About

In Austin, the creative sector is a vital component of the local economy. As state capital of Texas, with around 965,000 inhabitants, it is a place where small, local businesses thrive and has achieved prominence as a trendsetting global city at the intersection of art, music, and digital technology. Growing by 40% over the last decade, the region’s creative sector contributes more than US$4.35 billion in economic activity annually, represents nearly 49,000 permanent jobs, and over US$71.6 million in local tax revenue.

Braga is a UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts since 2017. We are one of 180 cities in the world that put creativity at the heart of its social, cultural and economical development. Two years after the designation the city of Braga is gradually fulfilling its action plan, through significant actions in the educational area: the implementation of Circuito - Braga Media Arts Educational Service and the creation of a Media Arts Masters at University of Minho. Index - of art and technology was the first test of what the city aims to transform in a Media Arts Bienal, starting in 2021.

Caen is a university town with 35,000 students, a dense scientific fabric (45 research laboratories) and a dynamic cultural network (250 cultural associations). The local area has a wealth of cultural facilities: 10 libraries, 2 arthouse cinemas, 4 museums, 7 theatres, dozens of festivals and just as many amateur venues... The overlaps between the arts, science and technology are long-standing, forming a fertile eco-system for digital creation and the digital arts. It has 1,000 companies and 5,000 employees in the cultural and digital sectors, including 70 Ed-tech companies, 10 key players in the digital arts, 12 resource centres and 3 training centres dedicated to the digital arts. Media arts present multiple configurations (installations, videos, sculptures, mapping, virtual reality environments, etc.), bringing into play materials, processes and art forms that fundamentally question our societies and open up a reflection on our future societies. For this reason, Caen incorporates them into numerous artistic and cultural education programmes for young people. The aim of these programmes is to promote equal opportunities by reducing social and gender inequalities, and to train future enlightened citizens capable of understanding, promoting and defending the values promoted by UNESCO.

Cali is an intercultural city and this has triggered different significant artistic expressions in Colombia. The city has been a pioneer in filming, performing arts, software and media arts, mixing the essence of arts and digital development. Currently, Cali has an animation cluster, several audiovisual and music associations and contemporary arts independent collectives. Its main creative infrastructure includes 34 digital innovation labs, 22 cultural assets, 19 museums, 62 libraries. Cali has designated 2 urban areas for creative economy strategy that will be development in the next years, and 2 urban areas has been created for digital and services market.

Campina Grande is a city in Paraíba State, in Brazil. Its population is estimated to be 410.000 inhabitants, according to the Brazilian official census (IBGE 2020). Campina Grande is recognized as a country higher education hub, with 21 universities and faculties. It is also the city in Brazil with the highest rate of PhDs per capita, 1 in each 590 inhabitants, six times the national average. The city is also known for its centres for research, innovation, and technical capacity. The city hosts many cultural events, The Saint John’s Festival - O Maior São João do Mundo, The International Music Festival - FIMUS, Peace Carnival, The Winter Festival, and more than 20 other events. One of the city attractions is Campina Grande SESI Digital Museum, which is a space for creative arts devoted to the history of the city.

Changsha, also known as the “Star City”, is the only city in China whose location remain unchanged over the past 3000 year, and has continued to sparkle with creativity in many fields. As capital of Hunan province with 7.92 million inhabitants, Changsha is an innovation hub which significantly invests in its cultural and creative industries. By its cross-cutting and inclusive nature, media arts in Changsha have been an essential part of the rejuvenation of the urban landscape while supporting the preservation of its outstanding cultural heritage.

Dakar is a cosmopolitan city whose identity stems from the mixing of peoples. Concentrating 25% of the population and 80% of the country's economic activities, the city plays the role of Senegal's locomotive. With a rich heritage and a tradition of openness, Dakar is a creative metropolis that hosts large-scale cultural events, including the World Festival of Negro Arts and the Biennial of Contemporary African Art. The city also has a large number of cultural infrastructures: the Théodore-Monod Museum of African Art, the Village des Arts, galleries including the National Art Gallery, the Daniel Sorano National Theater, and the Grand National Theater. These multiple infrastructures symbolize the dynamism of Dakar's artistic scene and a vibrant and diverse community of actors.

Designated UNESCO city for media arts in 2013, Enghien-les-Bains, located at the gates of Paris, coordinates the media arts creative field. For more than 15 years, the city has been committed to innovation and creativity. Through the strong commitment of the Centre des arts (CDA), the city is supporting media arts in the fields of culture, education, tourism, economy and in the social sector, by working to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Two major events showcase digital creation : the Paris Images Digital Summit, visual effects festival, each January and the International Media Arts Biennale, Bains numériques, in June. In 2017 Enghien-les-Bains hosted the 11th Annual Meeting of UNESCO Creative Cities.

Guadalajara is Mexico’s quintessential cultural emblem. Its main cultural resource is the creative talent we train and export; which allows us to have a recognized wealth and vitality in disciplines such as literature, film, music, design and digital art. In Guadalajara we seek to integrate the cultural process as the central axis of development. We work with cultural diversity and creativity as public goods and engines to build the city we want to inherit to future generations: a sustainable, inclusive, just, orderly and prosperous city. Guadalajara's goal is that citizens participate in the process of content creation, production and dissemination, proposing innovative solutions to local challenges under a Smart City vision, using the Media Arts as a tool for innovation and technology.

Gwangju's media art is ‘the laboratory of Light' and the city is continuing on its creative experiment by combining three lights of traditional art, history of democratic human rights and high level of science technology in a modern methodology. The primary reason was to combine the artistic, historic and industrial assets of Gwangju to the field of media art and to lead a sustainable urban development by restructuring related industries. In other respects, it was to share Gwangju's artistic and industrial experiences and achievements, those related to media art, with the world society and co-develop alongside creative cities.

Hamar’s creative scene mirrors the city’s DNA which ever since the founding of the city in 1030 strongly has been associated with storytelling and education.  Hamar has transformed into a commercial centre and creative hub characterized by its visual and digital industries, famous gaming and digital art festivals, ambitious tech environment and an educational stronghold in media arts. Unique capacities and quatro helix collaboration have been developed especially in the areas of immersive innovative digital experiences based on interactive medias, gaming, animation, motion capture and AR/VR/XR. Every year Hamar hosts media arts events such as, e.g. The Gathering and Nordic VR Forum.

Karlsruhe is the “cradle of modern media communication”. It is the city where Heinrich Hertz proved electromagnetic waves in 1886, where Germany’s first e-mail was received in 1984, where the ZKM | Center for Art and Media was founded in 1989, today a pre-eminent internationally active institution of media art with an important media art collection. Various rankings list it among the world’s top museums of contemporary art and media art. Together with the University of Arts and Design (HfG) it unites research on and education of media art under one roof. Media art events such as “GLOBALE DIGITALE,” “Open Codes,” the “Schlosslichtspiele” and the “ARD Radio Play Days” are proof of the outstanding importance of Karlsruhe as media art location.

Photo credit: CLOUD WALK @ZKM. Fog Sculpture #10731. © ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Photo: ARTIST – Uli Deck

Never a place of the biggest names, insane cashflow, or Top 10 Lonely Planet’s places to visit. Some say it’s just the last ten years since Košice changed its mindset, became open to different ideas, and started to define itself as rather cool and vivid. A hundred years ago, it was a mere speck of a creative center compared to what defines the city today. Gone are the days of being known as a steel city. Now with a booming ICT industry and a growing creative sector, Košice has been slowly transforming into a cauldron of culture. Now Slovakia’s second city stands firm on its foundation for a bright future as the UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts.

Media art and the digital state-of-the-art are key driving forces of dynamic, future-oriented urban development in Linz since 1979. The founding of Ars Electronica established Linz as one of the media art world’s first hubs, and the city has been playing a pioneering role ever since. Other local network nodes are Linz Art University with its emphasis on digital artistic strategies and the Tabakfabrik, a hotspot of entrepreneurial creativity. Linz is a global player in digital R&D especially with the Johannes Kepler University as well as a major node of Austria’s indie art scene and creative economy.

Photo credit: Robert Bauernhansl

In Lyon, Culture has an essential place. It mobilizes 19% of the municipal budget, in the second position behind Education. This situation is the result of history, a legacy, the City of Lyon has always linked culture and development. The classification of the central part of the city on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1998 and the creation of the Festival of Lights in 1999 have stimulated a renewal of Lyon's cultural and event policy. The city of Lyon is providing with different actors in order to support an open, innovative, and socially-oriented creative eco-system. Photo credit: ©Romain Etienne

Media arts represent, today, a category that summarizes innovation and creativity, experimentation and research; Modena, as Unesco Creative City 2021, is the first Italian city in the Media arts 'cluster', as a sign of a reality that invests in new languages – digital and technologies – applied to cultural languages.

Namur remains a City of Culture with exceptional historical and architectural heritage with the Citadel site, and major festivals as International Francophone Film Festival of Namur, International Street Arts Festival "Namur en Mai" and KIKK Festival of Digital and Creative Cultures, which are now worldwide references. For 10 years, Namur developed an action plan to use digital cultures, citizen action, sustainability and creativity as levers for cultural, social, educational, and entrepreneurial development. In 2014, it ran the ERDF Namur Innovative City Lab project which allowed to get a budget of €26.6m for the setting up of a program for digital and sustainable transformation of its territory based on the creativity of its citizens, artists, and entrepreneurs.

Photo Credit: © Kat Closon, KIKK in Town Edge of Chaos by Vasiljia Abramovic, Ruari Glynn and Bas Overvelde

Oulu's resilience as an Arctic city is about the ability to renew: it’s time to build a bridge from our hi-tech past to our present-day Art&Tech competence and re-imagine future with media arts. Oulu is the largest city in Northern Finland and the European Capital of Culture 2026. Oulu's journey to become a Nordic innovation center began in the 17th century with tar and weatherproof shipping, evolving to a constantly growing hub of modern technology and a variety of competence. Globally, three billion daily users use mobile technologies developed in Oulu. We work actively with our local partners in independent art organizations and associations of artists in the field of media arts, art and culture communities and groups, educational and research institutes, and ecosystems and clusters of creative industries and ICT. With our legacy work of Oulu2026 and media arts as a driver for sustainable urban development, we build towards a more creative, inclusive and attractive Oulu city and region in the future decades. As an Arctic city, we also have a unique relationship with light and darkness: Oulu hosts the annual Lumo Light Festival with an array of artwork and co-productions of local and international creatives, extending further on the platforms of media arts and Art&Tech. By accelerating our Northern cultural capital, we aim to become a national center of media arts as part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, and an Arctic leader in Art&Tech. We aim to build a playground for creation of media arts with: - AWAKENING THE FUTURE OF CREATIVITY where media arts, creativity and play are methods for learning future skills - Finding ways of sustainable living in the Arctic Europe with media arts as a driver and builder of scenes and creativity in CREATIVE VILLAGES - RE-IMAGINING FUTURE WITH MEDIA ARTS in our European Capital of Culture Oulu2026 Legacy Initiative - Matching the global media arts community with installing a PIPELINE for more diverse possibilities in media arts and Art&Tech - Inviting the local cross-sector collaboration and the global UCCN cities to explore new openings at ART X TECH FESTIVAL - Expanding the current practices of media arts to make it more inclusive for young and upcoming talent with THE CREATIVES

Sapporo is blessed with 6 meters of annual snowfall, and the approximately 2 million inhabitants know how to cohabit with the snow. Since the city’s creation, a unique form of “winter art” has developed over a century through various projects, including the world-known Sapporo Snow Festival, and the design of Moerenuma Park as a single sculpture by Isamu Noguchi. Now, Sapporo is a hub for ICT companies, and creators of contemporary Japanese culture charmed by the city’s pleasant climate. In winter 2020-2021, the third edition of the Sapporo International Art Festival will stage works of contemporary and media art that resonate with the natural features and culture of the northern region.

Founded in 1909 on sand dunes outside the ancient port of the city of Jaffa, Tel Aviv-Yafo is the business, financial and commercial hub of Israel's economy and the heart of its booming high-tech industry. Tel Aviv-Yafo has a unique economy thanks to a large concentration of start-up companies in fields such as the media arts, making it one of the world's leading “start-up cities”. Home to most of Israel’s artistic institutions, Tel Aviv is the country’s cultural centre. Currently, the city is pursuing a strategy to position itself as a global centre of technology and innovation. The initiative involves collaborations between academic, research and development centres, leading technology companies, the young creative sector, cultural centres and artists along with the local and national governments.

Toronto is the first Canadian city to be designated a UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts for its leadership in film, music, digital media and forms of cultural expression using technology. Toronto helped nurture the Creative Cities Network in Canada in 2002 and has been an active participant in the World Cities Cultural Forum since 2015. Toronto builds international connections as a UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts. Produced by the City of Toronto in collaboration with Toronto’s arts community, for more than 10 years Nuit Blanche Toronto has fostered cultural engagement, making performance art, interactive installations, and mixed-media accessible to a mass and diverse audience.

Being a Media Arts city, Viborg is known for its vibrant and creative environment evidenced by its multiple creative institutions such as The Animation Workshop, a leading European animation school; and a Creative Industry cluster. Each year the city hosts Viborg Animation Festival which is the largest of its kind in Denmark with more than 100 activities and 30,000 visitors annually. For the last 10 years animation and creativity has permeated every aspect of the city and has indeed created a quatro helix collaboration where educations, businesses, civil society and the public sector create mutual solutions. Stories Create our life.

As the UK’s only UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts, York seeks to promote a diverse and dynamic creative economy, leading the way in innovation. We understand cultural wellbeing as a vital aspect of what makes cities worth living and working in, and we embed culture and creativity in the making of sustainable places and life-sized neighborhoods across our city. The riches of two millennia of heritage provide a foundation on which we build the future. Residencies, commissions and festivals, including Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Mediale, and the work of University research projects such as XR Stories, create an international profile and a platform for international collaboration.

Photo credit: © York Mediale, 2020. Photograph by Esme Mai