The UNESCO Transcultura Programme joins the Kingston Culture Forum

Kingston Creative (KC) will launch an annual summit this month, the Kingston Culture Forum. The Kingston Culture Forum is a conference convening cultural and creative industry stakeholders in the public, private, academic and social sectors. The theme for the event will be “Downtown Kingston: creative economy, placemaking and sustainable urban development”.

In this framework, the UNESCO Transcultura Programme: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity will harness the dialogue to raise awareness on key areas of cooperation and identify new opportunities to foster cultural entrepreneurship capacity-building, interregional collaboration and creative exchanges.

Transcultura is a four-year Programme, launched on 1 January 2020, funded by the European Union and implemented by the UNESCO Regional Office for Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean, that seeks to deepen integration between Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union. It engages partners and targets direct and indirect beneficiaries within the geographic scope of the 17 Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) and the Organization of the Eastern Caribbean States (OECS): Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Monserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

The Kingston Creative Culture Forum programme will include the following components:
• Museums, and heritage institutions and their role in preserving cultural memory in the digital age
• Creative Placemaking and Urban Regeneration in Cultural and Creative Cities
• Policies for growing cultural and creative industries through the Festival/Experience economy
• Capacity building in communities: promoting creative industry and preserving heritage in at-risk communities
• Creative Partnership & Opportunity Pitch
• ‘CreaTech’: best practices in Creativity and Technology amongst creatives

Additionally, the event will feature an extensive list of esteemed guest speakers and a performance by “Sevana”, a Jamaican singer, actress, and model.
On behalf of UNESCO, the opening remarks will be given by Dr Saadia Sanchez-Vegas, Director and the UNESCO Representative to the UNESCO Cluster Office for the Caribbean and Officer-in-Charge of the UNESCO Regional Office for Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean on 24 September, 09:05 a.m. – 09:40 a.m. (GMT-4).