Friday, July 19, 2019
Laboratory of innovative ideas and practices for sustainable development is the goal of the UNESCO Network of Creative Cities, which has four Brazilian cities for this year’s titles.
Belo Horizonte (MG) competes in the category Gastronomy, Cataguases (MG) in Cinema, Fortaleza (CE) in the segment Design and Aracaju (SE) in music.
Through public policies, good practices and grassroots projects that promote the participation of all – including women, youth and vulnerable groups – the network is crucially instrumental in reaching the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (ODS).
Currently, the network, established in 2004, has 180 cities in 72 countries. Eight of them are in Brazil: Belém (PA), Florianópolis (SC) and Paraty (RJ), in the field of Gastronomy; Brasília (DF) and Curitiba (PR), in Design; João Pessoa (PB), in Crafts and Folk Arts; Salvador (BA), in Music; and Santos (SP), in the Cinema.
According to the coordinator of the Environment, Culture and Creative Economy of the Ministry of Tourism, Nicole Facuri, the use of the sectors of the creative economy as assets to add value and develop new products and tourist destinations are of great importance for the diversification of the national tourism, especially in Brazil, which has creativity.
“Creative tourism or experiential tourism represents a trend of consumption around the world. The MTur has supported actions that promote and encourage the consumption of tourism products structured from the cultural, intellectual and creative capital, such as audiovisual, design, gastronomy, literary content, visual arts, among others,” Nicole said.
With a unique culinary art that goes back to a tradition of decades, Belo Horizonte has been consolidating itself more and more as an essential asset for the gastronomic tourism in the country.
Today, gastronomy accounts for almost 40% of jobs in the creative economy of Belo Horizonte, with more than 21,000 people formally employed.
By applying for the Creative City- Music title, Aracaju aims to establish a powerful creative industry with national and international investments, a participatory cultural life including the most vulnerable and an urban development where music is a strategic factor for sustainable development.
Aspiring to hold the title of Design, the capital of Ceará is considered the fourth capital of the country in number of establishments of the segment, after São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Curitiba. In addition, Fortaleza occupies the third position among the Brazilian capitals in terms of number of formal jobs in the Design sector, with a rate of 273.9 designers per million inhabitants, 80% higher than the Brazilian average. Everything began with the cycle of cotton planting in Ceará, from the 18th century, when the process of industrialization in Fortaleza was consolidated with the creation of a textile industrial park and a fashion production area.
In the area of Cinema, the mining town Cataguases is the leader of Brazil’s candidacy for the UNESCO network. The region stands out in the national cultural scene, being recognized as a great center of cinematographic production in the country. The creation of a studio-school for high-level professional qualification in audiovisual and transmedia design, focusing on the animation sector, is one of the projects to be developed, after the city receives the title in the Network of Creative Cities.
The main event in the city is the Watch and Make Movies Festival which has already had the participation of young students from Portugal, Mozambique, Cape Verde and Angola.
