Gwalior and Kozhikode from India are among the 55 new cities which have joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

UNESCO made the announcement on its official website on Tuesday.

These new cities were acknowledged for “their strong commitment to harnessing culture and creativity as part of their development strategies, and displaying innovative practices in human-centred urban planning”, the world body said in a statement.

On World Cities Day, 55 cities joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), following their designation by UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, it added.

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While Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh has made it to the coveted list in the ‘Music’ category, Kozhikode in Kerala has earned the place in the ‘Literature’ category.

UNESCO has shared the full list of the new 55 cities which include Bukhara – Crafts and Folk Art, Casablanca – Media Arts, Chongqing – Design, Kathmandu – Film, Rio de Janeiro – Literature, and Ulaanbaatar – Crafts and Folk Art.

World Cities Day designated by the United Nations falls on October 31.

With the latest additions, the UCCN now counts 350 cities in more than a hundred countries, representing seven creative fields: Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts and Music, UNESCO said in its statement.

“The cities in our Creative Cities Network are leading the way when it comes to enhancing access to culture and galvanizing the power of creativity for urban resilience and development,” Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General, was quoted as saying in the statement.

An upcoming policy paper – “The added value of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network at local, national and international level” – will testify to the leading role played by cities towards the achievement of the 2030 Agenda while demonstrating ways in which UNESCO supports the UCCN members by fostering dialogue, peer-to-peer learning and collaboration, it said.

The newly designated Creative Cities are invited to participate in the 2024 UCCN Annual Conference (July 1-5, 2024) in Braga, Portugal, under the theme “Bringing Youth to the table for the next decade”, the statement said.