Georgia's capital Tbilisi, seaside city Batumi join UNESCO Creative Cities Network
The Black Sea city of Batumi and capital Tbilisi are two of the 49 locations joining the network this year. Photos: Jelger Groeneveld CC BY 2.0/Tbilisi City Hall.
Tweet 
Share
Georgia's capital Tbilisi and the Black Sea coastline city of Batumi are two of the 49 most recent cities to join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, an initiative aiming to stimulate creative industries and showcase cities supporting them.
The new member cities were announced by the United Nations cultural organisation - which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year - on Monday, taking the number of member locations to nearly 300.
Tbilisi City Hall, which had nominated the capital city for inclusion, said the status meant a focus on supporting media art and "implementation of both one-time and long-term projects" in the city over the next four years.
Congratulations to the new 49 members of @UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network. The Network now numbers 295 cities reaching 90 countries that invest in culture and creativity to advance sustainable urban development. https://t.co/qNYwfKmo4A pic.twitter.com/xwpxVK1ECg
— Audrey Azoulay (@AAzoulay) November 8, 2021
Digital art, photography, painting, multimedia art, interactive media and videogames will be among the disciplines and mediums promoted and supported by the capital city, for which the new status is another boost following the 2021 UNESCO World Book Capital title it currently holds.
[The status] will enable our contemporary artists, digital technology professionals and representatives of related fields to carry out projects of international importance, and position Tbilisi as a kind of creative hub
- Andria Basilaia, Deputy Tbilisi Mayor
For Batumi, joining the Creative Cities Network means devoting resources to supporting musical art in the coastline city, with pianist Eliso Bolkvadze, chairperson of the country's Parliamentary Committee on Culture, saying earlier this year the status would "strengthen our country's positions on the international cultural and tourist maps".
Bolkvadze, who was named a UNESCO Artist for Peace in 2015 and received a second mandate for the status earlier in 2021, has collaborated with the UNESCO through her work on Batumi Music Fest, an annual festival of classical music in the city, organised by her Lyra Foundation since 2013.
The Creative Cities Network involves seven categories of creative industries for cities looking to join: Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts and Music. Submissions are reviewed by experts and member cities and ultimately approved by the organisation's director-general.
Georgia's Black Sea city of Batumi will join locations across all five continents that form the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, a project celebrating hotspots of creative industries and offering opportunities for experience-sharing and collaboration throughout the globe.
A UNESCO-supported project by Georgian professionals of the culture field will be unveiled this week to present a vision on boosting sustainability of artistic and cultural organisations and individuals in the country in the coming years.
Georgia's capital Tbilisi is about to turn into a hub for book lovers, literary organisations, publishers and bookstores over the next year as the city formally accepted the status of the 2021 UNESCO World Book Capital on Friday.
Author residency programmes, literary festivals, artistic performances and publisher projects will be on the agenda in Georgia's capital Tbilisi starting next week, with the first details of celebrating the city's year-long status as the 2021 UNESCO World Book Capital are emerging.
Three locations in Georgia's west - the Black Sea port city of Poti, Imereti provincial capital Kutaisi, and Zugdidi in the Samegrelo region - will receive up to €30,000 in European Union funding to develop strategies for their cultural and creative sectors, as part of the EU4Culture project launched this year to support Eastern Partnership countries.
Georgia has joined the next instalment of Creative Europe, a European Union programme set to support cultural and creative sectors in member and partner states between 2021-2027, with the signing of the agreement marking the renewal of the country's participation in the initiative following its first inclusion in 2015.
Cellist Alexander Hülshoff and pianist Alexandra Massaleva will be among the headlining performers at this year's Batumi Black Sea Music & Art Festival, a popular celebration of classical music in the seaside city that has been enriched with multi-faceted art forms in recent editions.