The Creative Cities Network was launched by UNESCO in October 2004, following a decision taken at the 170 th session of its Executive Council. Its purpose is to defend and promote cultural diversity and encourage the development of the creative, social and economic potential of local communities . It was born of the experience of the Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity set up in 2002 by UNESCO.

The network comprises 2016 116 member cities, divided into seven thematic categories: literature , cinema , music , crafts and folk art , design , media arts and gastronomy . A French city and a Quebec city are currently part of the network in the design category: Montreal since 2006 and Saint-Étienne since 2010. Two other French cities, Lyon and Enghien-les-Bains , are also part of the “Digital Arts” network of cities “. Finally,Limoges belongs to the “Crafts and Popular Arts” network and Quebec belongs to the “Literature” network.

The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) is a project of UNESCO launched in 2004 to promote cooperation among cities which recognized creativity as a major factor in their urban development. As of 2017, there are 180 cities from 72 countries in the network.

The network aims to foster mutual international cooperation with and between member cities committed to invest in creativity as a driver for sustainable urban development, social inclusion and cultural vibrancy. The Network recognizes the following creative fields:

Crafts and Folk Arts
Media Arts
Film
Design
Gastronomy
Literature
Music
The overall situation and activities within the Network is reported in the UCCN Membership Monitoring Reports, each for a 4-year period for a particular city.

The Network recognizes the concept of creative tourism, defined as travel associated with creative experience and participation.

Intention and function
The network aims to strengthen the cultural identity of the member cities, despite the growing trend towards internationalism.

The aim of the UNESCO program is to unite public and private partners and societies and to promote the creative economy . The international exchange should be improved and new cooperations developed. Cities that meet various film and cinema criteria can apply for this award.

The project aims to highlight an outstanding aspect of the culture of these cities and to find ways to enhance the relevance of this cultural asset in urban life, in the local economy and in social development. The aspects of culture that are considered in the project are: literature , film , music , folk art , design , media and gastronomy . Each of these aspects has its own award.

List
The Global Alliance’s Creative Cities Network, a UNESCO program instituted in 2005, recognizes cities world-wide with reputations as centers of excellence in literature, film, music, crafts and folk art, design, media arts and gastronomy. The program is intended to help creative cities share ideas on preserving and enhancing their cultural programs. Needless to say, cities in this program can also be appealing travel destinations for the traveller interested in the cities’ creative speciality (and other things as well). Current members of the Creative Cities Network are: