55 new cities join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network

On World Cities Day 2023, 55 cities join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), following their designation by UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. New cities were acknowledged for their strong commitment to harnessing culture and creativity as part of their development strategies and for displaying innovative practices in human-centred urban planning. With the latest additions, the Network now counts 350 cities in more than one hundred countries, representing seven creative fields: Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts and Music.

The new cities include the following ASEM nations:

Battambang (Cambodia) – Gastronomy
Bolzano (Italy) – Music
Bremen (Germany) – Literature
Bydgoszcz (Poland) – Music
Caen (France) – Media Arts
Castelo Branco (Portugal) – Crafts and Folk Art
Chaozhou (China) – Gastronomy
Chiang Rai (Thailand) – Design
Chongqing (China) – Design
Da Lat (Viet Nam) – Music
Fribourg (Switzerland) – Gastronomy
Gangneung (Korea) – Gastronomy
Granada (Spain) – Design
Gwalior (India) – Music
Herakleion (Greece) – Gastronomy
Hobart (Australia) – Literature
Hoi An (Viet Nam) – Crafts and Folk Art
Iasi (Romania) – Literature
Iloilo City (Philippines) – Gastronomy
Ipoh (Malaysia) – Music
Kozhikode (India) – Literature
Montreux (Switzerland) – Music
Okayama (Japan) – Literature
Oulu (Finland) – Media Arts
Suphanburi (Thailand) – Music
Surakarta (Indonesia) – Crafts and Folk Art
Toulouse (France) – Music
Tukums (Latvia) – Literature
Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) – Crafts and Folk Art
Valencia (Spain) – Design
Varaždin (Croatia) – Music

Newly designated cities will cooperate with Network members to strengthen their resilience the face of evolving threats such as climate change, rising inequality, as well as rapid urbanization, with 68% of the world’s population projected to live in urban areas by 2050.

Read about the Creative Cities Network here