
The 13th World Cities Culture Summit is being held in Dubai at the end of the month, from 30 October to 1 November. WCCS is basically a meeting of civic administrators from more than 40 cities around the world, people who believe that “culture is at the heart of thriving cities, acting as a driver to create equitable, prosperous and sustainable places to live, work and play”; there will be much networking, site visits, and presentations and workshops on topics of mutual interest – “from AI to archaeology, the Summit will unpack how global cities are blending heritage with bold innovation, tradition with technology”.
Justine Simons, London’s Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries, and the Founder and Chair of World Cities Culture Forum (which organises the Summit), noted that Dubai was an entirely appropriate venue: “Dubai is home to over 200 nationalities and a meeting point of cultures across continents,” she said. “The World Cities Culture Forum is founded on the principle of collaboration – we believe that appreciating each other’s cultures contributes to global cohesion.”
Shame it’s invite-only, but there is one open session – 10 to 11am on 31 October, at Concrete in Alserkal Avenue. The subject is ‘Tomorrow’s Talent: What Do Creatives Need from Cities?’, and on the panel will be Alanood Bukhammas, ZU Dubai Professor of Graphic Design; Bridget Smyth, Sydney’s Executive Manager of City Design and Public Art; Jader Andre de Souza Rosa, CEO of Brazil’s Itaú CulturalI, an institute that promotes artistic and intellectual initiatives; Tommaso Sacchi, deputy mayor for Cultural Affairs at Milan; and Hani Asfour, VP of Innovation and Institutional Partnerships at DIDI. Justine Simons will moderate.
A scant hour seems too little for such a massive subject, especially if all those speakers are going to make a substantive contribution. At least the public session will be followed by a coffee break “where attendees will have the chance to connect with delegates from the World Cities Culture Summit”. If you’d like to attend, you’ll need to pre-register here.
Nothing gets decided at WCCS, incidentally; it’s more about sharing experience and finding commonalities. As Justine Simons put it, “in Dubai we will learn from each other and champion the transformative power of culture to address the common challenges we face”. In practice the most visible outcome of the Summit will be probably be an update to the World Cities Culture Trends Report; the 2023 edition was produced after the last WCCS, held in Sao Paulo, and it came up with ten “global trends for culture in cities”.

Frankly you might have hoped for a bit more insight than these – “the long term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are still being experienced by culture and the creative workforce … Many cities are realising the power of culture to support citizens’ wellbeing: integrating culture with healthcare … Citizens are at the heart of the social and cultural life of neighbourhoods …” and so on. What is valuable is the inclusion of specific city projects, policies and interventions to support the otherwise wafflely ten trends. It’s useful to have this mini-database of examples to see what’s possible and how it might be delivered; maybe one thing the Forum could usefully do is document more of these, ideally with an objective assessment of delivery.
The World Cities Culture Trends Report 2023 is available for download here.
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