The 2020 Rome Charter: Outcomes
From the 2020 Rome Charter Conference, October 1 – 3, 2020.
The Rome Charter is a transnational group of over 45 cities and 95 advisors that has started an initiative to support the right to participate in cultural life as a condition for a better society. The convening took place from October 1 – 3, 2020 and consisted of three days of debates, international interventions and dialogues dedicated to discuss the implications of the 2020 Charter of Rome in the development of sustainable cities and communities through participation in culture.
With the challenges it provokes, a crisis brings a responsibility and an opportunity to think beyond existing boundaries and do things that seemed impossible before, and already, in a few weeks, governments, institutions and citizens have sometimes done both. If some good can come from COVID-19, it will be because we have been brave enough to imagine different, better, more sustainable ways of living together and we won’t stop after the immediate crisis is over. And cities, which will shelter two thirds of the world’s population by 2050, are central to this challenge.
The 2020 Rome Charter is published at a dark and uncertain time. The COVID-19 crisis shows that the current development models and their basic assumptions need to be rethought. It also shows that a real spirit of cultural democracy must shape the new models if they are to be inclusive and sustainable. The Charter is a promise to the people of Rome – and to all the world’s cities. Placing our common and living cultures at the centre of the definition of the new models will not be simple, but it is how we will recover and rebuild our lives, together.
See more about the 2020 Rome Charter here: