Braga to host UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network Annual Conference in 2024

The UNESCO Creative City for Media Arts of Braga has been selected to host the XVI Annual Conference of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2024. The decision was announced last Monday, the date that the United Nations General Assembly designated as the World Day of Cities and which celebrates the cooperation between countries and municipalities for sustainable urban development, by UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay.

This conference occurs once a year in a member city and brings together several representatives of UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network. Next year the Turkish city of Istanbul will host the event. In 2024, the network celebrates 20 years of existence and the conference, which will take place in Braga, will have as its theme “20 years of UCCN: bringing youth to the table for the next decade”.

Created in 2004, the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) aims to foster cooperation with and among cities that recognize creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable economic, social, cultural, and environmental development.

The UCCN has been growing exponentially in the last decade and is currently composed of 295 cities. Braga joined the network in 2017, becoming the only representative city in Media Arts in the Iberian Peninsula. Braga Media Arts is the action program that responds to this title through various projects and activities, such as the art and technology biennial Index or the educational service program Circuito.

The presentation of the candidacy to host the XVI Annual Conference of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network took place during this year’s edition that took place in Santos, Brazil. In the race with the city of Minho was Dubai (United Arab Emirates), the Creative City of Design.