weRculture Campaign

UNESCO Creative Cities Network invited artists to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic with video messages to show solidarity during the global crisis. Originally the brainchild of the Creative Cities music cluster (Mannheim UNESCO City of Music (Germany) and Music Export Poland), with all 7 UNESCO Creative City clusters encouraged to get involved.  

Video content addressed six key public health principles essential to stop the spread of COVID-19: Personal hygiene, Social distancing, Symptom recognition, Kindness, Myth Busting and Helping where you can. Videos ended with the words "if we stay at home now, then we will meet each other again in reality sooner - Think Respectfully. Act Responsibly. weRculture." and were posted on Instagram and Facebook. 

Dunedin’s Iona Winter shared her powerful and uplifting poem ‘Quiet’ from her book then the wind came. Passionate about Aotearoa, Iona Winter has a deep connection with nature and weaves past, present and future to create a bicultural melding of her world. Iona is of Waitaha and Celtic descent, and lives in Dunedin. Her short stories, poetry and essays have appeared in many New Zealand and international publications. The recipient of the 2016 Headland Frontier Prize, she has performed at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and in 2018 was shortlisted with the Bath Novella-in-Flash Award.

UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals