Aswan

City of Crafts and Folk Art since 2005

City presentation

Aswan, located along the Nile, has a rich history as a commercial center and cultural hub dating back to Ancient Egypt. Renowned for its crafts and folk arts, Aswan’s creative heritage includes beadwork, palm branch creations, clay products, and traditional needlework. Local folk traditions, especially in clothing, jewelry, and dance, play a significant role in the city’s cultural identity, with over 50 traditional dances still performed today by groups like the Aswan Folk Troupe.

Institutions such as the Aswan Museum and Nubia Museum focus on preserving the region’s folk arts, while events like the International Symposium of Sculpture celebrate its artistic legacy. As a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art, Aswan fosters sustainable development through culture by organizing events, supporting artisans with capacity-building programs, and engaging in international exchanges. These efforts promote creativity as a means of advancing social and economic development.

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Ayacucho

City of Crafts and Folk Art since 2019

City presentation

Founded in 1539, Ayacucho is known as the “Capital City of Folk Art and Peruvian Craftsmanship.” This Andean city fosters cultural diversity and artistic creativity, developing 16 types of crafts, including retablo, tapestry, Huamanga stone carving, pottery, textiles, and embroidery.

Ayacucho’s local crafts and folk art are celebrated during festivals like Easter and Carnival, which blend music, cinema, theatre, and dance. Events such as the First Regional Meeting of Craftsmen in 2019 aim to promote growth by addressing issues in the industry.

The city also supports crafts through a symposium that led to the creation of a folk art museum, interpretation centers, and a dedicated budget. Ayacucho aims to improve the handicraft sector, promote crafts in local and international markets, teach folk art in schools, recover its cultural heritage, and provide youth internships in partnership with local universities.

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Ballarat

City of Crafts and Folk Art since 2019

City presentation

Ballarat, located on the Yarrowee River in Victoria, Australia, is a creative city with a rich history, from indigenous culture to the gold rush era. With a population of 107,000, its crafts and folk art sector is the fastest-growing, blending traditional indigenous techniques with modern innovations.

The city celebrates its crafts legacy through the Winter Festival, which connects traditional crafts with new technologies like augmented reality. Ballarat supports creative growth with initiatives like “Start-Up Ballarat,” mentoring entrepreneurs in the crafts field, and “Made of Ballarat,” which links local tourism with artisans.
Ballarat envisions becoming an iconic city by revitalizing rare and forgotten crafts, promoting indigenous skills, and fostering creative innovation, while building capacity for cultural programming and supporting First Nations people through UNESCO’s Historic Urban Landscape approach.

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Bamiyan

City of Crafts and Folk Art since 2015

City presentation

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Biella

City of Crafts and Folk Art since 2019

City presentation

Located between the Alps and the Po River Valley in Italy, Biella is home to 44,000 residents and is known as the Italian wool capital. The city’s rich textile manufacturing industry, which dates back to the 1300s, thrives due to its abundance of rivers and streams, emphasizing artisanal skills and manufacturing creativity.

Biella serves as a hub for the entire textile chain, hosting events like the World Congress of Coloured Sheep and the Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Congregation. The city also organizes international expositions, such as Textile Innovation Days, fostering global synergies.
To promote creativity, the local government has transformed former wool mills into incubators for artistic experimentation and co-working spaces for emerging startups. Biella aims to connect local players through culture, build a reputation for creative hotspots, establish partnerships with other Creative Cities, and facilitate exchanges in textile, fashion, art, and social design.

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Bobo-Dioulasso

City of Crafts and Folk Art since 2025

City presentation

Burkina Faso’s second largest city, Bobo-Dioulasso has long served as a crossroads of peoples, trade and traditions. More than sixty communities coexist within its boundaries, their rituals, textile practices, mask traditions and artisanal knowledge continuing to shape daily life and urban identity. At the heart of this cultural fabric lies Koko dunda, a hand-dyed textile produced using locally rooted techniques that has become a symbol of creativity, identity and social resilience. With over 3,000 artisans — the majority of them women — engaged in its production, the tradition underpins livelihoods across the city. Major events such as the National Culture Week and the Bobo International Fair draw enormous audiences, with the 2024 edition alone welcoming over 300,000 visitors and 666 exhibitors. The craft sector accounts for more than 80% of total employment and over 50% of local value creation, making creativity a cornerstone of the city’s sustainable development.

