Joining a global family of creatives

Dundee’s City of Design status has propelled it on to the world stage. Stewart Murdoch, director of Leisure and Culture Dundee, explains the importance of this

Earlier this month, Dundee was represented at the Annual Meeting of the UNESCO Creative Cities in Enghien les Bains, a city suburb north-west of Paris. The meeting brought together representatives from all 116 UNESCO Creative Cities.

The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) was created in 2004 to promote co-operation among cities that use creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development.

Cities in the network have a common objective – to place cultural industries at the heart of their local development plans and to co-operate actively at the international level.

UNESCO believes cities will then be better placed to respond to the major challenges they are confronting, such as environmental impacts, the economic crisis, demographic growth and social tensions. The Creative Cities also contribute fundamentally to quality of life.

For Dundee to be represented in this network is a tremendous opportunity and reflects the rapid emergence of this city on the global stage.

We found ourselves in the company of representatives from cities on every continent – Shanghai, Montreal, Seoul, Berlin, Beijing, Jingdezhen, Bologna, Bogota, Reykjavik and Dunedin.

These meetings are often divided into different themes: craft and folk art, film, gastronomy, literature, media arts and music, and cities come together for joint design seminars.

Dundee presented its report on the work done over the first two full years of its designation.

All 116 cities were invited to submit a short film which was judged by a public panel. Dundee’s film, produced by Flyboy Original, was one of the top 10 and is available to be viewed online at www.dundeecityofdesign.com/unescocity-of-design-dundee-film/ When a show on this scale comes to town it is important that the local citizens are also engaged. Not only were there public film screenings but there was a spectacular firework display over the lake and a free rock concert.

There was also a major exhibition which invited Creative Cities to submit entries looking at how digital technology has transformed each city and the way residents live.

Dundee supports the Design Team WRLD3D. It was shortlisted for the development of its 3D maps – geospatially accurate models of the real world onto which the team overlayed data, creating dynamic models.

The city gains profile from such events. Dundee is the UK’s only UNESCO City of Design, meaning we are in a unique position to collaborate with cities around the world.

We have formed direct links and supported academic and practical exchanges with opportunities for designers and academics from Dundee to promote design.

We have also formed direct links with a number of those cities which have either hosted the title European Capital of Culture or will hold that designation in the next few years.

The links go beyond this, however. We were able to meet with representatives from Cities of Film, Music, and Literature, all of whom are interested in developing creative and cultural partnerships with Dundee and further developing opportunities not previously available to us.

At a time when the nation’s connections to Europe in particular are so much in the public eye, we felt a huge warmth from the European Creative Cities to our presence.

It also prompted a desire to strengthen and develop links based on culture and creativity – contacts which transcend the boundaries of politics and national identity.

Clockwise from main picture: one of the digital city exhibitions; the lake at Enghien les Bains; a display at the conference venue; and UNESCO City delegates.