Fabriano UNESCO Creative city, Marche region and the “Bear cities”
In the ’70s, probably quoting writer Piovene and his travel accounts, the Marche region advertised our territory by saying: “Marche, Italy in a region”.
It was a moment in which our Region wanted to be known outside sociology and economics, which had studied our industrial districts as a specific model of development, grown in a region as big as Belgium and with a few more inhabitants than Milan.
Fabriano was at the centre of this industrial model: a city with an important past, an articulated present and a future be imagined. A city with a strong industrial identity, in the middle of creative transformation process.
An important part of this process is the project of Fabriano as an UNESCO Creative City, whose significance is going to be shared with the whole Marche region during the 2019 UNESCO Creative Cities Conference, thanks to the “Great Bear Cities project“, a cultural event that will involve cities from all the Marche region.
A common journey and a project joining into a sign, a constellation, the creative corners of our region, building an event with an important media, touristic and networking outreach.
From the new year, we will be working on the Great Bear cities project
The cities involved in the project are Urbino, UNESCO World Heritage site, as well as 7 other cities, representing for their creative vocations the 7 clusters of the UNESCO Network: Ancona (Film), Ascoli Piceno (Design), Fermo (Craft and Folk Art) Macerata (Media Arts) Pesaro (UNESCO Creative City of Music), Recanati (place of birth of Giacomo Leopardi, Literature) Senigallia (Gastronomy).
UNESCO delegates will visit these cities, starting with cluster meetings and then attending events and activities organized by each city with local creative, enterprises and cultural institutions, favouring synergies and the birth of joint projects.
At the end of the day, a spectacular cultural event will involve the Marche artists and performers in the theatres and squares of the connected cities, an event that will be filmed and shown live.
The Great Bear cities project will support “Marche as a region of creativity“, a challenge that involved cities have welcomed with great entusiasm.
The Creative Cities event: from Meeting to Conference
After having evaluated Fabriano’s project, UNESCO has decided to upgrade the Creative Cities event, from Meeting to Conference: the 2019 Creative Cities assembly will then be the XIII UNESCO CREATIVE CITIES CONFERENCE, the first time a Creative Cities meeting has the same status of great UN discussion.
Not just a Meeting between delegates, then, but a world discussion on the future of cities in the XXI century.
Music, Cinema and Gastronomy calls
The Pavillion projects are coming: we will also soon have all the calls from the Italian Creative Cities, that will enrich Pavillions with events and initiatives.
The first two calls were launched by Bologna and Pesaro, Cities of Music: during the UNESCO Conference Fabriano will host the first edition of a new international festival, the UNESCO Cities of Music Festival, with 6 international musicians and performers from UNESCO cities of Music. Rome City of Film has also launched a call aimed at short movies telling stories of sustainable urban innovation, the “Ideal City” theme.
Milan will also launch a project to show the literature heritage of Creative Cities, through a “literary tour“, while Gastronomy cities of Alba and Parma will launch a competition between international chefs.
*An extended version of this article was published on the weekly newspaper L’Azione, December 2018
