After the promotion of Biella as a UNESCO Creative City, the mayor Claudio Corradino wrote a letter to the citizens.
Here is the complete text:
Dear citizens,
with great joy and enthusiasm I have the pleasure of sharing with you all the results achieved by our city. Yesterday Biella received the title and officially joined the UNESCO Creative Cities network. It is a historic result, the result of teamwork and we aim to transform it into a driving force to turn the spotlight, with international relevance, on our city. As happened in rare other occasions, having made a network among all the actors of the territory has opened up unexplored prospects: ever since I decided to run for mayor of Biella, together with my team, we unanimously maintained that this was a road right to go.
There are those who believed in it from the first phase, and it is right to share the result obtained today with the outgoing administration and the mayor Marco Cavicchioli. The result also goes to reward the institutional partners without whom the City of Biella would not have been able to build this path, starting with the Cassa di Risparmio di Biella Foundation and Cittadellarte – Pistoletto Foundation.
Having reached the finish line must not be a point of arrival but must start what can be identified as the “Second phase”: being part of the Creative Cities means cooperating for a common goal. We will engage with a series of projects for the development and exchange of good innovative practices, to strengthen participation in cultural life and to integrate culture in sustainable urban development policies. Many have asked me about the benefits Biella will have in being a UNESCO Creative City: we will have the spotlight pointed with implications in terms of tourism and collaboration in the search for innovative solutions for the territory. The development of this path will lead to a very specific result: it is an attempt to create work and increase the territorial GDP.
Together with Biella, Bergamo also entered the Unesco network, to which we congratulate. The other Italian cities that have already won the title are Bologna for Music, Fabriano for Crafts & Folk Art, Rome for Cinema, Parma for Gastronomy, Turin for Design, Milan for Literature, Pesaro for Music, Carrara for Crafts & Folk Art and Alba for Gastronomy.
From today among these prestigious cities we can also officially add Biella. We must be proud of it. All together.
A warm greeting.
Claudio Corradino
MAYOR OF BIELLA
