The UNESCO Creative Cities Network was founded in 2004 to bring together cities where creativity is the strategic factor for sustainable development.
The Network is divided into 7 different creative fields – Crafts and Folk Arts, Media Arts, Film, Design, Literature, Music and Gastronomy – and has 180 cities from 72 countries. In the world, the Creative Cities for Gastronomy recognized by UNESCO are 26.
Cities that like Parma join the Network are committed to sharing good practices and collaborating, involving the creative community, that is the community of local actors who daily engage in the development of the city.
Being part of the UNESCO World of Creative Cities is not like submitting to UNESCO a monument or good to be included within the list of World Heritage Sites. It means, instead, to make available to the world the city’s own tradition, capabilities and its creativity.
But what do we mean by “creative city“? Creativity is the process that underpins every innovation. The concept of a creative city is based on the belief that culture can play an important role in urban development.
For Parma, to enter the UNESCO world means opening the city to the internationalization process and representing the excellence of Made in Italy globally.
Parma’s gastronomic heritage is not only a set of resources, but it is a unique combination of anthropological expressions that constitute the identity, the history and the know-how of the community, a culture linked to a material and immaterial heritage: the ideal context to promote the development of “creative tourism”.
Being part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network is an important responsibility. It means laying the foundations of its own economic development, providing a growing platform for professionals: sowing and harvesting. It’s not just pick up the pace, but it is to change the paradigm, thinking in an international and glocal perspective. Raising the gaze upwards and offering an idea of the future – more than ever precious in these uncertain times – treasuring the “City Branding” strategy: Parma bets on its identity, made of original experiences impossible to reproduce, to build and consolidate its local and international reputation, the very year in which it celebrates the 2200 years of the founding of the city.
