UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN)

June 24, 2024

Kozhikode, a city in north Kerala celebrated for its rich cultural heritage, has been officially declared as India's first UNESCO City of Literature under the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

About UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN):

It was created in 2004 to promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development.
Almost 300 cities around the world currently make up this network.
Objective:Placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level.
UNESCO designates the creative cities in seven fields:craft, folk art, media arts, film design, gastronomy, literature, and music.
Every year, UNESCO seeks applications from various cities across the globe to put them under its UCCN project.
The applications in India are routed through the Ministry of Culture.
India’s other cities in UCCN
- Srinagar and Jaipur:in the field of crafts and folk arts
- Mumbai: Film category
- Chennai, Gwalior and Varanasi: Music category
- Hyderabad: Gastronomy category