Penedo is the second City from Brazil in the Cinema category and one of the 5 cities in the whole world to win the UNESCO’s seal, in 2023, in this creative area.
The city of Penedo was announced on Tuesday (31) by the United Nations for Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO), a UN body, as a member of the Creative Cities Network.
The inclusion is on the list designated by the UNESCO’s general director, Audrey Azolay, together with 55 new members. Apart from Penedo, only Rio de Janeiro was selected among the Brazilian cities, this one in the Literature category.
The contemplated cities with the seal will cooperate with the members of the Mundial Network to strengthen the culture and creativity as instruments of economic development.
To the Mayor Ronaldo Lopes, the news brings visibility without precedents to Penedo: “We’re presenting our city to the world with what we have better: History, Culture and Art. This is the recognition of the creativity of Penedo’s people and that we are transforming our Economic Development by its roots.”
Ronaldo Lopes affirmed that the UNESCO’s seal will be converted in opportunities to cultural projects, tourism, investments and, above all, in cinema, granting jobs and income to the population.
“The exchange of good practices with the mundial leader cities at creative economy puts Penedo in an extremely select group that will promote the audiovisual in the city. After the revitalization of the ancient Cine São Francisco, we will be reopening the traditional and currently renovated Cine Penedo, on the next november 13th”.
As for the secretary of tourism, Jair Galvão, said that the achievement is the result of the integrated work from Penedo City Hall with countless partners: “The city administration has been working with the key-institutions, who supported this candidacy for over a year. SEBRAE Alagoas and the Federal University of Alagoas are among the highlighted ones, and so is the Consortium Penedo Criativa together with all of the sectoral groups from Penedo who build the winning dossier”.
To Jair Galvão, Penedo opens its doors more intensively to the audiovisual world. “The cinema is an economic sector extremely powerful, we’ll have a work centered at the capacitation of producers, demonstrating that Penedo is the perfect location to productions. The Penedo Circuit of Cinema should be internationalized and surely will strengthen the art schools projects and creative technologies in Penedo”.
The UNESCO’s Creative Cities Mundial Network
The UNESCO’s Creative Cities Mundial Network was launched in 2004 for promoting the cooperation between the cities that acknowledged creativity as an important factor to its urban development at the economic, social, cultural and environmental aspects.
The project aims at improving the mutual international cooperation with and between the member cities committed to investing in creativity as a sustainable urban development motor, social inclusion and vibrant culture.
In the 2023 UNESCO candidacy notice, only Penedo (cinema) and Rio de Janeiro (literature) entered the global network through Brazil, which now has 14 cities in the international cooperation network.
Original Post by Fernando Vinícius on 10/31/2023
Translated by Denner Sabino