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 350 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.
350 cities are part of this newtwork, joining efforts for a common mission:
to put creativity at the heart of the cities local development, at the same time they cooperate actively at an international level.
There are currently 25 UNESCO Cities for Media Arts:
York (UK), Linz (Austria),
Enghien-Les-Bains (France),
Lyon (France), Košice (Slovakia),
Austin (USA), Toronto (Canada),
Guadalajara (Mexico),
Dakar (Senegal), Tel Aviv (Israel),
Gwangju (South Korea),
Changsha (China), Sapporo (Japan), Karlsruhe (Germany), Hamar (Norway), Modena (Italy), Tbilisi (Georgia), Campina Grande (Brazil), Namur (Belgium), Cali (Colombia), Viborg (Denmark), Caen (France), Casablanca (Morocco), Novi Sad (Serbia) and, of course, Braga.
Representatives of partner cities meet regularly to define strategies for artists' cooperation and internationalization. The cities give support for artistic creation structures, working together for the funding and co-production of projects. They also support teaching and research in the field of Media Arts. In this context, networking relationships between the cultural and creative industries of the 25 cities are also enhanced.
At the time of the city's candidacy for UNESCO Creative City for Media Arts, Braga has assumed as its mission for the next four years the following action plan:
- To promote learning and experimentation in the field of Media Arts at an educational and scientific level, in order to develop the talent, knowledge and creativity of future generations. A part of this mission is already happenning
with Circuito - Braga Media Arts Educational Service and the birth of a Masters in Media Arts at University of Minho.
- To organize an International Media Arts Biennal as a showcase for local, national and international artists, with a programme that includes relfection, performance, exhibition
and education. index was the year zero of what will be the first edition of the Biennial in 2021.
- To create a network of Media Arts infrastructures, a new platform to foster artists, researchers, students, companies and startups in the field of Media Arts.
- To value de History, heritage and memory of the city through artistic creation and use of new technologies.
- To promote the exchange of ideas at an international level, as well as the production of knowledge and the search for business opportunities at the intersection of art, science, technology and community.