Culture 21 Plus Webinar

On January 21, 2025, on the initiative of the UCLG Committee on Culture, the Culture 21 PLUS Webinar was organized for the cities of the Eurasia region with the support of UCLG-Eurasia. The event was attended by representatives of municipalities and regions of Eurasia: the Republic of Ingushetia, Olenek District, Veliky Novgorod, Sevastopol, Vladivostok, Kazan, Cheboksary, Yaroslavl (Russia), Minsk (Belarus)m Osh (Kyrgyzstan), Dushanbe, Khujand (Tajikistan), as well as cultural institutions of Yelabuga (Russia) and Minsk (Belarus).

Rasikh Sagitov, Secretary General of UCLG-Eurasia, addressed the participants of the seminar with a welcoming speech: “Today, we have gathered to determine what our Eurasia region sees as the agenda for the upcoming UCLG Culture Summit, and to make our contribution, to say our word on this issue.”

Before the webinar started, Jordi Pascual, Coordinator of the UCLG Committee on Culture, presented the participants with the general information on the Culture 21 Plus document being developed, 6 blocks and 30 key areas of culture. “20 years ago, cities committed to preparing a document that would explicitly link culture to sustainable development, because there is no city that does not have a cultural component. Our connections with nature, the traditions we celebrate, all of this is largely at the heart of our lives,” Jordi Pascal stressed.

In the segment "Current Trends and Future Challenges", the participants presented projects and initiatives related to different blocks of culture: Communities, Prosperity, Nature, Territories, Rights and Governance. Zalina Lyanova, Minister of Culture of the Republic of Ingushetia, told about the relationship between culture and social issues, in particular inclusion, healthcare, education, ecology, and digital transformation. The examples include the "SHKID" (School of Inclusive Leisure) project implementing socio-cultural rehabilitation of children with disabilities, or the Inclusive Creative Laboratory "Твори добро" [Do Good]. Gulzada Rudenko, Director General of the Yelabuga State Museum-Reserve, touched upon the formation of a special "Museum Culture" among Yelabuga schoolchildren: "We teach children to love their small homeland, their great homeland, raising a generation of young citizens, into whose prepared hands we will very soon pass on our rich heritage." She also noted festivals and tournaments held in the city.

Vasilisa Spiridonova, Head of the Representative Office of the Olenek Evenki National District of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in the city of Yakutsk, began her speech with a greeting in the Evenki language and told how the concepts of "culture" and "nature" are closely intertwined in the life of the Evenki. "The preservation of the cultural code, observance of traditions, revival of the language – this is what will help us survive as the people, preserve our uniqueness, originality, raise new generations of residents of the Arctic region who will be proud of the fact that they are Evenki and do good deeds for the benefit of their native land." Guzel Sagitova, Deputy Head of the Executive Committee of the city of Kazan for Social Issues, welcomes the participants in the Tatar language and delivered a speech about the preservation of languages as part of the world culture. She presented educational projects "Tree of Life", "Gәүһәr", the festival of new ethnic culture of the peoples of the Volga region "Itil", etc. Nurlan Zakirov, Head of the Social Development Department of Osh, spoke about the activities to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of Osh, as well as about the development of the city's own tourist brand.

After the main reports, Jordi Pascal opened the discussion. Azat Abzalov, Head of the Department of Culture of the Executive Committee of Kazan, made comments on the Culture 21 PLUS document being developed. He noted the issues related to the protection of languages, the preservation of cultural identity in cultural diversity, the importance of modern libraries, cultural centers, and museums. Gulzada Rudenko proposed to indicate in the document stable types of cultural institutions, a special place for museums intended to be educational centers at the local level, in this list. Jordi Pascal thanked everyone for their participation.

Note: Culture 21 Plus is a tool that proposes a number of areas and actions that explore the links between culture, cultural rights and other areas of local action to promote culture as a driver of sustainable urban development. The preparation of Culture 21 Plus, a roadmap for developing local cultural policies in the coming years, began in 2023. The official publication will be presented in July 2025 at the UCLG Culture Summit in Jeonju, South Korea.

21.01.2025

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