On December 2nd, Tel Aviv city, Israel was designated as new member of the United Nations of Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s newest creative cities network in the area of media arts.
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A corner of Tel Aviv city, Israel (Source: Reuters) |
Tel Aviv was chosen to join the network thanks to its intensive activity in high-tech entrepreneurship in recent years, and its prosperity in the field of media arts.
Cities included in this category are characterized by development of cultural and creative industries triggered by digital technology, successful media arts integration leading to the improvement of urban life, growth of electronic art forms seeking the participation of civil society, wider access to culture through digital technology development, and residency programs and other studio spaces for media artists.
UNESCO established the creative cities networks in order to encourage cooperation between international cities in order to promote local creative industries, to encourage entrepreneurship and creativity as well as to strengthen the local economy and social development.
Tel Aviv takes its place among 41 other cities, each recognized in one of seven categories: Literature, Film, Music, Craft and Folk Art, Design, Media Arts and Gastronomy.
Other notable members of the network include Dublin (Literature), Liverpool (Music), Sydney (Film) and Berlin (Design).
Tel Aviv was recently designated the “World’s smartest city” in a smart city conference in Barcelona, after launching Digi-tel, a platform for engaging with its residents that includes providing access to culture and arts. It has also put up free Wi-Fi in public areas frequented by tourists.
In July 6th, 2003, UNESCO designated the “White city of architecture” of Tel Aviv as a world heritage site, recognizing the importance of the city’s past architecture./.