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Municipalities engage communities in culture most effectively when residents help set priorities, not only when they attend events. A sound municipal cultural strategy treats culture as part of local development. It connects heritage, creativity, education, environment, economy, inclusion, public space, knowledge and governance. It names an accountable owner, sets a few measurable local objectives, and reports back on what residents said and what changed.
The most widely used international reference is the framework from United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG): Culture 21: Actions (2015) and its newer successor, Culture 21 Plus (approved April 2025). Both are voluntary tools. They are not legal mandates, so every city has to adapt them to its own powers, budget and community. This guide explains what the frameworks contain, how they differ, and how to turn them into a planning and engagement process.
What “municipal culture” covers
Municipal cultural life is much wider than the theatres, libraries and festivals a city runs itself. UCLG’s Culture 21: Actions sets out 100 actions in nine commitments, which together treat culture as a thread through almost every area of local policy:
- Cultural rights
- Heritage, diversity and creativity
- Culture and education
- Culture and environment
- Culture and economy
- Equality and social inclusion
- Urban planning and public space
- Information and knowledge
- Governance
The practical consequence is that a cultural strategy cannot sit only in the arts department. Planning, parks, education, economic development and social services all make decisions that shape who can take part in cultural life and where it happens.
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The policy lineage matters for context. Agenda 21 for culture was adopted in 2004, and UCLG’s 2010 policy statement, Culture: Fourth Pillar of Sustainable Development, argued for treating culture as a dimension of sustainable development alongside the economic, social and environmental ones. That is an advocacy and policy position that UCLG and its members promote. It is not evidence that every government has formally adopted it. UCLG also runs a cultural rights programme, “Seven Keys”, on localizing the Sustainable Development Goals.
Culture 21: Actions and Culture 21 Plus compared
UCLG presents both as tools for local self-assessment and policy design. The available descriptions do not include a controlled comparison of outcomes, so neither can be called better in general. The table compares only what the sources establish.
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| Aspect | Culture 21: Actions | Culture 21 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Adopted or approved | 2015 | April 2025, at the UCLG Executive Bureau in Seville |
| How it was built | Not stated in the sources reviewed | Co-created with cities and regions through consultation and on-site tests, 2023–2025 |
| Structure | 9 commitments, 100 actions | Three headings (People, Planet, Government), six thematic fields, 30 thematic areas |
| Stated use | Self-assessment, policy innovation and peer learning | Local self-assessment and design of cultural strategies |
In practice, a city already working with the nine-commitment structure does not need to abandon it overnight. A city starting a new strategy cycle may prefer the newer framework because it was tested with local governments recently. Either way, the framework works as a checklist and a conversation starter. It does not replace local priorities.
What a municipal cultural strategy should include
The frameworks do not prescribe a single procedure. The sequence below is an editorial synthesis consistent with their rights-based, participatory approach, and each city should adjust it to its own legal and budget setting.
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- Map cultural assets and barriers. List venues, heritage sites, community groups, informal gathering places, public spaces and cultural workers. Record who cannot easily reach them because of cost, distance, language, disability, caring duties or lack of information.
- Invite residents and cultural organizations into priority-setting. Do this before drafting, so that people shape the agenda instead of reacting to a finished plan.
- Select the relevant policy domains. Choose from the nine commitments (or the Culture 21 Plus fields) the few that matter most locally. A coastal heritage town and a fast-growing suburb will not need the same ones.
- Set a small number of measurable local objectives. Fewer, clearer targets are easier to track and explain than a long wish list. Base them on your own baseline data, not on global averages.
- Assign a municipal owner and named partners. A strategy that spans departments needs one accountable lead and agreed roles for planning, education, social services and external organizations.
- Review participation and results over time. Check who actually took part and what the engagement changed, as well as whether outputs were delivered. Publish the findings and adjust the strategy.
The frameworks invite local governments, civil society, citizens, experts and other stakeholders into the assessment itself. The strategy should therefore say who was included, how they influenced decisions, and how their feedback shaped the final text.
How to engage communities in culture
Distinguish attendance from influence
Audience development counts people through the door. Engagement in the policy sense is about shaping decisions. Both are worthwhile, but they answer different questions, and a city should know which one it is doing.
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| Level | What it looks like | Question to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Attending | Residents use programmes designed by others | Who is not showing up, and why? |
| Being consulted | Surveys, workshops and open meetings gather views | Do participants see what happened to their input? |
| Co-deciding | Residents and cultural groups help set priorities or allocate part of a budget | What exactly can they decide, and what is fixed? |
| Co-delivering | Community organizations run programmes or spaces with municipal support | Are partners resourced fairly and protected from unpaid burden? |
These levels are practical recommendations inferred from the participatory orientation of the UCLG frameworks, not quoted requirements. Say plainly at the start which decisions are open to residents and which are not. Vague promises of “a voice” erode trust faster than a clear but limited offer.
Reach the voices that are usually missed
- Go to existing community spaces such as housing estates, faith centres, schools, markets and neighbourhood groups, rather than expecting people to come to a town hall.
- Offer several channels: in-person sessions at different times, online options, paper forms, and translation or interpretation where needed.
- Remove cost and access barriers: childcare, transport, step-free venues, plain language, and compensation for people asked for sustained expertise.
- Include informal and unpaid cultural practitioners, not only registered organizations that already hold municipal grants.
Even a neighbourhood park consultation shows the point. People who walk dogs there daily, local history volunteers, teenagers, older residents and people with limited mobility may all use the same space for different cultural and social purposes. A process that hears only the loudest group will produce a narrow result. This is an illustration of method, not a claim about any particular city.
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Close the loop
Report back publicly on what you heard, what you will do, what you will not do and why, and when residents can check progress. Without that step, participation turns into a one-off exercise and later invitations meet scepticism.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Using global statistics responsibly
UNESCO’s inaugural Global Report on Cultural Policies (2025) draws mainly on more than 1,200 national and local reports submitted between 2019 and 2024. Its headline figures are useful context for an advocacy case, but they are global or reporting-country figures. They are not municipal baselines or targets.
| Figure | What it measures and its scope |
|---|---|
| 93% | Share of reporting UNESCO Member States that recognize culture’s importance in their national sustainable development plans |
| 3.39% | Share of global GDP generated by cultural and creative industries |
| 3.55% | Average share of jobs represented by cultural and creative industries |
| 9% | Share of artists and culture professionals who report adequate or strong protection of their economic and social rights |
The report also highlights uneven access, investment and cooperation, and it frames its message this way: “Culture is not a peripheral sector to be supported, but a central force to be mobilized.” That wording appears on the UNESCO report page as report messaging, not as a statement by a named individual. Measure your own city’s employment, participation and funding before citing any of these numbers as a comparison. If you quote further figures from the report, check the exact wording and denominators there first.
What the frameworks do not tell you
- Legal duties. The UCLG and UNESCO materials describe global frameworks. They do not establish what your municipality is legally required to do. Local competences over culture vary widely between countries, regions and cities, so check national and regional law.
- Budgets and procurement. Neither framework fixes a funding level or a procurement route. Those depend on your own financial rules.
- Proven results. The sources describe the frameworks as tools for assessment, learning and strategy design. They do not offer controlled evidence that one approach produces better outcomes.
Treat the frameworks as structured prompts that help a city ask better questions of itself, then answer them with local data, local law and the people who live there.
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