City of Design designation for Whanganui to be celebrated with an official launch event

Next Friday will be a celebration of Whanganui's official designation as a UNESCO City of Design. Photo / Bevan Conley

Whanganui’s designation as a UNESCO City of Design will be officially launched next week.

Carmel Sepuloni, the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, will speak at the event along with Whanganui mayor Andrew Tripe and the chair of the New Zealand Commission for UNESCO Robyn Baker.

Whanganui & Partners will also present the first big City of Design project.

Whanganui was designated as a UNESCO City of Design last year, which recognised the city’s historic and contemporary contributions to design.

There are currently 43 cities listed as part of the Cities of Design network and Whanganui is the only City of Design in New Zealand.

Becoming a City of Design also meant Whanganui became part of the Creative Cities Network made up of more than 300 cities covering seven different fields of Crafts and Folk Arts, Film, Design, Gastronomy, Literature and Music.

Whanganui was the fourth city in New Zealand to be recognised as a Creative City, joining Dunedin as a City of Literature, Wellington as a City of Film and Auckland as a City of Music.