Organised on a biennial bases, the International Award UCLG - Mexico City - Culture 21 has official winners fot its 6th edition 2023-2024!

The objective of the 6^th edition of the International Award UCLG – Mexico City – Culture 21 is to celebrate the work of cities, local or regional governments, and leading individuals who have excelled in the promotion of innovative practices linked to the exercise of cultural rights, citizenship and sustainable development. The Award reaffirms the leadership of Mexico City in the relationship between culture and sustainable development, and the commitment of UCLG to place culture as a fundamental dimension of sustainable cities. The Award has two categories: “City, Local or Regional Government” and “Individual”.

In the 6^th edition, in the category “City, Local or Regional Government”, the Award recognises the leadership of cities in the promotion of cultural rights as a transversal driver of local sustainable development, highlighting the diversity and excellence of policies and actions of local governments from all over the world. This shows that there is no single model of development, and that each project and policy is inscribed in specific and different local contexts, and constitute unique and original proposals. It is important to note that the action should have documented evidence of the impact and the successes achieved.

Between 29 November 2023 and 3 April 2024, the open call of the Award received 87 candidacies from cities, local and regional governments from across the globe. On 11 June 2024, the Jury of the Award held its final meeting, and decided that the Award would recognise in the category City / Local or Regional Governments: Gwanak-Gu, for the project "Youth Capital of Culture", and La Paz (Bolivia), for the project "Traditional Medicine Information and Guidance Centres - Qullañ Uta". The Jury also decided to recognise the following cities as special mentions of the Award: Bilbao, Brazzaville, Esch-sur-Alzette, Novi Sad, Ramallah and Xi'an.

In the category Individual, the Award recognises internationally renowned individuals who have made a fundamental contribution to cultural rights, and to the relationship between culture and sustainable development. The Individual award is designated by the Jury without an open competition process, based on confidential nominations. This year, the Jury decided to recognise the outstanding work of Milena Dragićević Šešić and Alfons Martinell Sempere.

The full Communiqué of the Jury, including the results of the 6th edition of the International Award UCLG – Mexico City – Culture 21, is available here.

The Award Ceremony will take place in Mexico City on 25 July 2024. It will be connected to the international seminar on Cultural Innovation and Prospective for Cities and Territories (see draft here). If you are interested in attending these events, please do not hesitate to write to us before 5 July 2024. The invitations are limited!

IN SITU recently announced a Summer School "Place-based creative solution for cultuivating caring and sustainable communities." In this context, the Call for Proposals of the IN SITU Conference “Horizons of Sustainability: The Power of Creative Innovation for Transformation of Rural and Non-Urban Futures” has been open. Proposals will be accepted until 8 July 2024.

The Conference will take place in Sibenik, Croatia, on 25-27 September 2024. All useful information is available here.

On 5 June 2024, the Committee on Culture of UCLG organised 3 webinars to discuss and receive inputs on the participatory process of Culture 21 Plus, the new toolkit for Cultural Rights in Cities and Communities.

On this occasion, three webinars in English, French and Spanish have been organised on that day. The programme is available here.

The report is available here.

On 8 May 2024, from 15.00 to 17.00 CEST, the UCLG Committee on Culture celebrated 20 years of Agenda 21 for Culture with the organisation of a webinar followed by the celebration of the 21^st annual meeting of the Committee.

The video recording of the celebration is available here.

The Agenda of the celebration is available in English, French and Spanish.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Secretariat of the UCLG Committee on Culture or contact culture@uclg.org should you need any additional information.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights, Alexandra Xanthaki, recently launched a new report focused on "The Right to Participate in Science".

The report intends to take stock of setbacks and progress both under international human rights law and in practice regarding access to scientific knowledge and its applications and to address the right to access and take part in scientific progress, in order to identify relevant experiences and challenges. The reports builds on the previous work of the mandate (Report on the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications, A/HRC/20/26, 2012), and of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (General Comment 25 on Science and Economic, Social and Cultural rights, 2020), as well as on contributions from all regions of the world.

The report is available in all UN languages on this page (A/HRC/55/44), as well as on the website of the mandate. 

More info here.

On the occasion of the 5th UCLG Culture Summit celebrated in Dublin from last 28 November to 1 December 2023, the UCLG Committee on Culture held its 20th annual meeting on 1 December 2023.

The full report of the meeting is available here.

On 23 January 2024, the #Culture2030Goal campaign organised the webinar "Looking ahead Culture in Sustainable Development in 2024 and Beyond" with the aim of sharing the background and the achievements of the campaign and opening a conversation with key partners and all global cultural networks.

The workshop gathered partners to think together about the next steps, including the UN Summit of the Future (September 2024), the road towards “a Culture Goal” as well as the ongoing efforts to include “culture in delivering across the SDGs”.

Participants received important updates on the place of culture in sustainable development and global development agendas, and had the opportunity to share their views and shape the upcoming work, hear from others about this key dimension of sustainable development.

The concept note of the webinar is available here. Click here to watch the session again.

On the occasion of the 5th UCLG Culture Summit held in Dublin from 28 November to 1 December 2023, the UCLG Committee on Culture together with Mexico City launched the 6th edition of the International Award UCLG - Mexico City - Culture 21.

The Award has two categories:

• City / Local or Regional Governments: deadline for the 1st phase of applications: 16 February 2024. 
• Individuals: deadline for nominations: 3 April 2024.

The application and nomination forms as well as all the useful information is available on the dedicated website of the Award.

The Robert Cimetta Fund has launched a Call for Applications for the 'Ready Steady Go!' initiative. 'Ready Steady Go!' is a 10 months learning expedition/journey welcoming 14 artists and cultural professionals from the Mediterranean. It is developed by the Roberto Cimetta Fund in partnership with Liv.in.g (IT), Busart (GR), Al Badil (TU), and Amuni (FR).

Through immersive workshops, online capacity building sessions and international gatherings, Ready Steady Go! aims to support artists and cultural professionals to identify and apply for mobility funding and support schemes and to increase their access to the international scene. 

'Ready Steady Go!' includes a series of activities to increase participants’ access to the international scene in order to develop their career:

• 3 online capacity development sessions
• a 4 days workshop in Italy
• a 4 days final meeting in Greece

The call is open until 5 January 2024. More information here.