Officials, practitioners and civil society representatives met in Ulyanovsk 23 March to celebrate the city’s first year in the UCCN and look forward to its future activities.

Since the designation of Ulyanovsk was announced at the Saint Petersburg International Cultural Forum in December 2015 by the Director-General of UNESCO, the City has been hard at work implementing its plans.

A key marker of success for the officials present, especially, was the engagement of citizens in the programming the City has undertaken, in addition to the project of the designation itself.

International cooperation is another focus of the City’s plan – Ulyanovsk was visited by representatives of such UNESCO Creative Cities Montevideo, Krakow, Barcelona, Shenzhen and Baghdad. The creativity of Ulyanovsk’s writers has been showcased at events in Tartu, Melbourne and Reykjavik, and local citizens had the opportunity to participate in events involving international writers.