of the Centre for Cultural Resources and Studies (CERC) at the Provincial Council of Barcelona (1996-2004), where he coordinated several editions of the Interacció biennial conference, and he was later an Advisor on Cultural Relations at the Provincial Council of Barcelona. Since 2008 he was also the President of the Interarts Foundation, where he continued to contribute to thinking on cultural policy and international cultural cooperation. He was also the first vicepresident of ENCATC – European Network of Cultural Administration Training Centres, the founder of INTERLOCAL – IberoAmerican Network of Cities for Culture, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Roberto Cimetta Fund. Furthermore, he was constantly involved in many training, discussion and research activities on local cultural policies.

Always led by generosity, education, curiosity and availability, Eduard Miralles had huge analytical abilities and would always provide a critical, discerning perspective, which for years contributed to enriching and broadening discussions. A linguist by choice and a cultural manager by devotion, he loved languages and enjoyed discussing terms, finding the right words and devoting particular attention to expression in all its forms: linguistic, identity-related and cultural expression.

His contributions to reflections on cultural policy serve to explain where we are, and particularly where we should be, in areas such as cultural rights, governance, and international cooperation. The UCLG Committee on Culture would like to stress that he was one of the key persons behind the Agenda 21 for culture. In the context of our activities, he also wrote an excellent article entitled “Culture, from factor of development to pillar of sustainability”, which also helped to inspire “Culture 21 Actions”, many paragraphs of which are his, word by word.

We would like to express our condolences and support to his family, to those close to him and to anyone who was fortunate to work with him over the years.

Read this article in French, Spanish and Catalan.

The "International Congress on Cultural Mapping: Linking Heritage (Tangible and Intangible) and Creative Tourism" will be held in November 29-30 in Évora, Portugal. Structured in two days, the congress aims to provide a better understanding of how cultural mapping can propose actions that enhance the awareness of cultural identities, debate its implications for local development, community engagement and policymaking, including sustainable and creative tourism, and foster debate over its long-term results.

The congress is organized by CREATOUR Alentejo team (CIDEHUS, University of Évora) and the UNESCO Chair "Intangible Heritage and Traditional Know-How: Linking Heritage", in collaboration with the Centre for Social Studies (University of Coimbra).

Registration deadline: 15 October 2018.

Throughout the ultimate years, the Committee on Culture of UCLG has been engaging to foster the strategic place of culture in the European Development Days with several partners organisations and co-organisers of the events.​

This year, the effort went even further with the launching of a Call for Action.

On the occasion of the International African Women's Day (31 July) and following the declarations by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean announcing an important seminar to promote gender equality and the improvement of social and working conditions of women in Latin America as essential conditions for sustainable regional development, UCLG Committee on Culture and its partners published the Call for Action to "Strengthen the synergies between gender and culture in development and international cooperation". The document is the result of the debates held in the framework of the European Development Days 2018 and of an important preparatory work by the teams.  

As from October 2018, the partners will officially launch the activities linked to the Call for Action, taking into account, among others, the resolutions of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (New York, July 2018).

Join our Call for Action, contact us at CDAcoordination@gmail.com

Convening organisations: Africalia - Arterial Network - Agenda 21 for Culture / United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) - British Council - Culture et Développement / Territoires Associés - Interarts - International Music Council (IMC) - UNESCO Brussels liaison office

Associated partners: ACP - Bozar - European Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (ECCD) - CISAC - Culture Action Europe - ICOMOS - More Europe - Observatory of Cultural Policies in Africa (OPCA) - UCLG Africa

The French region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes recently launched a very interesting publication gathering texts written by professionals in the context of training sessions on challenges, experiences and orientations of territorial cultural development, and called "Cultural territories, territorial cultures. When elected representatives, artists and inhabitants co-invest rural territories" ("Territoires de cultures, cultures de territoires. Quand élus, artistes et habitants co-investissent les territoires ruraux" in French).

Kultura Nova Foundation published the book "Do it Together. Practices and Tendencies of Participatory Governance in Culture in the Republic of Croatia", edited by Dea Vidović. The book, which deals with Croatian practices and tendencies of participatory governance in culture, builds on the results of the research project "Approaches to Participatory Governance of Cultural Institutions". The research project was conducted by Kultura Nova Foundation from 2016 to 2018 with the support of UNESCO International Fund for Cultural Diversity.