Following an online vote launched in late September, Krakow and Katowice, respectively Creative Cities of Literature and Music from Poland, and also jointly referred to as Krakowice, have been selected by the members to host the XII UCCN Annual Meeting in June 2018.

The XII Annual Meeting in Krakowice will be themed “Creative Crosscroads”, building on the idea of cross-sectoral cooperation between Creative Cities. This major Network’s gathering will provide an excellent opportunity for all members to showcase, share and discuss the outcomes of joint-initiatives, as well as to identify concrete projects, policies and programmes putting culture and creativity at the core of sustainable urban development, in other words, concrete examples of the local and international implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, notably its city-related Goal 11 on making “cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.

“Our vision is to build a programme and provide an experience that is reflective of our strengths: our role as a connector and our role as a mine for vast creative resources. This didactic work reflects our strong belief that together we will achieve more as a macro-regional creative cooperative. We invite you to Krakow UNESCO City of Literature and Katowice UNESCO City of Music for a unique and interdisciplinary encounter with culture and creativity.”

– Prof. Jacek Majchrowski, Mayor of Krakow & Ph.D. Marcin Krupa, Mayor of Katowice

The UCCN Secretariat wish to warmly congratulate Krakow and Katowice, as well as to express its deep appreciation to the two other candidate cities that have proposed a bid, Fabriano (Italy) and Suzhou (China), for their lasting commitment to the Network and for responding to the requirements stipulated in the Host City Selection Criteria, approved by the member at the IX UCCN Annual Meeting (Kanazawa, Japan, May 2015).

Krakow and Katowice will be given the opportunity to make a presentation of their programme at the forthcoming XI Annual Meeting to be held from 29 June to 2 July 2017 in Enghien-les-Bains, France.