UNESCO designates Tel Aviv as a creative city for media arts
A decade after its White City was declared a World Cultural Heritage Site, Israeli metropolis joins network connecting cities around the world to share experiences, ideas and best practices in the field of creative industries and urban development.
UNESCO initiated the Creative Cities Network with the aim of fostering international cooperation between cities committed to investing in creativity as a driver for sustainable urban development, social inclusion and enhanced influence of cultural in the world.
The network is composed of seven thematic areas: Craft and Folk Arts, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts and Music. Its current 41 members include Buenos Aires (Design), Beijing (Design), Berlin (Design), Bologna (Music), Dublin (Literature), Edinburgh (Literature), Lyon (Media Arts), Montreal (Design), Melbourne (Literature), Shanghai (Design), Sydney (Film) and many other cities around the world.
"Ten years ago, UNESCO declared Tel Aviv-Jaffa's White City a World Cultural Heritage Site, recognizing the importance of the city's past architecture," Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai said Monday.
"The decision to include Tel Aviv-Jaffa in UNESCO's Creative Cities Networks as of today reflects the world's recognition in the city's contribution to the present and future. It is being recognized as a vibrant center of cultural creation and groundbreaking technology, a home to creative and original industries and a center for the visionary digital innovation scene."
Tel Aviv was chosen to join the Creative Cities Network thanks to its intensive activity in high-tech entrepreneurship in recent years, and its prosperity in the field of media arts.
Cities included in this category are characterized by development of cultural and creative industries triggered by digital technology, successful media arts integration leading to the improvement of urban life, growth of electronic art forms seeking the participation of civil society, wider access to culture through digital technology development, and residency programs and other studio spaces for media artists.
Tel Aviv's designation as a Creative City is aimed at encouraging further activity and entrepreneurship in the field of digital media and culture in collaboration with a wide variety of communities operating in the city, including the academia, the business sector, the industry, cultural institutions and more.
Alongside the local activity, the network's importance is in creating international collaborations between its members based on joint learning and exchange of information, in order to and to integrate the creativity in the local economy and social development plans.
In order to hold on to the title, every year the city will have to present the organization initiatives and collaborations which took place in the past year within the city and around the world.
