Dundee named Unesco City of Design

The Unesco Creative Cities Network aims to encourage collaboration and development of the creative industries among global cities.

Cities can apply to join the network and must fulfil criteria such as having an established design industry, design school and research centres and hosting design-driven creative industries.

Dundee is the first UK city to achieve Unesco City of Design status, and joins other cities including Helsinki, Turin, Buenos Aires and Seoul in the network.

Creative Dundee, which supports the creative industries in the city, says: “It really is a prestigious award that recognises the huge contribution the city has made to design worldwide.

“Like other cities we have our challenges, but the City of Design status is something which Dundee can build on and do even greater things.”

Dundee hosts Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art and Design and School of Architecture as well as Abertay University. It also plays host to the NEoN digital arts festival.

In 2016 the Victoria & Albert Museum’s new £45 million outpost is set to open in Dundee, designed by architect Kengo Kuma.

The museum says that its displays of Scottish design will include not just work by well-known figures such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh, but also contemporary designers such as Graven Images, Timorous Beasties and Jaguar design director Ian Callum.

Last year Dundee lost out to Hull in the race to become UK City of Culture for 2017.

Unesco has also named York as a City of Media Arts as part of the Creative Cities Network programme.