Developing a Framework for Imagining Kurukshetra as a UNESCO Creative City

Blessed with abundant cultural and creative assets, Kurukshetra is strategically significant destination in India. Kurukshetra has a large and diverse constellation of cultural heritage assets across the wide spectrum of its tangible and intangible heritage. The land of Mahabharata –‘Dharamshetre’, cultural event–‘Gita Jayanti’ and knowledge universe-‘Kurukshetra University’ have also made Kurukshetra well-known all around the world. Its unique landscape is one of the dynamic exchanges and blending of cultural, history and traditions. UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) aims to strengthen cooperation with and among cities that have recognized creativity as a strategic factor of sustainable development. Building on an existing cultural asset base, Kurukshetra can effectively find place in UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN). Within the Context of UCCN, Kurukshetra can explore a long term vision for promoting and developing the city and imagining its creative potential to become the part of UNESCO Creative Cities Network. This vision can be achieved through leveraging an interlinked between the cultural and creative assets in the city. This initiative will make the city more attractive as a place to live, work and invest in, while creating job opportunities for current and future generations. However, it is one think to recognize potential of Kurukshetra as a creative city, but quite another to apply the knowledge and skills to harness that potential to bring about beneficial change. How to identify the specific dimensions of the cultural and creative industries that should be focus of Kurukshetra and measures city's creative potential that might be expected? The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to develop an analytical framework for imagining Kurukshetra as a UNESCO creative city. This framework is built upon the concept of the creative city, which helps to understand the relationships between the creativity, creative industries and cultural industries. It seeks to capture the main features of creative and cultural industries emphasized in published evidences and modeled an analytical framework that integrate dimensions and indicators of creative city in the context of Kurukshetra. These indicators will make it possible to identify, recognize and explore the fields where Kurukshetra can harness its creative potential and join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.