UNESCO City of Literature - Dublin, 2010

UNESCO's City of Literature programme is part of a wider Creative Cities Network which was launched in 2004 and is currently made up of 180 UNESCO Creative Cities globally. Members are drawn from 72 countries and cover seven creative fields: Crafts & Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Music, and Media Arts.^[1]The Network was born out of UNESCO's Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity initiative which was created in 2002. The Creative City Network’s aim is to "promote the social, economic and cultural development of cities in both the developed and the developing world." The cities in the network promote their local creative scene and conform to UNESCO’s goal of fostering cultural diversity. They recognise past, present and future: a strong cultural heritage, a vibrant and diverse contemporary cultural scene, and aspirations to extend culture to the next generation at home and to other cities in a global partnership.^[1] As of 2017, 28 cities have been designated as part of the City of Literature programme.^[2]

The UNESCO Cities of Literature network of 28 cities^[3] represents 6 continents and 23 countries, and a combined population of over 26 million.