World Cities Culture Report

The World Cities Culture Forum is a collaborative network of world cities that share a belief in the importance of culture for creating thriving cities.

World cities, because of their political and economic influence, play a crucial role in setting the global agenda around sustainable urban development. The World Cities Culture Forum is the only network in which the world’s leading cities can collectively set an actionable agenda for a sustainable urban future through culture.

The Forum was founded in 2012 by London, New York, Shanghai, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, Johannesburg, and Istanbul, and now includes 27 members from leading cities around the world.

The Forum works by convening a global network of senior policymakers and people of influence, who can speak knowledgably about conditions in their own cities, exchange ideas with international colleagues and promote innovation at home. The Forum also conducts comparative research on member cities to build a strong evidence base about the wide-ranging ways in which culture impacts on a world city and its inhabitants.

The City of Amsterdam will be hosting the next World Cities Culture Summit, which will be held from 12-14 November 2014. City leaders, cultural experts and senior representatives from more than 25 cities around the world will work together to explore the vital role of culture in the prosperity of global cities. It will include interactive sessions and working groups, with Amsterdam’s approach to cultural policy used as the starting point for discussion between partner cities about their own successes, the challenges they face and what they might learn from each other.

New cities have been invited to join the Forum in 2014. The Amsterdam World Cities Culture Summit will also be an opportunity for existing members of the Forum to meet new member cities.

The World Cities Culture Forum is an initiative of the Mayor of London, organised and coordinated by BOP Consulting with the support and collaboration of the following partners.