Srinagar chosen as creative city by UNESCO

Srinagar chosen as creative city by UNESCO

Part of: Prelims and GS I – Culture

Context The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has picked Srinagar among 49 cities as part of the creative city network under the Crafts and Folk Arts category.

Key takeaways 

• The inclusion is likely to pave way for the city to represent its handicrafts on the global stage through UNESCO. 
• The UCC network involves folk art, media, film, literature, design, gastronomy and media arts.
• Only Jaipur (Crafts and Folk Arts) in 2015, Varanasi and Chennai (Creative city of Music) in 2015 and 2017 respectively have so far been recognised as members of the UCCN for creative cities.

About UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN)

• The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) was created in 2004 to promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development. 
• The 246 cities which currently make up this network work together towards a common objective: placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level.