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Bukhara

City of Crafts and Folk Art since 2023

City presentation

Bukhara, renowned for its cultural and architectural heritage, has a long-standing tradition of craftsmanship that plays a crucial role in the city’s development. The craft industry supports economic growth, job creation, and increased tourism, while promoting social inclusion and preserving cultural heritage. Skilled artisans in Bukhara practice traditional techniques in golden embroidery, ceramics, jewellery, and woodwork, which are integral to the region’s history along the ancient Silk Road. These artisans also contribute to cultural preservation through workshops and training programs.
With growing global interest in Bukhara’s crafts, international recognition has opened new export opportunities, boosting the local economy and reinforcing the city’s cultural identity.

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Castelo Branco

City of Crafts and Folk Art since 2023

City presentation

At the heart of Castelo Branco lies the renowned art of Castelo Branco Embroidery, which shapes the city’s unique cultural identity. This embroidery is not only celebrated for its beauty but also for its economic significance, adorning sidewalks and buildings as a symbol of the city’s rich heritage. Local artisans dedicated to preserving this craft continue to produce intricate embroidery, ensuring its relevance in the creative world.

Castelo Branco has also engaged in international collaborations with cities across various continents, enhancing its cultural influence. To combat demographic decline, the municipality focuses on improving quality of life, making Castelo Branco one of the most attractive cities in Portugal for foreign residents and investments. The crafts industry is crucial to the city’s development, exemplified by the “Embroidery and Hosting” brand, which protects local artisans and promotes events like the Castelo Branco Fashion contest, further advancing this cherished tradition.

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Cheongju City

City of Crafts and Folk Art since 2025

City presentation

Situated in the central region of South Korea, Cheongju is a dynamic urban hub where a rich educational landscape — eight universities — and a diverse cultural infrastructure converge with centuries of craft heritage. The city holds a singular place in world history as the birthplace of Jikji, the oldest known book printed with movable metal type, inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. This legacy of innovation and transmission lives on through thriving practices in ceramics, metalwork, textiles, lacquerware and paper crafts. Since 1999, the Cheongju Craft Biennale has drawn around 300,000 visitors per edition, placing the city firmly on the global craft map. Today, 832 craft-related companies, 180 registered artists and 80 small workshops generate approximately USD 46 million in annual sales and employ more than 3,400 people.

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Chardeleg

City of Crafts and Folk Art since 2017

City presentation

Chordeleg, a small city in southern Ecuador, is renowned for its precious metal work, pottery, footwear manufacturing, and toquilla straw weaving. These four sectors employ 66% of the active population, with 58% being women artisans. Craft knowledge is traditionally passed down through families and communities via oral tradition, and the city supports sustainability by helping artisans establish cooperatives and facilitating knowledge transfer.

The annual Candonga Festival, initiated in 2011, promotes Chordeleg’s crafts and encourages collaboration among artisans. The city partners with the Inter-American Centre for Crafts and Popular Arts (CIDAP) to safeguard traditional craft methods and improve working conditions. Additionally, the Municipality is implementing a National Plan to protect traditional toquilla weaving, focusing on revitalizing the craft sector through promotion and communication, while a broader Development and Territorial Planning strategy has already led to the creation of 12 new businesses.

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Como

City of Crafts and Folk Art since 2021

City presentation

Como, at the heart of Italy’s Textile Valley, is renowned for its textile industry, particularly silk craft and sericulture. The city is dedicated to preserving its rich traditions while promoting innovation through strong support from training centers and the creativity of its artisans and textile manufacturers.

Como’s textile sector is backed by renowned institutions such as the Setificio school, Italy’s oldest textile school, the University of Insubria, which emphasizes research and sustainability, and the Silk Museum, which preserves traditional production methods. The “Ratti” Foundation also plays a key role with its textile archive. Today, Como produces around 70% of Europe’s silk and is home to 1,400 silk companies, employing over 15,000 people. This thriving industry supports both the cultural heritage and the social fabric of the city.

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Gabrovo

City of Crafts and Folk Art since 2017

City presentation

Gabrovo, in central northern Bulgaria, was a major craft center in the 19th century, known for woodcarving and wool weaving. Today, it remains a vibrant hub for crafts, with 33 craft enterprises and 111 independent artisans. The Ethnographic Open-Air Museum (ETAR), established in the 1960s, showcases the region’s rich craft traditions.

Gabrovo hosts the annual International Crafts Fair, the largest of its kind in the region, featuring artisans from around the world. The event includes a master competition and scientific conferences on global craft trends. Gabrovo’s lively carnival also highlights local humor, traditional songs, and folk culture. The city aims to attract young artists through its Culture Development Strategy, promoting crafts as a driver of sustainable development.

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